by Captain Murphy » Mon Dec 06, 2010 7:39 pm
The flaws of climate models are nothing new or mysterious to people working in the field. Clearly, they are not complete earth simulators, but that alone does not invalidate their utility. Hairsplitting about the accuracy of climate models is irrelevant -- both warming and a build-up of CO2 have been shown time and time again to be occurring at a rate that exceeds the recent historical trend.
Are the error bars for climate models looking 50 years out huge? Yes. Was the relationship between temperature and CO2 levels affected by different factors in the distant past (according to proxy measures)? Yes. Does this matter today? No, not unless someone can advance a credible theory explaining both the warming and CO2 trends, two things which we know are related by way of the greenhouse effect. Are there any other interesting on-going phenomena that could explain these trends? It appears not.
Do you want the moustache on or off?