Canuck wrote:
"But isn't this exactly what the IPCC, Al Gore, and the rest of the global warming community is doing? Stating that when CO2 levels are high, so are temperatures, therefore CO2 is the causation factor for temperature(while ignoring the temporal aspect of the relationship)?"

You are misunderstanding what you are hearing. CO2 levels are very high now and they correlate closely with the increase in temperature. Gore is saying it, professors at every university I know are saying it too. But that doesn't mean it is the only reason temperatures can climb. If the temperature climbs for some other reason then CO2 levels likely will increase but the effect will be delayed.

We are seeing that right now where with increases in ocean acidification the natural process that sequesters CO2 in the form of carbonates is slowing. We also seeing it in the increase in release of CO2 from peat bogs and arctic tundra. If the oceans get warmer we might well see a release of methane further complicating the issue. And while methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas ... it will lag temperature because it had previously been sequestered in the form of methane ice.

So the fact that CO2 levels may have lagged temperature changes in the past is indicative of nothing in and of itself. Nor does the fact that it lagged in the past say anything with respect it the current situation.

The causes of warming and CO2 changes 100,000 years ago are not what is driving the warming engine today.

It all comes down, very simply, to the laws of chemistry and physics that can not be violated. If CO2 levels go up the temperature must too unless counteracted by some other matter of chemistry or physics of which none is known to exist as a factor.

DA Morgan