This post will be ongoing, a work in progress just like the blog itself, and will include some interesting quotes from the discussion of global warming. The purpose here is to collect both pro and con material, more or less for my own reference. I have taken issue with the evangelical like proponents of global warming, particularly with Laurie David, who said in an interview on CNBC, "the debate is over." So I decided to see for myself if the debate is really over, and as I said collect and assemble here what I find.

This from Surface Temperature Reconstructions for the Last 2,000 Years

This report is an opportunity to examine the strengths and limitations of surface temperature reconstructions and the role that they play in improving our understanding of climate. The reconstruction produced by Dr. Mann and his colleagues was just one step in a long process of research, and it is not (as sometimes presented) a clinching argument for anthropogenic global warming, but rather one of many independent lines of research on global climate change.

Using multiple types of proxy data to infer temperature time series over large geographic regions is a relatively new area of scientific research, although it builds upon the considerable progress that has been made in deducing past temperature variations at single sites and local regions. Surface temperature reconstructions often combine data from a number of specialized disciplines, and few individuals have
expertise in all aspects of the work. The procedures for dealing with these data are evolving—there is no one “right” way to proceed. It is my opinion that this field is progressing in a healthy manner. As in all scientific endeavors, research reported in the scientific literature is often “work in progress” aimed at other investigators, not always to be taken as individual calls for action in the policy community.

It is interesting to note that I found this on Wikipedia, in an article about Roy Spencer, a man that supports intelligent design as a valid scientific theory.

The article that led me there, and a quote from the same article.

Prof Roy Spencer, at the University of Alabama, a leading authority on satellite measurements of global temperatures, told The Telegraph: "It's pretty clear that the editorial board of Science is more interested in promoting papers that are pro-global warming. It's the news value that is most important."

From the conclusion in Does a Global Temperature Exist?, for which publication can be verified here.

There is no global temperature. The reasons lie in the properties of the equation of state governing local thermodynamic equilibrium, and the implications cannot be avoided by substituting statistics for physics.
Since temperature is an intensive variable, the total temperature is meaningless in terms of the system being measured, and hence any one simple average has no necessary meaning. Neither does temperature have a constant proportional relationship with energy or other extensive thermodynamic properties.

It seems Sheryl Crow has been enlisted by Laurie David to promote her cause. They have worked themselves into a frenzy, and are drawing attention to themselves by saying such things as they take showers and sleep together. In Elle Magazine, Sheryl Crow said this.

"She has the expertise and I have the draw, which I'm not afraid to abuse."

There was a debate called Global Warming Is Not a Crisis. NPR talks about it here, and here is a blurb.

In this debate, the proposition was: "Global Warming Is Not a Crisis." In a vote before the debate, about 30 percent of the audience agreed with the motion, while 57 percent were against and 13 percent undecided. The debate seemed to affect a number of people: Afterward, about 46 percent agreed with the motion, roughly 42 percent were opposed and about 12 percent were undecided.

An opinion piece in Scientific American clearly states though they think the proponents of the proposal were better prepared, the advantage was on the pro side (anti-"global warming is an issue" side) because they had better debating skills.