An Undeniable Fact

The lights of Paris went out last night only for a few minutes and the nation of France cut its electricity consumption by 1%. The demonstration was to herald the release of the fourth IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report on global warming. As expected, the news is not good. Global warming, despite what the oil companies are paying people to say, is a scientific fact, although the details surrounding the complexities of climate change are subject to refinement. Study of ice cores samples from the polar regions show that the amount of CO2 is greater now than in the last 650,000 years. The only possible cause for that change has been the burning of fossil fuels which releases CO2 to the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide undergoes chemical reactions in the atmosphere which trap heat. The process is referred to as the "greenhouse effect". The scientists say that 11 of the warmest 12 years since 1850 have occurred since 1995.