• journal_title：Environmental Geosciences
• Contributor：Lee C. Gerhard
• Publisher：American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
• Date：1996-
• Format：text/html
• Language：en
• journal_abbrev：Environmental Geosciences
• issn：1075-9565
• volume：3
• issue：4
• firstpage：204
• section：Articles

Global climate warming forced by anthropogenic activities is widely touted in popular media and is the basis of international energy policy development. Fossil energy use is decried as the underlying cause of alarming and rapid climate warming. Natural climate change is generally regarded as being of little significance in the political debate. The debate has taken place largely without rigorous examination of data, assumptions, or the real natural world. This brief study suggests that anthropogenic global warming is of little significance and may be a scientific theory given political rather than clinical credibility. There are clear signs that the climate is changing, but viewed in a historical perspective, the changes may be both predictable and desirable. This contrarian view suggests that long-term trends are not discernible and may be either warming or cooling.