You should read State of Fear! It has a lot of good information in it about global warming, plus it's a fun, good, easy read =P. Don't fall for the "un-asterix-ed" stuff though.
Seeing as Benjamin did such a good job talking about why global warming is caused by humans, I will tell you why it isn't ^.^ .
A. When I went to the website, I saw that it was actually only 0.7° C, which is just a little above 1° F, like I thought. However, Benjamin hasn't told everything; this temperature change is almost identical to the change over the past THOUSAND years, as shown at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1000_Year_Temperature_Comparison.png. Furthermore, as you can see, we just left the Little Ice Age, which means that we will be quickly warming up (by quickly, I mean about 1°C per hundred years). I wish the graph went back further because you would then see more sharp temperature increases.
B. Isn't it wonderful how forgetting the smallest details can make your argument so much stronger? Well, that's, again, what Benjamin did here. While it is true that Carbon Dioxide has increased by 35%, it is so minuscule that much less than 0.1% of our atmosphere is Carbon Dioxide. I got this evidence from http://www.planetforlife.com/gwarm/glob1000.html, and they seemed quite impartial, neither pro- nor con- global warming. Here's a quote I found: "It is possible to estimate the actual temperature increases and decreases that occurred in the past one thousand years. The MWP was 1°C or 2°C warmer than the average temperature of the millennium. The LIA was 1°C or 2°C colder. The current warm era is about 0.75°C warmer and thus not warmer than the MWP." I assume MWP is most warm period or something similar. So, there you have it: we are not abnormally warm and Carbon Dioxide makes up significantly less than one-thousandth of our atmosphere.
C. How egotistical is that!!! Not only has man never understood Earth and its environment (why it exists, how, and so on..), but now we're claiming to have altered a planet's ecosystem??? Well, sorry to disappoint you, but in the history of Earth, there has been an estimated FIFTY BILLION species. How do we not know that one of the currently existing FIFTY MILLION other species is doing this? We have no understanding of why we even exist! The most likely event is that this is GOOD for Earth; in fact, many prestigious scientists say that this will spur plant growth. Remember, we breathe in Oxygen and get rid of it. Believe it or not, Oxygen can be a very poisonous substance. If we look at it that way, isn't it the plants who are wrecking the planet? Or, wait, maybe it's the cows because they have to go to the bathroom -.- . We make up MUCH less than 0.000000000000000001% of the organisms on this planet. Furthermore, Mars is currently warming up. Is it because the Martians are polluting too much? Nope, didn't think so. This is because it is the NATURAL ORDER of things.
D. HAH!!! Let me guess... That's from The Union of Concerned Scientists or something like that? Well, I have looked over their website for at least an hour and a half, and I found not even one piece of evidence for global warming. Oh, of course there was the, "We have collected 30,000 distinguishable proof that global warming exists" and the "If you don't sign the Kyoto Thingy, Earth will die. We expect hurricanes to increase tenfold if we don't recycle by 2010." Among scientists, global warming is almost completely rejected now. It's just the politicians who will lie to your face and smile, the Hollywood stars who think they know everything because they know one outdated piece of science, and the media who will become much less watched if they start portraying global warming as untrue. People should worry about undisputed facts, like the children in Africa dying 15 times a minute and the cancer killing someone every 8 seconds (too many ads =P) before we start worrying about something that we couldn't change even if we want to.
E. IF, IF, IF, IF... Who says it will warm another 1.7°C??? This is the kind of research that makes me angry... NEWSFLASH! The Earth will NOT warm that much. Even if it does, it has been MUCH, MUCH warmer before. In fact, it has almost reached that temperature several times in the past 10,000 years. Oh, so if we don't recycle (which I do, by the way; don't get me wrong, I am VERY environmentally conscious), the glaciers will melt? That's odd because no one really knows if they're melting or not... I, for one, have stopped reading the news articles about it and solely gone to academia sites (don't go to environmental organizations; they're just business). If you do, you'll see that, for example, the Antarctic is actually EXPANDING. I searched Antarctic growth (or something like that), and the first result was this: http://jjprzy.envy.nu/images/AntarcticIceGraph.jpg. Notice how in the last years, it's well above even. Here's the temperatures down there: http://www.friendsofscience.org/assets/documents/FOS%20Essay/Antartica%20Temperature%201979-2006%20MSU.gif. See how it has gotten cooler? That means growth, not melting. As for Greenland's ice, that's only about 4% of the world's ice, and IT HAS BEEN MELTING FOR THE PAST THOUSANDS OF YEARS. Nothing new there...
F. This is all true. Finally, some untainted evidence! I commend you!!! This mentions nothing about humans causing global warming, though. I was actually going to put much of that in my "essay" =P.
G. Really, now? I must've missed the section proving that... Such a shame... I really would've loved to counter it. Here, I'll award you a point just for saying it =P. Yes, humans might be adding a little to the Carbon Dioxide, but as I've repeatedly shown you, Carbon Dioxide is less than 0.1% of our atmosphere, and human beings have barely contributed to any of that - if at all. Remember, the world is a vast, constantly changing place; for us to cause any lasting damage on it would be impossible. Even the results of a nuclear war would go away, given many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many years.
So, in conclusion, look for the truth in things. Don't fall for "We have many pieces of evidence". Find the evidence, find the credibility, find the graphs, find the work. If all else fails, move to the Scandinavian countries and watch the ice expand (of course, you could go to Antarctica too...). Enjoy life on Earth while you can, and focus on real problems that are killing millions of people each year. Fight poverty, injustice, disease, and most of all, truthlessness. The public deserves to know the truth about global warming, even if that truth isn't the one I believe. Good luck!
I hope this helps!
