Global Warming is Happening!

My opponent's position is the following: "Climate change itself is already in the process of definitively rebutting climate alarmists who think human use of fossil fuels is causing...catastrophic global warming. That is because natural climate cycles have already turned from warming to cooling; global temperatures have already been declining for more than 10 years, and global temperatures will continue to decline for another two decades or more." He goes on to assert (not present) data to justify this view.My opponent also adds:"We are also currently experiencing a surprisingly long period with very low sunspot activity. That is associated in the earth"s history with even lower, colder temperatures." He continues to boldly claim that the Earth's surface temperature is cooling - not warming.To discredit the world's foremost authority on climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is made up of 195 member nations and evaluates scientific data to determine the extent and ramifications of climate change [1], my opponent states this: "The IPCC violates many of the rules and procedures required for scientific forecasting, making its projections of little use to policymakers." In other words the IPCC is not to be trusted!Without presenting any data (except links to the Heartland Instititute, which describes itself as a "free-market promoting" organization skeptical of global climate change [2]), my opponent boldly claims that the Earth's surface is currently cooling (not warming).This despite graphic data by the IPCC showing that most of the Earth's surface experienced an increase in temperature between 0.2 and 1.0 degree celsius between 1970 and 2004 (some places experienced a greater temperature increase, few places saw a temperature decrease): North America in particular has seen a dramatic increase in temperature (about 1 degree celsius) between 1955 to 2005, as depicted here (with some locations observing a more severe increase): To affirm the IPCC's data on the global temperature trend, data from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) shows that with comparison to the base year 1945 (taken as the surface temperature average), temperatures have been increasing since 1910, and have been increasing more rapidly over the last 3 decades [3]. This data "agrees with other global temperature records provided by the U.S. National Climatic Data Center, the Japanese Metereological Agency and the Met Office Hadley Center" [4].Since the base year 1945, the Earth's average surface temperature has risen by 0.56 degrees celsius; since 1910, the Earth's average surface temperature has risen by 1.02 degress celsius [5]. Despite my opponent's claims that temperatures are now plummeting (since the "late 1990s") NASA shows that 2012 was the 9th warmest year on record, with the years 1998, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 only being hotter - and the hottest years being 2010, 2005, 2007 (in that order) [6]. Data shows no reversal in the Earth's average temperature change, toward the 1945 base year average. My opponent may want to slyly argue that 1998 saw hotter temperatures than six years in the first decade of the 2000s, but 1998 was an outlier (and the hottest of the previous century), but four very recent years were hotter!Con (my opponent) asserts that the Earth's surface is now cooling, but data I presented in ROUND 1 shows that the effects of global warming are not halting. Satellite data shows that 2012 had the lowest quantity of Artic Sea Ice on record - a shocking 3.62 million square kilometers, or less than 50% of the quantity recorded in 1980 [7]!NASA's Grace satellites "show that the land ice sheets in both Antarctica and Greenland are losing mass. The continent of Antarctica has been losing more than 24 cubic miles of ice per year since 2002" [8]. Nope, the Earth's still getting hotter and Antartica is still losing mass. Huge chunks of it in fact.Data from NASA missions Jason-1, Jason-2/OSTM shows oceanic sea levels rising on average 3.16 mm per year 9from 1993 to 20130; this is nearly twice the oceanic sea level increase from 1870 to 2000 [9].In spite of my opponent's declarations, global surface temperatures are increasing and have not halted in this trend over the last decade. The effects of global warming continue to be felt and show no sign of stopping. Sea levels are rising, coastal land is disappearing, polar sea ice is vanishing, land ice is melting.And the greenhouse gas with the most radiative impact in the atmosphere - CO2 - continues to be churned out at crippling levels [10]. Year after year the concentration only increases and the Earth warms [11]. [1] http://ipcc.ch...[2] http://heartland.org...[3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] http://climate.nasa.gov...[11] http://en.wikipedia.org...