Craig Sweet
If you look at a graph of the temperature through the 20th century you will see that there have been cooling periods followed by warming periods, followed by cooling etc. There is no straight line. The point I was trying to make is that the latest warming trend appears to have peaked in 1998 and has levelled off quite significantly in the 10 years since then. You can call this "cherry picking" if you like, I don't think it is. Certainly the last 150 years or so is an overall warming trend as the earth has come out of the Little Ice Age period of significantly colder weather that was most evident in the 16th and 17th centuries, by 1850 the earth had begun to warm again. And has been gradually warming since then. So yes, I know the longer term trend. But this began a long time before the major industrialisation and the widespread use of fossil fuels of the 20th century.
As for solar and wind power, by definition these are intermittent, despite what you say, and cannot supply power to a local grid 24/7. You still need base load power sources of coal, natural gas, nuclear, and as someone mentioned, some areas are fortunate to have hydroelectric power, all of which supply power 24/7. Geothermal will only work where the geology is conducive. The only point I was making was that in order to replace coal and gas as power sources, a fuel will need to be found that can operate 24/7 as a base load provider. Any ideas what that might be.
Mike Vegis
Very true, we do just inhabit a sliver of time where sea levels - and our coastlines - are where they are. 8000 - 10000 years ago, when we were in the midst of a major ice age, sea levels were up to 80m lower than today. Think of all that new coastal property! Except a lot of it was covered in glaciers.