Erik

I agree with your daughter. My atmospheric science textbook is
Atmosphere, Weather & Climate by Barry and Chorley, 7th Edition,
Routledge, ISBN 0-415-16019-7 (hardback) or 0-415-16020-0 (paperback). I
can recommend this strongly for non-atmospheric-scientists with a
reasonable general education.

However, although it requires a 30 year period to smooth out random and
cyclic variations, it really needs longer to be able to draw real
conclusions. However, I draw your attention to
http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/tar/syr/figspm-2.htm which shows a remarkable
correlation over the period of 1860 to 2000. The caption states
"Figure SPM-2: Simulating the Earth’s temperature variations (°C) and
comparing the results to the measured changes can provide insight to the
underlying causes of the major changes. A climate model can be used to
simulate the temperature changes that occur from both natural and
anthropogenic causes. The simulations represented by the band in (a)
were done with only natural forcings: solar variation and volcanic
activity. Those encompassed by the band in (b) were done with
anthropogenic forcings: greenhouse gases and an estimate of sulfate
aerosols. And those encompassed by the band in (c) were done with both
natural and anthropogenic forcings included. From (b), it can be seen
that the inclusion of anthropogenic forcings provides a plausible
explanation for a substantial part of the observed temperature changes
over the past century, but the best match with observations is obtained
in (c) when both natural and anthropogenic factors are included. These
results show that the forcings included are sufficient to explain the
observed changes, but do not exclude the possibility that other forcings
may also have contributed."

The whole document at http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/tar/syr/001.htm is worth
the read. It was written by a whole bunch of the world's best
atmospheric scientists in terms for the layman. If you want the
scientific basis, you can find it at
http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/tar/wg1/index.htm but this is more arcane, in
places.

Brian