Originally posted by: Titan
The bottom line when it comes to these global warming/climate change debates is that we just don't know.
Man has been trying to predict the weather since the beginning of time and the science is still not direct, predictable science.  We can't conduct closed experiments on the whole earth and try to get repeatable results.
That's the key to real, good science, is the repeatability of experimental results.  If I don't believe Newton's third law, I can recreate the experiment in my garage to attempt to prove/disprove it.  If I have X amount of gasoline and I combust it, Y will happen.  Again, I can recreate and verify the experiment.  That is what gives science it's credibility, it's ability to repeat and make reliable predictions.
Climate science isn't done that way, for a lot of good reasons, but it's mostly statistics which is legitimate study, don't get me wrong.  It would be cool if we had some breakthroughs in their research and could predict the weather better with a couple years precision.
So first off, I haven't seen one grand, unified, scientific prediction model for global warming that people are buying into and has been correct.  Have people even been tracking the predictive models to see which one is the most accurate?  Last I knew they weren't even willing to take their model out 5 or 10 years, instead make catastrophic claims about 50 to 100 years from now.  In fact no one metric has been agreed upon as the measured problem, so we won't even know when it gets better.
As has been mentioned, 200 years is nothing in geologic time.  Prove to me in with geological statistics that the atmosphere, or the ocean, or whatever, wasn't warmer than it is now sometime in the past with us humans around, and then I might start to get concerned.
Alarmism is not science.  Catastrophism is not science.  Those things just keep the science well-funded.  It's sledge-hammer marketing.
What pisses me off is that I do take the spirit of science seriously and have a deep respect for it.  It is about patiently studying, observing, and being open to the possibility that your theory is wrong, while still trying to prove it true.  Instead I am met with a massive throng of zealots who say "believe this, or you're a heretic."  "The sky is falling, and it's YOUR fault."  "ZOMG the ice is melting!  we're all doomed!"  It's the oldest trick in the book: playing on man's inner ability to feel guilty and using it to control his behavior.  Religions have been doing it since there was religion.  Original sin.  "You were born guilty!"
Not one catastrophist prediction has come true yet.  Not one.  Not that anybody is paying attention to that.
Consensus science is not science.
People make the alarmist argument of "what if we do nothing about it?"  and assuming that we can effect the outcome, what if we guess wrong?  What if we switch to hydrogen cars that emit water vapor (a way bigger greenhouse gas then CO2) and we make the problem worse?  Hard to make a good decision without the backing of real science.  Personally, I don't think man is the cause one way or another, and if you think I'm wrong, PROVE IT.  That's what science does.
Skepticism is a pillar of science and I side with the skeptics when it comes to global warming.  but I am man enough to be proven wrong if I am, and accept it; but we need to agree on what we are talking about first.  I am further empowered by my desire to roote for the underdog in the face of this new rising religion.  And I'm entitled to my beliefs, along with all my human flaws.  And if the day comes where we get the global warming inquisition, and I am jailed as a heretic, I will not recant.  Someone needs to stand up for the spirit of reason.  
The article the OP posted is nothing more than a sophisticated looking version of someone on the street saying "boy, it's hotter this year than in my whole life."    Compared to geologic time, our good records and measurements on weather are a drop in the bucket and I won't be alarmed until we actually have solid systems of prediction down, for some real frame of reference.  Further, the whole post is just troll baiting and demonizing people who disagree with something that is ill-defined at best.  (hey, that's ok, at least it's the right forum 

 )Saying something is a problem is a judgement call and a man-made contrivance.  Without man to say it is, nothing is a problem.
If global warming is right, it will be proven right.
Until then, I am pissed at every single last one of you who dishonor the spirit and name of science by using its good name to further preach your religion.
Fuck you all.
I'm done talking about this.  It's not worth a bit more of my energy dealing with this circus.  I'm just going to wait and see.