why do you think some say global warming is "debatable"?

Question

I just don't understand why some think it is not "true" when Greenland has lost 6 MILES of permafrost in 4 YEARS!

FYI - THIS IS NOT MEANT TO BE AN ARGUMENT, SO LETS NOT BE RUDE ABOUT IT, PLEASE. OUR WAY AS PEOPLE IS TO QUESTION EVERYTHING, BUT IN THE PROCESS, MAY I PLEASE STATE THAT I DO MORE ABOUT THE SITUATION THAN MOST I KNOW, OR WILL EVER KNOW! I THANK / RESPECT EVERYONE FOR THEIR THOUGHT / IDEALS AND EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO FREE THOUGHT, BUT CAN WE LEAVE THE ATTITUDE OUT OF DISCUSSION PLEASE??? Thank you for submitting an answer/idea.

Answer 1

Unless someone is totally disconnected from reality, or has an interest in denying the evidence (Does "Irak has weapons of mass destruction" ring a bell?) there is very little debate about the reality of the warming.
What is still unknown, and can be the object of a real debate, is if human activities are the primary cause of the warming, as there were cycles of such warming in the past. 125000 years ago, the temperature level was about the same as it is now, and burning coal and gas was not really in fashion back then. CO2 is a greenhouse gas, but its influence is much less than that of water vapour.
And I actually would be more worried if human activities were not the primary cause of global warming, because then we cannot stop doing what we are *not* really doing to stop it, and the warming up will keep going no matter what.

Answer 2

You can (that is if you care to look) find just as many scientists who do not believe in global warming as you can (and seem to have) find whom support that hypothesis and that is exactly what it is a hypothesis. The earth has naturally occurring warming and cooling cycles that it goes through we are in the midst of a warming trend remember 6 miles of permafrost is bubkis compared to the loss of permafrost that occurred at the end of the last ice age. And by the way what caused that warming? It sure wasn't humans we could not change the global climate by a single degree even it we deliberately tried so don't wring your hands or worry your head about it it isn't our problem and there isn't anything we can do to start or stop the cycle.

Answer 3

Global warming, meaing the fact that the average temperature of the earth has increased during the last 200 years, is not debatable and anyone who says it is obviously is not looking at the data.

What is debatable is the cause, where it will all end up, and what if anything should be done about it. These questions are debatable because there are many possible answers and none are especially well supported by observations.

Answer 4

Think the climate change denyers are the people with something to lose financially if we change the way we live. Some people have been concerned about rising temperatures and climate anomalies for at least the past twenty five years but the subject is not popular with the media who represent these people who are in denial. For anyone who actively watches nature and the changes from year to year there can be no denial. The human population has never been at the figures it is now which is probably why our planet is no longer able to support our numbers and the way we exploit it. We will need to work together and make changes if we are to survive.

Answer 5

I agree with Matahari. Global warming since the advent of the Industrial Revolution is a fact. Global warming since the end of the Wisconsonian Stage of the Pleistocene Epoch is also a fact. The first has been going on for about 300 years. The second has been going on for about 11,000 years. Do you miss the glaciers in Wisconsin? The answer is that scientists do know why the Earth is going back to its normal temperature, but the fact is that ice, even at the polar regions, is rare in the history of the Earth.

Answer 6

Global warming is a theory, and a theory can not be proven. There is very strong evidence to support global warming, but it is the role of science to questions everything. Don't forget that at one time everyone thought that the earth was flat. That said, global warming is occurring. The reason why it is occurring is debatable.

There are many other reasons why people don't believe it:
1) greed. If you make money selling SVU's then you won't believe it since that will affect sales.
2) ignorance. Too many people make decision based on a very small bit of information.

Answer 7

4 years is such a short amount of time to use to judge when the earth has been around for millions. It's like looking at a stock, from looking at a line chart with increments on the x axis representing years, the stock might appear to be steadily going up, but if you zoom in on it you'll see that it's zig zaggin all over the place. Industrial/heavy polution society has been around for such a short period of time so far that no one can really say whether or not the slight increase in temperature is just an ordinary "zig zag" or a general trend in warmer temperatures. Also remember we haven't even been recording such things for a significant amount of time in comparison to the large scale.

Answer 8

Here's a better question: Why do people constantly feel the need to start arguments on Yahoo Answers about things like global warming, evolution, and the moon landings, etc?
If you are so concerned with global warming then do something about it or ask a question about what you can do about it. What good is starting a fight?

Answer 9

Same people who say the holocaust did not happen. There are a lot of ignorant people in the world and it is in your best interest to surround yourself with people who are not among them.

By the way, I am with George Carlin on the earth issue. He said that for all we know the earth created man just so we would invent black plastic garbage bags and disposable diapers and styrofome and that if there was any possibility that human beings and their legacy could have any genuine or potentially lasting negative on the health of the planet, then the earth would shake us off like a bunch of fleas or a bad cold. Planets are living breathing beings, powerful beyond our ability to comprehend.

Kind of makes you wonder about the cataclysmic end of the dinasaurs, doesn't it? Wonder what they did to piss off the earth?

Answer 10

My name is Rafael Lomena. I write from Alicante (Spain). I am independent investigator on the Accelerated Global Heating and want to share with all something that can turn out from interest to fight this phenomenon.
I believe that the main cause of the Accelerated Global Heating is in the great and increasing forest fires that are whipping to the planet in the last years.
My complete report is in: http://inicia.es/de/rlv/clim.htm...
If they do not understand the Spanish they can use the automatic translator that will find in the main page of site:
http://inicia.es/de/rlv
Thanks to all.
(* This message has been translated with a translation software)