@scatter
I'm glad that you have "conclusive evidence" that the Earth is warming. The rest of the world would like to see it, since apparently you are the only one who has it. I'm going to assume you're going based on outdated information. For example:
http://www.heartland.org/full/24359/Warmest_October_Claim_Was_Wrong_NASA_Admits.html
Highlights:
NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies—known as GISS—was forced to admit it committed an egregious error when it publicly claimed October 2008 was the warmest October in history. It turns out October 2008 was nowhere near a record. Global temperature measurements of the Earth’s lower atmosphere by NASA satellite instruments show it was fairly typical compared to temperatures over the past 30 years and significantly cooler than average temperatures over the past seven years.
In late 2007 McIntyre discovered GISS had been systematically reporting overly warm U.S. temperatures. McIntyre caused a sensation in late 2007 when he proved NASA had been unjustifiably adding a significant 0.15º Celsius to its U.S. temperature reports since the year 2000. As a result of McIntyre’s research, scientists discovered 2006 was not the warmest year in U.S. history, as GISS had very publicly claimed. In fact, 1934 was the warmest year, and 2006 fell to a distant fourth. Only four of the top 11 warmest years have occurred since 1954, according to the corrected data.
I further hope you are not going by the, now nearly a decade disproven, "hockey stick" graph.
So what CAN science tell us? Science tells us that temperature and weather patterns fluctuate in a primarily cyclical nature over the course of human history. In general, increased solar activity warms and cools the ocean surface temperature, which causes changes in weather patterns. The best known of these patterns is known as ENSO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Ni%C3%B1o-Southern_Oscillation).
What does this say about Carbon Dioxide? Contrary to popular belief, the largest stores of Carbon Dioxide are not within fossil fuels, or even trees and plant life. No, the largest amounts of CO2 are held within our planet's oceans. As anyone with basic knowledge of chemistry is aware, the amount of gas or solid that can be held within a liquid changes based on temperature. By heating a liquid containing CO2 in solution, the CO2 is released from the solution. An easy way to observe this firsthand is with a simple bottle of cola. What happened when cola is heated? It goes "flat", which is the layperson way of saying the carbonation (CO2) that has been dissolved into the cola has left solution with the liquid.
It makes perfect sense then that there would be a positive correlation between CO2 and global temperature, since warmer weather results in massive amounts of CO2 being released from the oceans.
All in all, based off of the "corrected" NASA climate data, it is impossible to say that there is a long term warming trend in global temperature. Based on systematic errors present in the temperature data collection process used by NASA and related agencies, it is likely that their "corrected" data is still wrong, on the warmer side of things.
In the short term, the Earth does go through warmer and colder periods, dictated by, like all other weather patterns, solar activity. During those times, we see fluctuations in atmospheric CO2 levels due to ocean surface temperature changes.
The "skeptic" position is this:
>Is the Earth warming: probably not, but we have no proof either way.
>If the Earth is warming, it is a solar cycle, calm down.
>Are humans contributing greatly to atmospheric CO2: conclusively not, CO2 fluctuations from non-human sources are many magnitudes larger.
>Could humanity provide a "tipping point" change in CO2 large enough to throw the entire system out of equilibrium: Well, anything is possible, but if that were the situation, any attempt we made to stop it would be infinitesimal compared to the other forces at play.
What this represents is a change in the framing by Gore and others, with each challenge and defeat they receive. It first was called "global warming" which ended when it was shown that there was no proof the Earth was warming. It was then called "climate change" until it was shown that there was no proof that the climate was changing. Now they are trying to classify CO2 as a pollutant... because who can possibly say that pollution is good?
What you see here is a movement not from theory to theory, nor a developing process based on increased scientific evidence. Rather you see a change in rhetoric aimed at making "opposition" impossible by means of PR suicide. Thus the problem that anyone with scientific intelligence has with Gore et al. Real work on the topic will not be done until the politicians STFU and go home.