It seems to be the fashion just now for people to declare themselves “climate change sceptics.” They say that it’s all to do with sun-spots, the Earth’s tilt or natural cycles. All these may be having some effect, but experts say they would expect change to happen much more slowly from these causes.
To a non-scientist like me, the greenhouse effect is simple. The natural greenhouse effect has been well understood and accepted for many years. Greenhouse gases trap heat energy, reducing the amount that is radiated from the earth back into space, acting as a partial blanket and causing a difference of about 21ºC between the average temperature that we would have and the actual average of the earth surface temperature. If there were no greenhouse gases the earth would not be habitable for humans.
If a certain level of greenhouse gases warms the earth by about 21ºC, it would not be surprising if higher levels would warm it further and this is exactly what is happening. The planet is reacting as we expected.
The sceptics, who think we should not reduce CO² emissions or limit deforestation are really saying that we should risk the future of our civilization on the possibility that higher levels of greenhouse gases do not enhance the greenhouse effect.