Took*
Do you think that the trend is (and will continue to be) linear, or that it will accelerate?
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/sealevel.html
No one can predict the climate with any degree of reliability, despite claims to the contrary. But the data to date are stubbornly linear. My pure GUESS, based on current data and known and speculated mechanisms, is that the increase in atmospheric temperatures will continue to be linear, but will level off about 50 years from now. Very large scale systems that respond very slowly to temperature (such as polar ice sheets, deep sea temperatures, and sea levels) will lag this, and will level off about 100 years from now. 100 years from now someone can resurrect this post and see if I was close to right.
But I admit that this is a guess. Unlike Michael Mann and Al Gore, I have not spent 20 years trying to fabricate a "hockey stick" that refuses to appear, or manufacturing bogeymen to scare and indoctrinate schoolchildren.
The data and the science suggest to me that:
>the climate has been warming since the "Little Ice Age" and will continue to warm for the rest of our lives
>human activity contributes some portion of this warming, but how much is unclear
>well planned changes in human activity may "blunt" the warming trend slightly (I know what I would do if I were the "super-Czar" in charge of energy, but we can discuss on a separate thread)
>poorly planned, drastic changes in human activity may "blunt" the warming slightly, but will have very high and immediate social and financial costs that will far outweigh any benefit from blunting the warming trend in the "out years."
Much of what passes for analysis in this subject area is politically driven, and not scientifically valid.