I doubt this will change many people's opinion, but it is interesting because it involves processing actual data.  When it comes to movies, music, politics and things of that nature I generally don't get too emotional about people's opinion as everyone has a right to their own.

When it comes to opinions based on some factual data, then I do tend to take interest in what people more educated than myself are lead to believe.  Global warning has been a hot topic recently so this study caught my eye, especially when I saw who conducted it.

A prominent physicist and skeptic of global warming spent two years trying to find out if mainstream climate scientists were wrong. In the end, he determined they were right: Temperatures really are rising rapidly.

The study of the world’s surface temperatures by Richard Muller was partially bankrolled by a foundation connected to global warming deniers. He pursued long-held skeptic theories in analyzing the data. He was spurred to action because of “Climategate,” a British scandal involving hacked e-mails of scientists.

Yet he found that the land is 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than in the 1950s. Those numbers from Muller, who works at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, match those by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA.

He said he went even further back, studying readings from Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. His ultimate finding of a warming world, to be presented at a conference today, is no different from what mainstream climate scientists have been saying for decades.

What’s different, and why everyone from opinion columnists to cable TV’s satirical “The Daily Show” is paying attention is who is behind the study.

One-quarter of the $600,000 to do the research came from the Charles Koch Foundation, whose founder is a major funder of skeptic groups and the conservative Tea Party movement. The Koch brothers, Charles and David, run a large privately held company involved in oil and other industries, producing sizable greenhouse gas emissions

Read the entire story via Prominent global-warming skeptic becomes believer after 2-year study | Duluth News Tribune | Duluth, Minnesota.

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