Is global warming a big load of B.S.?

Question

Based on information from John Stossel's book "Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity"

Hardly a day goes by without some kind of warning that mankind's use of fossil fuels is causing global warming.

Stossel looks at the numbers. Half of this century's global warming happened between 1900 and 1945. Stossel asks, "If man is responsible, why wasn't there much more warming in the second half of the century? We burned much more fuel during that time."

According to Harvard astrophysicist Sallie Baliunas, added carbon dioxide helps plants grow. Warmer winters give farmers a longer growing season, and the warming might end the droughts in the Sahara.

There's another consideration. For the past 800,000 years, there have been periods of approximately 100,000 years called Ice Ages, followed by a period of 10,000 years, a period called Interglacial, followed by another Ice Age. We're about 10,500 years into the present Interglacial period, namely, we're 500 years overdue for an iceage.

Answer 1

NEWSWEEK, April 28, 1975

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/coolingworld.pdf

Answer 2

I don't think it is BS, you could research it further, thats only one mans opinion. All of nature is interdependent,change some things in the equation and its common sense we will get altered effects. The air is much less clean then it was years ago, asthma is on the rise and other lung disorders. Its not only fossil fuels its also hair spray,other kinds of sprays and pollutents. Already the global weather has been changing,storms are more severe, seasons have changed in some areas disturbing migration patterens for birds and other animal life. Some species are dying out because of this. Since we don't have any place else to go at the moment except earth, it only makes sense to me that we take care of the air we breath and anyone else will breath in the future. The whole earth is becoming one polluted mess due to someone not giving a dam about the future of the race and the drive to make money. It may not take place as an ice age,it may take longer and result in america becoming a desert and canada becoming like us. There is no dispute that the ice caps are melting due to warming, do some research and you will see what I am telling you is true. this will have disastrous effects eventually.

Answer 3

while warmer is better for some things, it makes more hurricanes worse and is the reason 9 of the 10 worst hurricane seasons have been in the past 13 years... Also, the warming causes the polar ice caps to melt, and if this gets worse all of New York, New Orleans and many other major cities would be under 20 feet of water. Global warming is no joke....
You can also go see the new movie "an inconvient truth" which talks about the seriousness of global warming

Answer 4

This is only information from a movie review, but in Roger Ebert's review of Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth," he quotes the movie as saying "There is no controversy about these facts...Out of 925 recent articles in peer-review scientific journals about global warming, there was no disagreement. Zero." The link to the review is

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060601/REVIEWS/60517002/1023

Just looking at Stossel's question "why wasn't there much more warming in the second half of the century," the facts show that there was more warming in the second half of the century.
Again from the review: The 10 warmest years in history were in the last 14 years.

Answer 5

You're right that there is a lot of debate over global warming, but environmental evidence seems to be showing us that there is something more than just gradual climate change. Over the past few years especially, there have been severe envrionmental impacts due to temperature. In Alaska, fish populations have boomed because of a rise in water temperature, but at the same time polar bears are starting to turn to preying upon ear other because the ice on which they normally hunt is melting away (and hence it's harder to get their normal prey, seals). In Canada as well, spring is coming much earlier than it used to, so birds that migrate can't feed their young as well because when they arrive (when it normally is the start of spring) the major influx of insects is over. Coral reefs worldwide are dying off or becoming sick as well because it's too hot for them, and the algae they use to feed themselves can't survive. Although the exact issue of temperature might be debated, it seems in polar and equatorial regions fast change is occurring, change that has happened just in the past few years and is too fast to be a gradual warming trend. You also mention that more carbon dioxide is better for plants, which may be true (in fact there is a postulation that we got the last ice-age from an over abundance of a kind of fern fixing the excess CO2 in the atmosphere, drastically cooling things), but it wouldn't be good for everyone. For instance, the US would most likely turn into a dust-bowl, with the major agricultural belt shifting north into Canada, hence changing global politics, policy, and power along with the environment. Right now we can't say 100% for sure as global warming is a theory and theories can be proving wrong, but we are experiencing a heat spike and our CO2 emissions seem to be playing a large part in that. Also consider how much land has been developed or stripped of it's green life... if you consider an increase of carbon dioxide production along with a decline of vegetation coverage, there is going to be a shift. In the end, even though the planet has natural cycles, we are a part of that now and have seriously altered the chemistry of the Earth through our industry and technology, and the impacts of this could be farther reaching than we thought, but only time is going to tell how severe.

Answer 6

Umm no I think it is fairly obvious that it is no joke. Ask any scientist that hasn't been bought off by someone with a political agenda.


Global warming it the biggest threat we face today, are you kidding?


I can see the effects of Global warming over the past ten years from where I live. I live in the Midwest and we have some cold a s s winters here with tons of snow. The past 10 years the winters have been VERY mild. It is not just a coincidence... it is indeed happening.

Answer 7

There is some global warming going on. It is due to green house gases(CO2). The state with the highest amount of CO2 gas emission is Alaska. This is due to the fact that Alaska, Canada and the northern countries have large amounts of Tundra. Tundra is a vegetation that takes in oxygen and gives of CO2.
Al Gore and other environmentalist don't point this out because it would mean spraying defoliant on large parts of Alaska and Canada. Talk about an inconvenient truth.

Gore, the famed inventor of the Internet, goes around on a private jet presenting his side of global warming. The people who believe in Gore will see his movie and be impressed by it. Those that don't agree with him won't see his movie.
As for me I have too many problems of my own to worry about global warming

Answer 8

I have seen shows on Discovery, D-Science,(you know the channels),and there is this segment where they tell of the earths movement away from the sun 1inch a year and how earths axis position is changing-discoverychannel.com- so in my opinion the earth is just doing a summersault. Scientists have also discovered heat vents at the bottom of the ocean, that could explain the oceans temps rising.

Answer 9

Both sides of this debate have an agenda, so it's hard to say. All of the research being done is paid for people who are heavily invested in findings to or away from certain results. That's the kind of science you have to be really careful with. So I'm keeping my mind open and trying not to waste, and I'll keep watching evidence on both sides carefully.

Answer 10

It would seem so. But remember, its main advocate, Al Gore, is a genius. He invented the Internet, ya know!