Originally Posted By: bws48
Originally Posted By: Treeseeker
So, there IS a correlation between temperature increase and the amount of greenhouse gasses being emitted.

This would seem to indicate that greenhouse gases have vastly increased the rate of temperature increase. Of course, there is also a possibility that there is some other unknown factor that is causing the temperature increase.


We always need to be careful about confusing correlation with causation. (I see it happening all the time in news reports mad ). They are very different, and as you point out, there can be a factor that is causing both.

I always remember the statistically significant correlation my statistics professor used to illustrate this point: the average street temperature in New Delhi, India, and the infant death rate in Brooklyn, New York City. Statistically significant correlation of higher street temperatures with higher infant death rates. As he asked the class: does anyone think the street temperatures in New Delhi caused the increase in death rates in Brooklyn?
There is a big difference between your New Delhi temperature vs Brooklyn infant death correlation, and the CO2 vs warming climate correlation. In your case there is no discernible mechanism for one to cause the other.

In the CO2 vs climate case there is a clear mechanism available. The physics of CO2 as a greenhouse gas has been well understood for more than a century. Furthermore, other possible causes of atmospheric warming (eccentricity of the earths orbit, variations of solar output, etc) have been carefully factored in to the climate models, and shown to be much less significant. As the models have become more sophisticated, the case for the significance of Increasing CO2 levels has become much stronger.
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