[Snuffington]

Without knowing more detail about the study, I cannot comment on its accuracy. But I do note that the article says nothing about human causation of warmer global temperatures.

Since we know the earth goes through natural warming and cooling cycles, and that we are currently in an interglacial period when one would expect natural warming, why does global warming carry a more ominous tone than a study confirming that the sun will rise, winter will arrive, and the tides will indeed come in?

[cogitator]

Without knowing more detail about the study, I cannot comment on its accuracy. But I do note that the article says nothing about human causation of warmer global temperatures.

I don't think the intent of the report was to address human causation. It was to see if the observed warming is causing ecosystem changes. However, the first reference is to the third IPCC report, and the IPCC, of course, attributes some of the warming over the last century to human activities.

Since we know the earth goes through natural warming and cooling cycles, and that we are currently in an interglacial period when one would expect natural warming, why does global warming carry a more ominous tone than a study confirming that the sun will rise, winter will arrive, and the tides will indeed come in?

It's all about the rate of change. See reply 31. I also wrote a longer discussion of this a few weeks back; if interested I can try to see if it still survives. Even some strong skeptics applauded my balanced response in that particular post.