My logical conclusion to that is that those 87% are realists. Here's what the left wing was spouting a few decades ago:

The continued rapid cooling of the earth since WWII is in accord with the increase in global air pollution associated with industrialization, mechanization, urbanization and exploding population. -- Reid Bryson, "Global Ecology; Readings towards a rational strategy for Man", (1971)

The battle to feed humanity is over. In the 1970s, the world will undergo famines. Hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. Population control is the only answer -- Paul Ehrlich - The Population Bomb (1968)

I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000 -- Paul Ehrlich in (1969)

In ten years all important animal life in the sea will be extinct. Large areas of coastline will have to be evacuated because of the stench of dead fish. -- Paul Ehrlich, Earth Day (1970)

Before 1985, mankind will enter a genuine age of scarcity . . . in which the accessible supplies of many key minerals will be facing depletion -- Paul Ehrlich in (1976)

This [cooling] trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century -- Peter Gwynne, Newsweek 1976

There are ominous signs that the earth's weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production - with serious political implications for just about every nation on earth. The drop in food production could begin quite soon... The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologist are hard-pressed to keep up with it. -- Newsweek, April 28, (1975)

This cooling has already killed hundreds of thousands of people. If it continues and no strong action is taken, it will cause world famine, world chaos and world war, and this could all come about before the year 2000. -- Lowell Ponte "The Cooling", 1976

If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder by the year 2000...This is about twice what it would take to put us in an ice age. -- Kenneth E.F. Watt on air pollution and global cooling, Earth Day (1970)

I'm surprised anyone can believe the garbage the left is forcing upon us.

Here's what I have a problem with. Can you prove that Dinosaur Flatulence wasn't the cause of a catastrophic climate event? Since no one can prove what actually caused the extinction of the dinosaurs (I've heard meteors, I've heard planet consuming volcanoes, I've heard global warming, I've heard Ice Age, you name it.) how can you out of hand dismiss anything? If man can cause global warming by consuming fossil fuels (created partly by...dinosaur remains?) who's to say that the dinosaurs aren't causing a second global climate change?

Ya know, I was waiting for something like this to comment on! That reached a new level of absurdity! Global Warming is caused by cutting the cheese! Oh, God, ROFL! OK, Ozone Al! Time to regulate gassy foods so we all don't break wind as frequently! Time to outlaw Oatmeal so we can save the planet, but deprive ourselves of needed nutrients! Because it makes people f-rt too much, and will harm the Redwoods! And somewhere out there, some pointy headed pony-tailed socialist "scientist" on the GW payroll is going to present this dinosaur (junk) data at some point to Congress to justify this nonsense. Oh I can hardly wait!. I can't control my laughter! These people are just too funny! How can anyone of you people take these Global Warming phonies seriously?

Mr. Rorbacher was no doubt making a joke stemming from assertions that domestic livestock of various kinds are responsible for a fair amount of CO2.

My question is this: In light of how wrong the predictions of earlier scientists were, and of how dramatic an economic impact the changes sought by Al Gore and others would be, I would like to see proof--not of global warming, but of the part of global warming that mankind is playing.

Most of what I read is so general in nature that it is impossible to distinguish between what might be a natural cycle and what humankind is adding. Until there are more specifics, many of us won't be persuaded--especially when the political agenda of Al Gore and others is also so clear.

Because I believe in the general principle of cause and effect, it makes sense to me that man's activities could impact climate. But before we make rash decisions that could hurt people more than harm them, the science needs to be clearly communicated.

Finally, the tendency by some to to say it is a fact that global warming is mostly caused by man in the same way some religious fanatics might say that God is a fact--is not helpful.

For more on Paul Ehrlich and his Marxist agenda, go to this site:

http://dynamics.org/~altenber/PAPERS/EHRLICH/

The interview is from 1983. Not one thing he states in it came true. And wait until you get to his statements about the U.S. Administration at the time! Sort of sounds like the leftist's statements made today about the current administration. This guy is a typical over educated liberal with nothing better to do but spew gloom and doom to put forth an agenda.

Dino's flatulance led to the first global warming? I guess he shouldn't have eaten that last batch of beans with out taking his anti-gas medicine. =) The truth of the matter we can run all of these tests, and still really not know what happened to the dinosaurs or what is causing the globabl warming. We all have our speculations from man to the sun, not to mention, does it really exist. From watching all the major snowstorms we've had recently, it's hard to believe we are in global warming. Maybe it's naturally occuring or maybe we're causing it. Who knows, and really who cares. We can all do our part to take care of this planet, but in the end people need something to believe in. It gives us substance and you to don't have to a religious fanatic to think God is fact nor do you have to be a dirty hippie to believe in global warming. Why can't we all be happy and get along. By working together we can all take care of our little planet, and each other.

Er, Chris, you just cut and pasted that stuff from a denialist website. What climate scientists were saying at the time is that there's a 30-year cooling trend (which there was) and that they didn't have a good enough understanding of the climate to know where that trend would lead. One of the things that was known is that glaciations are periodic (in the last two million years) and that the current interglacial was already as long or longer than some prior ones, so it was conceptually *possible* that the cooling trend seen at the time was the beginning of a slide into the next glaciation. Much alarmist press coverage resulted, but climate scientists were in no way predicting continued cooling. Bear in mind that most of the field of climate science has been developed in the subsequent thirty years. BTW, the only one of those quotes from a climate scientist (Reid Bryson) is entirely correct according to current science. (Actually Kenneth Watt may or may not have been a climate scientists, but what he said was correct as well, although I would hasten to point out that it was not a prediction.)

Steve, probably that wouldn't be too hard of a calculation to do based on what's known about dinosaur populations and metabolism (surprisingly quite a lot at this point), but it's likely less than the current domestic animal population (since dinosaurs lacked the kind of population density that's possible with extensive feed lots). While domestic animal flatulence is a factor in methane production (and, unlike many, within our control), in the big picture of greenhouse gas sources it's not a major factor. In any case, don't expect a self-respecting scientist to do a study based on an off-hand remark from a denialist Congressman.

Oiznop has it right that Rohrabacher is a global warming phony, albeit of the other sort.

Doug, I urge you to take a few hours to learn why thousands of climate scientists believe the case is closed on global warming. Start with the Discovery of Global Warming (an on-line book), read the new IPCC Summary for Policymakers, and finally look through some of the recent posts at RealClimate.

Steve B, That was to show how the same chicken little syndrome is wrong this time around too. It doesn't take too much noodling around on the 'net to see this is a load of hooey, partly to take the heat off the U.N. for misdeeds (Oil for Food) and inaction (Rwanda/Darfur), but also to tighten it's grip on the first world. Untold billions stand to be made from this hoax and where will that money come from? Every working man and women in the U.S. and Canada. Your cost of living is about to go up phenomenally and your standard of living will go down.
All for trying to slay the imaginary monster.

To bad the dinosaurs had not invented my special Vaporlock technique.