Climate controversies

The current debate over controversial global warming theories will continue. The impact of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, whether they are increasing or not over time, and the effect on climate and economics will continue to he discussed. A solution, if it is needed, may evolve—or not. 

The need for long-term clean power will be a controversial but necessary issue in the twenty-first cen-tuity. The debate will focus on the deregulation of the power industity and the needs of consumers, coupled with what is best for the environment. For certain applications, solar technology has proven to be efficient and reliable. The question remains whether solar will be wholly embraced as energy options for a sustainable future m a climate of cheap fossil fuels and less than enthusiastic public support. 

The fact that seemingly small changes can have dramatic effects is one reason why an understanding of the data, techniques, and controversies of global climate research is so fundamental to understanding the phenomenon itself. 

Cannabis sativa, one of the oldest plants farmed by man, has been known for its medicinal properties for at least four millennia (Peters, 1999). The psychoactive-euphoric effects of this plant, as well as its facile and wide climatic range of cultivation, have rendered it a very popular recreational drug. Today, cannabis, or marijuana, is still the focus of strong social, legal, and medical controversy over its therapeutic utility. 

A controversy with possibly far-reaching consequences concerns the impact of atmospheric particles on the earth s climate. Temperature is one of the most easily monitored indicators of climatic change. Among the many discussions of the effects of aerosols on the global mean temperature, we direct the reader to the monograph by Twomey (1977) and the paper by Toon and Pollack (1980), from which some of the following is taken. 

So in this climate there is little reason to expect this paper will do any more than add to the confusion. Nevertheless an industrial perspective has often been missing from the controversy, and perhaps that can be remedied to some degree here. 

The most important (and controversial) conclusion by Jacobson (2002a, b) concerning the anthropogenic nature of present-day climate change is based on analysis of the SAT and SST combined data (i.e., on the secular trend of mean average annual global surface temperature, GST). In this connection, two questions arise ... 

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