Global warming?

Question

I've already read some of the comments made on this issue already. Some say that humans are causing it and others say it may be natural.

Global Warming is happening, but is it worth taking the risk to do nothing? It's better to at least do something rather than regretting it in the future. Why can't George Bush just understand this?

Answer 1

Something has to be done, and very soon/quickly, to prevent traumatic climate disturbances becoming more prevalent and/or all pervading.

I too can't see why GB and other world leaders are not doing anything more about it. People are not going to change their habits unless strong leadership guides them, and it's just not happening.

Instead of a crazy rush for sustained economic growth and profits for the small minority, we should be changing our priorities. Instead of "power down" we are going for a "last man standing" scenario.

Crazy, and sad. What a waste.

Answer 2

It's absolutely not worth ignoring it.

We're the most enlightened species on the planet but we're still not seeing the big picture. We're scrabbling about to burn more oil, more gas, more coal, purely so we can have things NOW. We cut down trees and we don't plant any more. We destroy species that can never be replaced. We overfish the seas, destroying our own food supplies. We spray our food with chemicals which we then eat. We take and take from our planet and we don't give anything back.

I've read evidence for and against global warming, some people think we're getting hotter, some cooler, and some think we're just fine. I think we should act and become carbon neutral - at least then we know if there is some global disaster we didn't cause it!

I can't say what's going to happen in the future (my crystal ball is only picking up the Disney Channel at the moment) I only know that our attitudes must change. We could be damaging our planet and we don't care. This attitude is reflected everywhere in our society - never mind global crimes like war, what about the everyday crime on the street? Murder, rape, abduction, blackmail, the list goes on. As a species we haven't exactly embraced the dream of civilisation, we're still everyone for themselves - survival of the fittest.

Perhaps Bush understands this, but he's a politician. He needs to get quick wins to stay in power. He isn't going to promise anything that will drive big businesses to China or India. Neither is any other politician who'll get into power. He's a crook but he's not the only one to blame.

I don't want to end on a negative note, so... we can't keep pretending everything is just fine. Every time someone says 'it's not my problem' they make the problem worse. We have to take responsibility, make an effort and accept that the solutions don't come easy. It will be hard, but if we get it right, it will be worth it in the end.

Answer 3

Here's the facts. Ignore our good old buddy Mr Bush for the time being and lets look at the real issue. Climate change is a natural process, there are too many influences to talk about here. One of the main ones in my mind are Milankovitch, apologies if this is mis-spelt, cycles. These are cycles in which the earth is closer to sun, different orbits around the sun etc. (for more info use the net) so understandably be have no influence over these cycles. Humans have only increase the effects of global warming, by pumping co2 and other such gases into the atmosphere. If you search for 'Marine/Oxygen isotope' curves you will come up with a strange looking wiggly line graph. This demonstrates what the levels of different types of carbon and oxygen have been in the atmosphere through the recorded time(through fossilised benthic organisms), you will find that the changes have happened for many thousands of years.

I agree that something should be done but it has to be a global effort. The Kyoto agreement, in part, was succesful but policies on this scale take far too long for any action to be taken. The biggest worry is not the USA with their 6 litre V8's but it is the Chinese! The are using millions of tonnes of coal a week! far more dangerous than unleaded petrol.

In summary climate change is natural, were making it worse and more should be done today rather than tomorrow when we all have moved to the most northern land masses.

Answer 4

The truth is, at this stage, we just don't know.

The first thing that must be pointed out is that the Earth is *not* a stable environment. Its climate has *always* changed, constantly, throughout its history. The question is; is the climate change we are now experiencing normal, or is it something we should be worried about?

The dire predictions being made are based on global climate models. These models are no better than the ones used by the weather man at the end of the news to tell you what the weather will be like tomorrow. Do you believe what he tells you? Well, you probably do for tomorrow, but what about next week? Or next month? Next year? I doubt it. But we are expected to believe what the global warming alarmists are telling us the weather will be doing in 100 years!

Now, these models *may* be absolutely spot on, but how do we know unless we wait to find out? We need to sit back and watch them for at least 10 years, feeding in the current CO2 levels and other factors (but, importantly, not letting the makers "massage" the figures to make them mimic the real results). If these models accurately reflect what the real world does, then we can accept them as an accurate prediction of what's going to happen.

Sadly, I believe that, over time, these models will become more and more inaccurate until they are wildly off the mark.

Personally, I'm still perched firmly on the fence.

So, my question is...

Should we spend many billions of pounds on something that may not turn out to be a problem at all?

Answer 5

It's a combination of both theories. The plates of the earth are constantly moving and shifting and this obviously has an impact but The Industrial age of human life is not helping. The temperature of the earth is apparently hotter than it was during the age of the dinosaurs. Who knows how they know this, soil samples maybe. Also, a fact not commonly known is that every 13 yrs, the south and north poles swap places. It means that magnetic fields and being broken up and moved across the earth. It would explain the strange weather we had during the strat of the year. There are so many so-called experts spouting off on TV, so many that, it really doesn't matter. The people will adapt like they always have. Some scientist believe that the risk of skin cancer will not rise with the temperatures, that human skin will adapt to the environmental changes, just the first people from Africa arrived in the colder north, they could just revert. Who knows, the world is getting more multicultural anyway so, it's nothing to worry about as long as you're not in a hotspot. Check out the tectonic plates on an atlas before you go on holiday somewhere hot, that's all.

Answer 6

Argh. So much ignorance.

First: Those who assert that we cannot possibly affect the planet because it is too big are sadly ignorant. The planet is astonishingly small in that respect. A simple example is overfishing, or algal blooms, or deforestation. We've destroyed a fifth of the world's forests in the period between 1960 and 1990; QED. An even better example from our PREHISTORY: we hunted the woolly mammoth, and most other large mammals, to extinction.

Second: There ARE natural causes for warming, but the warming trend observed in the latter half of the twentieth century CANNOT be explained by these factors alone without including the influence of man-made greenhouse gases. There is a good deal of sound science establishing this fact; you can read about it in the report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), available here: http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/reports.htm People who suggest this is merely natural variation are incorrect; the fact that there have been previous drastic climate changes does not mean that the modern changes are due to natural variation, and this question is amenable to scientific inquiry. Such inquiry has been made, if you're willing to read about it, and the results are clear: we are responsible for the observed warming trend.

Third: We can, of course, correct our behavior. We very much depend on a stable climate for our survival and comfort, and the effects on our lives would be immense if we do not make efforts to do something about it. George Bush is perhaps too short-sighted to see this, and I think most politicians are too bound by the constraints of corporations (that is, short-term profits) to really show any kind of vision in this regard. Too bad.

Answer 7

We don't have a clear answer on this yet.
Plenty of speculation on both sides of the fence.
What is certain is we need to rethink many things we take for granted.
If there is even the slightest chance we are causing the planet to die, then surely that is enough.

We need to collectively seek out the truth and act on it.

We are not able, seemingly, to come together over anything.

Most people hate change, giving up anything for no immediate gain.
Its called greed, but its far deeper than that.
Greed is merely a symptom.

We will only act when the sea water is in our houses.
Until then its an over there problem.

Global warming, if its true and it most likely is! Is also a symptom.

Time to seek out the underlining cause.

Answer 8

The problem is a geo-economical problem. Mr. Bush is not this evil man that is sitting behind a desk and trying to destroy the earth with his wicked plans. I think it is crazy that some people actually believe this while on the same token, these same people believe that Al Gore is an "environmental saint". Al Gore, a man who practically runs Occidental Petroleum.

If you want to make a difference, do something in your own community! Don't just point a finger at the "bad man" and blame the problems on him. Stop taking the red-eye flights and stinking up our atmosphere. Stop buying cheap junk from China and rewarding the extra pollution it takes to produce it. Purchase a vehicle with good mileage if you need one at all. Recycle your junk. Use less things. Ultimately, the economy is going to drive what and how the society changes their habits but you are in charge of making a difference now.

Answer 9

Sorry to break it to you, but global warming is a myth. Sadly, many people beleive it. Just because you have a really hot summer one place, there may be an especially cold winter another. Are SOME of the polar icecaps melting? Yes, but they are steadily growing other places.

You know all that C02 we release into our atmosphere that trap in the heat? The same processes also release other substances that deflect light, cooling the Earth down. Research shows that 200 years ago, the Earth was significantly hotter! Perhaps we have caused the Earth to cool down. Finally, when the Earth's overall temperature is measured with satellites, the temperature has not made a discernible change.

I hope I answered your question.

Answer 10

Even if Bush comes on side and we all do our bit, it won't make a blind bit of difference, the emerging super economy's of China and India will dwarf our total demand for decades to come. Who believes they will stifle their own progress, just because the West now says that the very things they have been doing for the last hundred+ years, are now taboo. The planet does cycle in and out of ice ages, that's not in dispute, but, the conditions created by man including de-forestation, may make in a long road back from the next one.

Answer 11

Global Warming: the increased atmospheric temperatures rount the Earth are due to the ENHANCED greenhouse effect.
That definition implies Global Warming is natural, but the natural BALANCE is being upset with the release of greenhouse gases.
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Greenhouse Gases: gases that allow short-wave radiation from the sun to be transmitted to the Earth's surface but delay or prevent long-wave radiation from the ground leaving the atmosphere.
So, with more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere radiation from the Earth isnt escaping...increasing temperatures slightly.
This is all part of the greehouse effect.
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Greenhouse Effect: NATURAL effect of a layer of gases that causes the the Earth's atmosphere to be about 33c degrees warmer than it would be otherwise.

Thankyou all.