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He raises some important points about the nature of models and the need
for caution.  I'm not equipped to evaluate the details of his arguments,
or those he is pooh-poohing - I'll leave that to the climatologists, but
I did notice a couple of cautionary things.

1.  Singer's skepticism (at least in this interview) is of the easy
sort.  He raises concerns with existing models, but he does not present
any alternative models, nor does he discuss the impact of variables in
the models in any quantitative way.  He puts forth his own beleief, but
it's not apparently based on anything, not even an assertion about his
own modeling.  This may all be in his papers, but it certainly left me
unconvinced.  

2. He speaks of the importance of accounting for thigns like clouds, but
makes only peripheral mention of one variable documented to have
produced at least some of the cooling he refers to, volcanic erultions.
On a long time scale, these are steady-state, but not on the time scales
he is referring to.  Global warming has been significantly slowed by a
series of major eruptions in recent decades (El Chichon, Pinatubo, etc.)
A recent article in EOS highlighted this effect, especially with regard
to its impact in retarding sea level rise.

3.  My understanding is that the newest models do account for many of
the issues he raises, but again, we'll need to ask a climatologist
(Terry Eastburn, are you out there?)  Althoough he criticizes the models
for not accounting for all the variables and feedbacks, his own analyses
seem quite simplistic (see the relationship between warming and sea
level fall in one 40-year period he describes).

4.  I admit I skimmed, but I also find no mention of orbital forcings,
which I think are important at some of the timescales he describes.  

I'm skeptical by nature, so I'm skeptical of his skepticism, which seems
a little too one-sided for me, but I think he certainly points up the
need for continued research.  Personally, given the choice between doing
something now to decrease the probability of a bad outcome and waiting
to gather more data, by which time, given the rapidity of past changes,
it could conceivably be too late to forestall catastrophic change, I'd
rather take at least modest action now (and Kyoto and Montreal can be
called modest only by the generous) even if we are not sure of the
payback.  

Dave Smith, Da Vinci Discovery Center, not a climatologist, but a
gelogist well aquainted with the complexity of the earth system

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