Ace....if you are relly interested, an objective (IMO) source of information is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The IPCC is composed of hundreds of scientists from both developed and third world countries and conducts periodic assessments of climate change. All of their work is peer reviewed by hundreds of other scientists from around the world, including climate change skeptics.
THe last assessment conducted by the IPCC was in 2001. Among its conclusions:
"There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities."
Carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning and land clearing has been accumulating in the atmosphere, where it acts like a blanket keeping Earth warm and heating up the surface, ocean, and atmosphere. As a result, current levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are higher than at any time during the last 650,000 years.
You can review the scientific data, (Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis), the vulnerability of human and natural systems to climate change (Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation & Vulnerability), and options for adapting to them, including economic impacts (Climate Change 2001: Mitigation)....or just read the Synthesis Report:
http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/reports.htm
You might find it informative.....if you have an open mind.
You might also want to read the UN report on the impact of livestock on greenhouse gases (only one section of the report; it addresses impacts on land degradation, water pollution and the loss of biodiversity as well - all serious issues worthy of more than comments about cow flatulence - as described by an earlier IDB editorial) if you want to cite its conclusions. (I recall you said in another discussion that you hadnt read it)
http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/libr...d/A0701E00.htm