Climatology—Science or Ideology?

In 2001, US President George W. Bush declared that the United States will no longer participate in any negotiations with other United Nations members about the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, the gas frequently named as the main culprit for the so-called greenhouse effect, that is, the slow but steady increase of the lower atmosphere's temperature.

Around the same time, a scientific controversy erupted with focus in Germany about whether or not carbon dioxide is at all to be blamed for the greenhouse effect, or if there is even something like a greenhouse effect in the first place. The most prominent figure of the dissenters, claiming that there is no greenhouse effect, is a former rather prominent German meteorologist who used to present the most recent weather forecasts in Germany's primary TV news broadcast heute (today), Wolfgang Thüne.

The following article presents some of the arguments brought forward by dissenters around W. Thüne, followed by some critical comments and an attempt to make a critical survey of the state of the current discussion.