[justa-hairyape]

The total energy received by the Earth from the Sun is equivalent to 131,400 billion tons of oil per year.

The Earth is giving up solar derived energy and only retains a specific amount. Is that net energy retained ? Minus what is given back out to space at night ? Without radiating solar energy back into space in the short term, the Earth would over heat. Without retaining some of the solar energy long term, the Earth would freeze.

I agree however that what we are looking at are the causes of the Urban Heat Island effect and not the causes of Global Climate Change. My guess would be excess heat retention from concrete and excess heat release from burning fossil fuels within the urban areas.

[marktwain]

It appears that during the last 13 years, we are not gaining or losing heat in a measurable, long term way. Of course, the temperature and therefore, the amount of heat, is constantly varying in hourly, daily, and annual ways.

An easy way to measure remove the urban heat island effect would be to only rely on stations that have stayed in relatively undisturbed rural areas and to ignore urban areas altogether. No one seems willing to do that.