Quote Originally Posted by eestlinc View Post
That is not a very sensible critique. "We aren't the cause this time because this has happened before and we weren't the cause then." Quite frankly, it seems almost completely implausible that we aren't a major cause of global warming. To put it another way, humans have been changing the chemical makeup of our atmosphere through massive emissions of various compounds over the last 100 or so years. It's incredibly likely that this change in atmospheric content has had some effect. As to what effect exactly, a good guess would be the observable changes in climate, especially since carbon emissions correllate so directly with global temperature. Not all things that happen in sequence have a cause-effect relationship, but all cause-effect relationships happen in sequence.
Of course it's sensible. We are fully aware that changes like this can and do happen on a regular basis without the existence of Humans, nevermind our modern technological industry. Why, then, should we presume that this instance is an exception to those, except through an arrogant presumption that we are oh-so-important and that nothing can happen unless we're involved? What about the fact that Mars is undergoing global warming, and her icecaps are melting? Could the sun perchance have something to do with that? Or is that somehow our fault as well?

As to emissions - you're right about cause-effect relationships happening in sequence. What you're wrong about is the sequence. Temperature changes happen first, and then emissions change. Usually several hundred years later.