Evidence for human-induced climate change

I found this list of evidence and associated references on-line in fall 2012.  I don’t recall where or the original author of the post.  Reprinted here as a public service:

  1. Atmospheric CO2 is rising, and its isotope composition matches fossil carbon. CO2/O2 ratio is also changing in a way that is consistent with our burning of fossil fuels.  Reference:  Manning, A.C., Keeling, R.F., “Global oceanic and land biotic carbon sinks from the Scripps atmospheric oxygen flask sampling network,” Tellus, vol. 58, p. 95–116 (2006).
  2. Less heat is escaping to space. In a warming world, this evidence excludes every cause but the enhanced greenhouse effect. In addition, the changes in frequency spectrum also point CO2 and CH4 as the causes of the change. Ref.:  Harries, J. E., et al (2001). Increases in greenhouse forcing inferred from the outgoing longwave radiation spectra of the Earth in 1970 and 1997,” Nature, vol. 410, p.355-357.
  3. More heat is returning back to the surface of the Earth. This is the counterpart of the previous item, i.e., if this weren’t the case then it might lead one to raise questions about the greenhouse effect. Heat is trapped by the greenhouse gases, fails to escape to space and is “reflected” back to the surface.  Ref.:  Evans W. F. J., Puckrin E. (2006), Measurements of the Radiative Surface Forcing of Climate, P1.7, AMS 18th Conference on Climate Variability and Change.
  4. The vertical profile of ocean warming matches the way that would be expected in a greenhouse-caused warming.  Ref.:  Barnett, T. P., Pierce, D. W., Achutarao, K. M., Gleckler, P. J., Santer, B. D., Gregory, J. M., and Washington, W. M. (2005), “Penetration of Human-Induced Warming into the World’s Oceans,” Science, vol. 309(5732), p. 284-287.
  5. Winter is warming faster than summer, nights are warming faster than days.  Refs:  Braganza, K., D. J. Karoly, A. C. Hirst, P. Stott, R. J. Stouffer, and S. F. B.
    Tett, “Simple indices of global climate variability and change: Part II:
    Attribution of climate change during the twentieth century,” Climate Dynamics, vol. 22, no. 8, p. 823-838 (2004);  Alexander, L. V., et al., “Global observed changes in daily climate extremes of temperature and precipitation,” Journal of Geophisical Research, vol. 111(D5), 16 March 2006, DOI: DOI: 10.1029/2005JD006290.
  6. The vertical profile of the atmospheric warming is consistent with the human-enhanced greenhouse effect.  Ref.:  Jones, G., Tett, S. & Stott, P., “Causes of atmospheric temperature change 1960-2000: A combined attribution analysis,” Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 30, no. 5, 05 March 2003, DOI: 10.1029/2002GL016377.