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Your comment is reviving a blog entry from 15 months ago.

The best book I've seen that puts the medieval warm period and the "Little Ice Age" in perspective, both scientifically and socio-politically, is "The Little Ice Age: How Climate Changed History" by Brian Fagan, reviewed at http://www.scienceshelf.com/LittleIceAge.htm

As for the various issues raised by your link, the recent IPCC deliberations considered all of them and concluded that to a high level of probability, human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels, are the cause of the present warming episode.

More recent entries in my blog (http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/blog/fred_bortz) discuss solar effects, including other than total insolation, on both Mars and Neptune.

I also have a long discussion about persuading my conservative friend that global warming is not part of a liberal political agenda.

As you will discover when reading those entries, I have a healthy appreciation for the views of skeptics, but I also have a healthy appreciation for the process that has led to the current scientific consensus.

Politicians need to argue about what to do about global warming, but they need to start from a common scientific base. Too many of them are still busy attacking the scientists as either conspirators or dupes, because the science seems to be leading toward actions that will minimize the economic and political power of their political supporters, Big Oil and Big Coal.

No matter what political strategy emerges, the scientific consensus tells us that we need to burn much less fossil fuel if we want to solve this problem. No wonder the fossil fuel interests attack both the scientists and their consensus.

In any case, I invite your comments on my more recent blog entries.

Fred Bortz
Science and technology books for young readers (www.fredbortz.com)
and Science book reviews (www.scienceshelf.com)