Blatant Obfuscation

I feel that the first job experience is always the best one, or at least the most memorable. It was for me at least. I turned 16, and shortly thereafter, I had my first real job experience working for my Young Men's Leader, Hyrum Johnson. I did have some lawn mowing jobs prior to getting this job, but this was the first 40 hour a week summer job that I could just die for.
It was a good experience [I ended up working for him on repeated occasions.] But that first summer I was introduced into the scientific world and governmental jobs. Hyrum worked at a USDA ARS Research Station there in Temple, where I had grown up. Hyrum's pet project was Climate Change, that meant study and work in CO2 effects on plants and a couple other interesting little projects.
My first summer, between my sophmore and junior years of high school, was spent picking roots and other biological materials out of soil core samples and prepping those sample for analysis. It was a long and tediuos job, but something that I found enjoyable. To give me a break from that job, I was assigned to enter articles and other scientific literature into a big database Hyrum maintained. It was his library of sorts.
One of those days, I ended up asking a question that I learned was a hot-button topic for Hyrum : Climate Change. I was young foolish and ignorant to a lot of things in the scientific world. It was one of those things that the media reported something one way and I took it as the way it was.
Remembering Hyrum's long talk on the subject, he quickly showed why we couldn't accept current findings on the subject as conclusive, as they either were limited in scope or not based on scientific methods. He then showed me research he had done over the last 30 years of his life and why he felt that what people refered to as Global Warming was more a natural cycle of the earth.
To be honest, I was overwhelmed at this, but more so I was interested in why he felt the way that he did, he had based this on data and other evidence he had collected over time and was pretty sure of his findings. For me, it was enough to get me hooked on research. I found the field most interesting, because it was more than the scientific method taught in school, it dealt with conclusions and checking if those conclusions did make sense to the real world.
I came back and worked for Hyrum the next summer and the summer after that. By the end of the third summer I just kind of continued to work for him for the next year, all the while doing little assignments that helped in the research process. I ended up working with a technican, Ron, on an outdoor 'tunnel' that dealt with CO2 concentration levels that changed over each section. It started at a super-ambiant level (550ppm) that was the projected level of atmospheric CO2 in 50 years or so and decreased over the length of the tunnel to current levels and then even farther to sub-ambiant levels (200ppm) that were what existed prior to the industrial revolution or so. I helped a lot on that project, but I did spend a lot of time wiring or helping wire things and maintaining the system.
All the while I would avoid extended conversations with Hyrum about Global Warming or Climate Change, only for the reason that those conversations were never short.
I left that job in August of 2000 to serve a mission, I never thought I would return and work there again, but as life would have it, I returned to work and attend classes upon returning home from Germany starting in January 2002 until I left there for other oppurtunities [the plan was to be a bum, I ended up coming to BYU]. All the while I began to learn more about Global Change theory and how the Scientific Community researches and studies it.
I have told this all in an attempt to give some background to why I am opinionated when it comes to the subject. I have read the research and learned the facts, and I am to the point of saying, yes we as a society of humans have an effect on the climate, but the extent of that effect or the magnitude of the change has yet to be determined or properly meassured. We can only guess at it, and even then there is no real level of certainty to it.
This past week or so I was assailed by people telling me how accurate and thought provoking Al Gore's movie was. They started telling what they took from the movie, being that CO2 is bad, and we are to blame for natural disasters, etc. I feel no need to watch the show, or at least pay to watch it, so I am not sure that is what the movie is saying, but to have repeated people come away from it saying the same thing, I have felt that politics are trying to direct scientific findings.
I came accross this article on the subject on the Drudge Report and found that it was the first article [editorial] on the subject that addressed the issue well, and even brought in enough of the reasoning why scientist say man has influenced the change seen, but that we aren't sure to the extent of it.
There are some other cool arguments I have heard or seen presented on that the observed increase of CO2 is not necessarily a bad thing. I find this topic to be an interesting thing, as the more people debate it or challenge it, the more we find out what we dont know.