How can we be certain that Global Warming is a man made evernt?

Question

For hundreds of millions of years, the earth has being going in and out of ice ages. At one point, maybe 300 million years ago there was an event called "Ice ball earth" in which the entire earth was covered by ice. There have been 100 theories to explain ice ages, but none have been proven to be correct.

Therefore, while I believe global warming should be studied and monitored, I fail to see how we can be certain that this warming is not part of the earth's natural cycle of going in and out of ice ages.

At present, the normal state of the earth is in an ice age. The dates very, but we generally we spend 100,000 years in an ice age and then pop out into a warming period of 10,000 to 20,000 years that we are in now.

I use the analogy of the mayfly that only lives one day above ground to breed. One may mayfly says to another: "The day is getting warmer and warmer. The end is near." After it is eaten by a toad, the toad says, "The earth heats and cools every 24 hrs."

Answer 1

We can't, there are just people with an insatiable need to blame mankind for everything and who don't realize that a single volcanis eruption puts more crap into our atmosphere than all of our pollutants put together.

Answer 2

First, this question is irrelevent if you think to the original implication of global warming. The grand question everyone is concerned about is "is global warming going to cause meterological mayhem that will eventually wipe out the human race?". If you're dead, do you care if your demise was caused by man or nature?
Scientists studying the global warming is stating that we are already too late. That is IF the cause of global warming is man made, we are too late to stop it. If we magically and completely stop reduction of ozone layer (CFCs, etc.) and release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the atomospheric damage is too great to heal itself (back to the pre-1800's atmosphere).
So eventually in several hundred (if man made) or several thousand years, the earth will follow the historic cycle of ice/hot ages.
I'm a believer of asteroidal collision with earth that caused ice ages. Look at every planet or moons the size of earth or smaller. Actually it does not need to be the size of earth. A few years ago, Jupiter took in a huge asteroid which was probably about the same as human colliding with a fly. Can you imagine if that same asteroid hit earth? Every one of them have millions of craters caused by asteroids. Some are so large in circular shape that we call "sea, ie. of tranquility". These are asteroid so large that it buried itself and raises so much soil and dust. Since these objects do not have a moving atmosphere, the dust settles straight down by the gravity.
When Mt. St. Helens erupted, eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana were very heavily enveloped in volcanic ash and days practically turned into night. Now imagine an asteroidal collision with dry continental earth that is 100,000 times the energy of Mt. St. Helens.
I have hope. Man will eventually have high temperature fusion power that powers earth. High temperature fusion power will be inexhaustable and will cost next to nothing (it produces more energy than it consumes). This super cheap source of energy will allow scientists to correct the earth's atmosphere to ideal condition (perhaps better than pre 1800's). Also by then man will have made considerable progress in space travel and will have the means to detect and either destroy or alter the path of asteroids so as not to strike earth. Whatever the movies they make now eventually becomes a reality as science and techonoly continually advances.

Answer 3

First of all, Snowball Earth was 850 and 700 million years ago. And our current ice age has lasted at least 1.8 millioin years. The normal Permian ice age was about 300 million years ago.

Two main reasons:

1. The hockeystick. Since the industrial revolution, temperature records and proxys have shown a DRAMATIC, significant, and UNPRECIDENTED rise in temperature. This is called the hockeystick because of the flat 2000 years ('stick') before the sharp rise ('blade').

2. CO2 levels are higher now than they have been for 650,000 years.

This information was published in the journals Science and Nature, the most respected, peer-reviewed journals in the US and the UK. Where did you get you data?

Answer 4

I think that humans have such an overwhelming need (or want) to be so important, that anything we do must have global, if not cosmic, significance. The earth will take care of herself. Humans came to dominance for a time and we too, will at some point, be gone. Another species will rise to take our place at the top of the food chain.

People demanding change due to "global warming" don't seem to be interested in past trends. But having the "world is ending" issue to scare the sheep, they may, at some point, gain power and control - and isnt that what all humans seem to be after?

Answer 5

We really can't sorry to say. I know most believe in the carbon dioxide theory and some of that may be true
BUT......
Tree rings, past novels, pictures show the world was warmer during the period 900-1300 AD. So warm that tree lines were about 1000 feet higher than present.

Answer 6

Global warming is not man made...in fact Earth has not been warming over the last 3-4 years. Why is that?

Evidence from plant fossil-remains suggest that there was as much CO2 in the atmosphere about 11,000 years ago as there is today.

Answer 7

We can't deny that global warming is influenced by us. It could be a small percentage or a very large percentage (percentage of influence on climate change do to the emmision of gases etc. that get trapped in the green house effect). But, we know that deep in the ocean we can find alot of volcanic activity and this could be releasing a large amoung of CO2 into the atmosphere. That's all I can say.

Answer 8

because poisonous gases such as carbon-dioxide have been realsed into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels, cars, etc. and they have depleted the ozone layer which protects earth from harmful UV rays emitted by the sun. Without the ozone layer, the UV rays will have a direct path to the earth, causing global warming which will cause the ice caps to melt which will lead to coastal flooding...say goodbye to NYC, Tokyo, and other important cities!!!

Answer 9

You might want to seach for Prof. Reid Bryson. Prof. Bryson headed up the climate lab at the University of Wisconsin and is now emeritus. Prof. Bryson has some very good answers to this question. I certainly enjoyed having him as my paleoclimatology professor back in the sixties. He has written extensively on this subject from a scientific and not emotional or political perspective.

Answer 10

You could be right, but never before have we humans generated so much CO and CO2 than now. It is a proven fact that this gasses does indeed trap heat.
How much is needed of this gas to disturb nature I think is subjective rather than objective