What is your opinion of these global warming facts?

Question

In the last 100 years the average global temperature has increased by less than a single degree Celsius.

Between 1940 and about 1980, the average global temperature decreased.

The average global temperature today is NOT as high as it has ever been. The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum event 55 million years ago caused sea temperatures to increase by up to 8 degrees Celsius, leading to mass extinctions.

Here are the data:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Instrumental_Temperature_Record.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:2000_Year_Temperature_Comparison.png
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f5/All_palaeotemps.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleocene-Eocene_thermal_maximum

Answer 1

I respect the facts for what they are, but I don't believe that means we shouldn't concern ourselves with global warming. Many in the scientific community claim that we humans have accelerated the cycle, and that might be endangering our planet. Maybe it is....maybe it isn't. But wouldn't be better to stay on the side of caution than to simply ignore the issue? -RKO-

Answer 2

The weather that occurs in any one or several years is irrelevant. I think the consensus of global warming is based on observed factors such as increase in ocean temperature, melting of ice caps, carbon dioxide in the air, methane production, water vapor increases -- and the activities of mankind, which without a doubt contribute to all of these things and will undoubtedly continue to do so. We are producing more carbon dioxide, water vapor and methane all the time.
Although your point that weather patterns are cyclic is certainly true, so are the factors I have mentioned. An average temperature increase of a few degrees would be catastrophic and to argue that there is NO global warming could be suicidal.
Periodic temperature changes have been charted and the temperature fluctuates greatly over hundreds of years. That hasn't prevented Global Warming and Ice Ages in the past. We need to be more sensitive to what our planet is telling us.

Answer 3

It's an established scientific fact that the Earth is (slowly) getting warmer. But it is FAR from firmly established how much it will warm up in the future, what effects (good or bad) will ensue, and what is causing it to warm up.
The furor over global warming is mostly politically driven. We need more scientific knowledge before taking any drastic actions to try to correct a problem that may not really be a problem or something we can correct.

Answer 4

Regardless of what you believe the effects will be, we are putting things into the air we breathe that are not healthy for us. That alone should be enough cause for concern.

There have been certain events in the history of earth where the climate had suddenly changed. These events usually coincided with an event that propelled many aerosols into our atmosphere.

So it's pretty basic:

more aerosols in atmosphere = drastic climate change

Answer 5

The world is certainly warming up, I think its nothing to do with man pumping stuff in the atmosphere because the world weather pattern moves in cycles and we my be heading toward another ice age. All the ice caps are melting and to much fresh water in the sea that when the ice age well start probably nothing like the Day After Tomorrow.

Answer 6

Global warming is rather well established as a "fact" by the scientific community. There are few credible scientists that dispute the data that warming is occurring--and that we still have a narrow window of opportunity to stop the warming.

Answer 7

Mohter Nature is full of cycles. Ice Age to worldwide tropical environment is one of them. It jsut takes a very long time. We are seeing a warming trend that has been in the works for a very long time. It has been acelerated by our industrial waste, but we merely accelerated (GREATLY) what whould have taken a few hundred years longer to happen.
There are people making money off it. I recently bought substantioal amounts of land in the Midwest, just in time for them to start increasing in value. For 3 yrs I've been trying to tell people about hte hurricane cycles & that we were in for some rough hurricane seasons in the next few years. Everyone I spoke w/ laughed at me, including a freind who moved to Galveston last Spring. He lost his shirt, as well as his life's savings. Now he won't even talk to me.
The predictions I've seen sum up to say that AZ/NV w/ become Sahara-like.... look at the real estate booms in those states. Those people are in for a world of financial hurt! SoCal (where I live) is suposed to become AZ/NV like, although I wonder if it won't go more tropical. The oceans are projecte dto rise between 5 & 15 ft... and we're going to rebuild New Orleans????? What is the elevation of hte highest point in FL? Most of it, I'm sure, w/be under water. The coastal states w/ spend Billions of $$ to preserve the coastlines, & fail. Why? Who owns those Zillion$$ mansions on the coasts? I'm clearing out of Calif & won't hold land in any coastal state. I don't feel the need to pay to protect the homes of Zillionaires. Let them pay for it themselves. If they can afford to buy it, they can afford to protect it. The oceans will get warmer, w/ a larger surface area, I would think would put more moisture in the air. Many places are recording record precipitation.
There is money to be made in Global Warming, & don't think people aren't. BUT I still have a 5K photovoltic system on my house in SoCal & I'm putting in solar powered water pumps on the farm in Missouri. To raise grass fed/finished beef. We can all do our part by living w/ a smaller footprint on the earth. You don't need a hair dryer, or new car, or fancy clothes. Live simply & tread lightly on the earth.
"The future belongs to the person who sees it 1st." I look to the future by studying the past. As my sig line says, "Maybe the reason History repeats itself so often is that No one listened the 1st time."

Answer 8

I've studied forensic meterology and believe we are writing our own books
due to the nature of things we are doing on earth. A-bombs deforestration,
manmade pollutants etc., you get the picture.

Answer 9

It's been a hot summer so people will believe what they want to believe. I don't know if global warming is real or not, but one hot summer is not enough to convince me.

Answer 10

NOT TO GOOD FOR THE PLANET.