Quote:
Originally Posted by Constant Phil
Correlation does not always equal causation. We may never know in our life time what the main antagonist of climate change is.
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Correct. And exactly because correlation can easily be mistaken for causation, the fundamental method used by empirical scientists is "controlled testing". You take at least 2 identical objects, change 1 thing the first object is exposed to and leave everything the same for the second object. If something about the first object changes (for example, it melts or turns into a gas) and the second object doesn't change, than you can then form an hypothesis about how by altering the thing you altered, the first object was affected. You then go on and test your hypothesis.
As far as I know, we have only 1 planet Earth, so it's impossible to do any kind of controlled testing. Testing the effects of a rise in CO2 in a tiny greenhouse and then extrapolating that simply doesn't hold up given the complexity of our planet (the geological processes involved, the effect of the sun, the natural occurring shift in the Earth's axis,...).