Why is the planet really heating up?

Question

If pollution isn't heating up this planet, then what is? Is the sun heating up?

Answer 1

The Sun is a bit hotter than average right now. We have also observed that Mars is heating up, so it's not just the earth.

Answer 2

The factors that determine the average temperature of the Earth are well known. They are not hard to understand.
1. The sunlight from the Sun. the Sun has an 11 year cycle of brightness. It has an irregular cycle of magnetic activity. The brightness of the Sun is the number one reason for the temperature on Earth. [1]
2. The Earth's orbit around the Sun. The orbit is not a perfect circle. The Earth's axis is tilted 23.5 degrees. The direction that the axis points slowly changes over time. Right now, the Earth's axis (North Pole) points TOWARDS the Sun when the Earth is at it's FARTHEST point in the orbit. This makes Northern summers more mild. When the South Pole is pointing towards the Sun, the Earth is at its closest approach to the Sun. This makes Northern winters warmer. This relationship changes and this change is called 'precession.' The precession period is 26,000 years. That means that it is easy to have an ice age in the Northern hemisphere every 26,000 years (13,000 years from now). At that time, the axis (N) is pointing AWAY FROM the Sun during the Northern Winter during the farthest point of the Earth's orbit. That makes the winter extra cold. The axis (N) points TOWARDS the Sun during the Northern summer, making the summer hotter, which means more heat into the oceans, and more moisture in the air. More moisture in the air will continue even as Fall and Winter approach, meaning the Fall and Winters will have more rain and snow. Since the winters are stormy with lots of snowfall, all the snow does not melt in the higher latitudes and higher elevations. This builds up to form glaciers and eventually the expansion of the ice cap as it reflects more light and the air temp remains low. This process results in an ice age.

We are at the opposite situation now. The heat is going into the Southern Hemisphere and warming the Southern oceans. The temperature of the sea is increasing. As ocean circulation lags behind temperature increases, the warm temps are only now creating an increasing number of tropical storms, hurricanes and typhoons.

;-D It is gonna get warm. Wear lots of sunscreen!

Answer 3

"Believe the peer-reviewed science and not the researchers backed by oil companies"

The peer-reviewed science claim is bull. If a climatoligist came out tomorrow and said, "I don't believe there is anything we can do about global warming, it's just a cycle and humans don't need to worry about it" he would have no reason to continue research (i.e. LOSE HIS JOB). Scientists are basically saying, "Ummm...yeah, humans are doing it. We need to do more research to figure out what's going to happen. And give us some more money to play with our climate models too." Don't be so naive to think that those kinds of things won't affect what a scientist may or may not say.

And don't even get me started on the IPCC. The scientists who were picked to head that panel were chosen because they already had their minds made up about the subject. That's like me putting 100 teachers in a room and asking them to vote on a pay-raise for teachers....bias aplenty in any of their assessment reports.

P.S. Everybody stop using 'global warming' and 'the ozone hole' in the same sentence!!! They are completely unrelated issues, they have no cause and effect relationship. And NO, George Bush is not causing any of this. The environmentalists complain incessantly that climate should not be a political subject, yet all they do is bash George Bush and any of his allies in the oil industry.

Answer 4

Greenhouses gases, global warming is real- Believe the peer-reviewed science and not the researchers backed by oil companies.

Policy-makers and the media, particularly in the United States, frequently assert that climate science is highly uncertain. Some have used this as an argument against adopting strong measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For example, while discussing a major U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report on the risks of climate change, then-EPA administrator Christine Whitman argued, "As [the report] went through review, there was less consensus on the science and conclusions on climate change" (1). Some corporations whose revenues might be adversely affected by controls on carbon dioxide emissions have also alleged major uncertainties in the science (2). Such statements suggest that there might be substantive disagreement in the scientific community about the reality of anthropogenic climate change. This is not the case.

The scientific consensus is clearly expressed in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Created in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environmental Programme, IPCC's purpose is to evaluate the state of climate science as a basis for informed policy action, primarily on the basis of peer-reviewed and published scientific literature (3). In its most recent assessment, IPCC states unequivocally that the consensus of scientific opinion is that Earth's climate is being affected by human activities: "Human activities ... are modifying the concentration of atmospheric constituents ... that absorb or scatter radiant energy. ... [M]ost of the observed warming over the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations" [p. 21 in (4)].

Answer 5

the thing the whole green house warming thing is just a theory we have no way of knowing the planets long term weather system it may true or this may have happen every x amount of years and if the sun is heating up it is going super nova and bot are we in trouble

Answer 6

Over the last 100 yrs we've increased temp. by .5 degrees on ave. That's not much but we are in one of the upswing cycles so it feels a lot more. We'll prob be a few degrees cooler than normal a few years from now.

Answer 7

It is the normal cycle of the planet. For more factual information visit www.CO2science.com.

Answer 8

Oh yes...There is a big hole in the ozone layer that is letting the extra sun light in!

Answer 9

Cows,man. Cows.

Answer 10

Green house gases and the ozone layer has a hole in it. The emissions [carbon dioxide] more autobiles, industries. Global warmings and thanks to Bush!

Answer 11

The devil 's wife was baking and forgot to turn the oven off.