Depends on who you ask. Big Coal, Oil, Electric Power Generators, Auto Makers, and other heavy industries have hired a handful of scientists to pooh-pooh it. Meanwhile, investigations from the British Meteorological Office, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Goddard Institute for Space Flight have fingered 1997 as the hottest year in recorded history.
Weather patterns are more extreme.
The sea level has risen 4 to 10 inches since the 19th century. In recognition of the seriousness of this problem, governments of the world appointed 2000 leading scientists to assess the science and economics of global climate change. When negotiators from 150 nations met in Kyoto, Japan, an agreement was reached to start cutting greenhouse gasses which some hail as the beginning of world salvation and others curse as ineffective and economically disastrous. The truth, I suspect, is somewhere in between these extremes. Last winter, a series of public meetings were held in WV by our Division of Environmental Protection.