Global Warming is Happening!

My opponent's arguments in ROUND 3 will be criticized on a point by point basis, to demonstrate the the desperation of his position and the futility of his arguments.Let's begin by evaluating what he argues about land-based temperature readings:"When you take into account urban encroachment upon land-based temperature sensors, you find that...local temperatures...throw the results way off (giving the appearance of higher global temperatures)." To reinforce this specific point, he then quotes the NASA website: "Development produces heat islands by replacing vegetation, particularly forests, with pavement and other urban infrastructure."His position here is that land-based temperature readings are unreliable because urban development (concrete and pavement and other components of city-dwelling) traps more heat than the natural, unaltered Earth. The NASA website he uses as his source provides greater detail: "summer land surface temperature of cities in the Northeast [United States] were an average of 7 °C to 9 °C warmer than surrounding rural areas over a three year period...new research shows." The NASA source then goes on to explain that the increasing use of satellite technology has helped researchers to better compare urban heat islands to each other and their surrounding environments, though it has long been known that cities trapped more heat than their surroundings [1].Here my opponent is implying (which the NASA website does not) that global warming can be entirely attributed to urban heat islands which are throwing off accurate temperature readings, at least on land. Nevermind that the NASA website also has a lengthy EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE page to demonstrate what global warming is doing to Arctic ice levels, land ice quantities, and to sea levels. Unlike my opponent, the NASA website asserts that global warming is a real phenomenon impacting the globe.And how is global warming impacting the globe?Data from NASA's Grace satellites show a consistent trend of disappearing land ice on Antartica and Greenland (besides the reduction in glaciers elsewhere) [2]: Satellite observations also show Arctic sea ice plummeting. Latest measurements in 2012 show that the quantity of Arctic sea ice is now half of what it was in 1980 [3]: And satellite sea level measurements show oceanic sea levels rising rapidly - with the trend accelerating in the last two decades [4]: NASA points out that increasing sea levels is caused by two factors: "the added water coming from the melting of land ice, and the expansion of sea water as [the Earth] warms" [5]. As you can see, NASA takes the issue of global warming seriously, and the impacting effects negate the notion that global warming is only a metropolitan heat Island phenomena.But of course my opponent was never going to believe the "scam" that the rest of the NASA website is trying to pull on him. As he states in ROUND 3, "Again, based on...VERY SELECTIVE inclusion/exclusion of data used by any given model, the data can 'say' whatever you want it to 'say'". He also reminds us of this fact a little earlier: "in other words, you can make the data say whatever you want depending on the scam you're running."Conveniently he takes this position with regards to satellite readings and measurements:"Satellites do not measure temperature. They measure radiances in various wavelength bands, which must then be mathematically inverted to obtain indirect inferences of temperature...the sensors deteriorate over time." In other words we can't trust satellites because they're complicated and they fall apart.He also says this:"The collection of surface temperature data is more complicated than looking at a thermometer and recording a temperature. Intellectually honest people understand this." From this he asserts that if we saw what was really being observed by satellites, we would conclude that global surface temperatures aren't rising. I suppose we would also conclude that the measured EFFECTS of global warming aren't happening, as transmitted by satellites. We wouldn't see data that concludes sea levels are rising, land ice is disappearing, and Artic sea ice is plummeting. No. Everything would be fine. Who needs satellites when they're this unreliable? Someone inform the military.But of course satellites show that global warming is happening, and not just those run by the IPCC. NASA's GISS show this [6]: The Japanese Metereological Agency's global temperature readings show this [7]: And NASA's GISS reaffirms planet-wide global warming with these [8]: In his last daring act in ROUND 3 my opponent provides a data plot allegedly showing temperatures dropping in the US Corn Belt region over the last decade. The graph directly above this paragraph illustrates what's been happening with global surface temperatures world-wide over the last decade. They're still inching up![1] opponent's NASA link.[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [8] http://climate.nasa.gov...[7] http://ds.data.jma.go.jp...