Oil is primarily a lubricant, not a coolant. One puts primarily water (sometimes with various additives), not oil, into a car engine's radiator. And crude oil is nothing like the oil put into vehicle engines.

Crude oil fields, oil sands, coal mines, etc. are concentrated energy. Some who focus on "energy is constant" use it to balance the universe in the form of an over-simplified equation. If it's in the ground in the form of a liquid or solid fuel, then that energy isn't in the atmosphere in the form of heat, carbon dioxide gas, etc. By that logic the earth is cooler because that energy is trapped within the crust and not burned in the process of powering any modern equipment.

I would like to know if we have any satellites keeping track of temperatures on Venus and Mars We have methods of observing temperatures on Venus and Mars. The suface temperature of Venus is 480C due to a runaway greenhouse effect caused by extremely high levels of CO2 in it's atmosphere. The climate on Mars is driven by dust storms (that can last for years) and albedo, but we have so little information it's impossible to deduce with any accuracy what is happening to Mars' climate. "I have heard people mention a 10 or 11 year cycle for solar output. But I'm also curious if there is also a longer trend for solar emissions that is being ignored." There is indeed a 11 year cycle and also other variations in solar activity, but none of them are suffienctly pwerfull to over-ride the vastly greater effects of a 50% increase in greenhouse gases. In fact solar activity has been more or less steady (with a slight fall) since the middle of the last century - during which time global temperatures have risen faster than at any time for thousands of years. "..Two hundred years of data is almost meaningless " We have multiple proxy records (that all produce a very similar result) going back 400,000 years with 95% confidence. "..The Roman Warm Period " There have always been vineyards in the UK apart from a short period in the early 20th century. Today there are over 400 commercial vineyards in Britain - the highest number in all of recorded history. "... We should be mindful of how we manage our resources and the environment, but we should also stop manipulating data to fit conclusions and justify agendas...." Absolutely - read the peer-reviewed scientific reasearch papers published in respected scientific journals if you want to see the truth. Stay well away from denier-blogs who, since Heartlandgate, we now know for certain are being paid to disseminate misinformation. .

Unfortunately Bill, we cannot agree that human activity is solely responsible because the earth has undergone critical temperature fluctuations even without human influence (at least five significant glacial cycles over several hundred thousands of years). Earth's orbit (as well as planetary tilt) is not a perfect unchanging factor that can be ignored. Even techtonic plates have been in constant motion throughout Earth's history changing ocean currents and landmass elevations which in turn modify atmospheric patterns. ~~ Yes, scientists have proposed matter and energy in the universe are constant; however, Earth is absorbing energy from the sun and radiating energy every second (the same reason we have suites of optical, radio, and x-ray telescopes searching the sky for "intelligent sources"). If Earth wasn't radiating energy (light, heat, etc.) back into space it strikes me that the crust would likely have completely liquified some time over the past couple of billion years. I would consider plant blooming (and animal hibernation) to be stimuli driven (or instinctual with mating cycles) not genetically coded to a calendar date. So yes, it's natural adaptation to surroundings just like when you pack away sweaters and winter coats and unpack shorts and swimsuits ... and not so much a sign of any evolution in progress. ~~ As I said before, we have a responsibility to wisely use and manage our environment; however, science has a greater responsibility to ensure the data is accurate so that as our understanding improves we have trustworthy data to build models and test our ever-changing theories.

It is well understood what caused climate change bfore humans appeared ( which was about 2 million years ago not 12,000 by the way) It was caused by orbital and axial variations, increases in CO2 concentrations, mega-vulcanism (lasting thousands of years) and changes in the sun. Without the increase in CO2 the climate would be slowly cooling for the next 5,000 years.