An introduction

An introduction of some sort is in order.

I am Daniel Rhodes-Mumby, a fifteen year old student at Caistor Grammar School in Lincolnshire, England.
I first became involved in political issues at the age of about thirteen, and global warming at about fourteen.

In the two years that I have been involved in politics, I have changed my views quite radically. Originally I was a conservative; then I became a communist, before gradually moving down to socialist.
I am now a moderate liberal, in the sense that I support a person's freedom to do whatever he wants as long as it doesn't harm anyone.

As a combatant on the bloody fields of political argument, I have learnt a lot, in particular how to listen and how to fight. I have been on the wrong end of insults and abuse; likewise, however, some of my opponents have been. I have never promised perfection, and I have a somewhat short temper at times.

I first learnt about the greenhouse effect when I was eight years old or so; I found the concept interesting, but nothing to worry about.
Learning a bit about global warming in Year 9 of school, I sought to learn more. I searched on the Internet, in magazines and in encyclopaedias.
Since that point, I have been a keen proponent of the theory of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming, and I have been involved in some fairly fierce arguments over the matter.

My reading of scientific papers in recent history, coupled with my own limited research in the field, has convinced me that anthropogenic global warming is, at the very least, likely to be the truth.
My research will be publicly available on this blog, and I can e-mail it to anyone who wishes to see it at any time.
In addition, I am collaborating on a research project with several other people which I will keep you informed about.

Why am I telling you all this?
Simple.

I won't pretend to be a fence-sitter. I'm a proponent, and this blog will be tainted by that, although perhaps tainted is not the word.
However, I give my promise that I will try to be as unbiased as possible, and that if you - that is, anyone who wishes to debate over something - are courteous to me, then I will likewise be courteous to you.
I will never throw the first insult in a debate, and I try not to throw any at all, although sometimes I weaken and do so in retaliation.

The purpose of this blog is to inform people about global warming and the theories surrounding it. It should also inform people about the uncertainties in the climate change debate; how we have probabilities as opposed to certainties, how sometimes the physics is uncertain, how models of climate are not necessarily accurate and how it is impossible to prove anything in science.

Global warming fills these pages, but it is as much a blog dedicated to science as a whole.