“The scientific base for greenhouse warming (GHW) includes some facts, lots of uncertainty and just plain lack of knowledge requiring more observations, better theories and more extensive calculations. Specifically, there are reliable measurements of the increase in so-called greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere, presumably as a result of human activities. There is uncertainty about the strength of sources and sinks for these gases, i.e., their rates of generation and removal. There is major uncertainty and disagreement about whether this increase has caused a change in climate during the last century”.

There is also disagreement in the scientific community about predicted future changes as a result of further increases in greenhouse gases. The models used to calculate future climate are not yet good enough because the climate balancing processes are not sufficiently understood, nor are they likely to be good enough until we gain more understanding through observations and experiments. As a consequence, we cannot be sure whether the next century will bring a warming that is negligible or a warming that is significant. Finally, even if there are a global warming and associated climate changes, it is debatable whether the consequences will be good or bad; likely some places on the planet would benefit, some would suffer”. From “What To Do About Global Warming”

Look Before You Leap by S. Fred Singer, Roger Revelle and Chauncey Starr Cosmos: A Journal of Emerging Issues Vol. 5, No. 2, Summer 1992.

More On CO2 atmospheric residency:

The impression is gained that there is still no conclusive physical description of the global behavior of CO2 absorption/emission in the various reservoirs. There is a growing group that is convinced, the residence time of CO2 in the atmosphere is approximately 4 years. Another group assumes a significantly longer residence time of 30 years or more. Finding a common consensus between both sides appears difficult.