Is the Earth getting warmer?


A review of the 20th century observations documenting the rise in
global-mean temperature and the controversy surrounding it.

- the 'hockey stick curve' in the 2000 PICC report documenting the large rise in
    global-mean temperature during the 20th century relative to the changes of the
    past thousand years; this new paradigm, which deemphasizes the Medieval Warm
    Period and the Little Ice Age has drawn sharp criticism from global warming
    skeptics. I showed samples from John Daly's web page, which cites lots of
    counterevidence but does so extremely selectively.

- is the apparent rise in global surface air temperature during the 20th century
    due to urbanization?

- surface observations indicate that the earth is getting warmer, yet satellite
    measurements of tropospheric temperature indicate little.  if any temperature
    trend since 1979?  Which is right?

- some scientists have suggested that global warming is causing an inreasing rate
    of incidence of severe weather events like follds and hurricanes.  Are they right?