The problem with the analysis linked by Dennis is 1998, which was an outlier, meaning it was way warmer than the overall trend. If you compare following years to 1998, it looks like it is not warming, but if you disregard 1998, the trend looks different (although it has not warmed as quickly in the last 10 years as during the 1990s, I think). Dennis' link had other BBC links next to it, and I link one of them below. There is one error in the linked article; it says that the Antarctic ice caps formed at about 14 million years ago, when in fact they formed at about 34 million years ago. It did get colder 14 million years ago, and since that time the East Antarctic ice sheet has been more or less permanent (with some retreat 3 or 4 million years ago and again 1 million years ago). The link has a different take on CO2 and climate than Dennis'

For those climate change skeptics who think that a small amount of CO2 (400 part per million soon) could not affect climate, I heard recently that if there was no CO2 in earth's atmosphere the average temperature of the earth would be, I think -18 deg C. I forget what it is now, but it is a positive number. I don't know whether -18 C would freeze the oceans to the equator or not. (I think I am correct on the -18, but someone could check me).

I was at the Antarctic Climate Evolution meeting in Granada Spain Sept 7-13, and Peter Barrett, from New Zealand, said that climate change due to global warming was likely to be a catastrophe only exceeded by an asteroid impact. Maybe an extreme view, but he's not saying this to get funding; he is probably retired; I've read one of his Antactic papers published in the mid 1960s.
Chris

• Miocene CO2