Global warming...?

Question

I've been hearing all this stuff about global warming. how it's messing the earth up. also how the world is coming closer and closer to an end. i was watching the news. they said because f the icecaps and glaciers emlting, its could cause floods. also, its going to get really hot. I hate hot weather. I mean the scientists say this stuff as if they're not even worried about the people. I mean am i he only one freaked out about this? THE WORLD MIGHT BE AT ITS END. im really worried and is there a way we could actually try to prevent this or atleast make it better?

Answer 1

In the mid seventies there were a great many respected scientists that theorized that the earth was approaching a new ice-age. (Dennis Miller recently held up an old Time magazine warning of an impending ice age on the Tonight Show) Some of these same scientists are now jumping on the global warming theory. It doesn't mean that they are wrong, it just makes one wonder. If either one of these theories were to come to pass it would be a grave situation, but not the end of the world. It's difficult to prove global warming because the earth is billions of years old, and we only have a handful of years of collected data on worldwide temperatures. A rise in temperature may indicate global warming, or it may simply be a phase that the earth goes through every once in a while. We don't know. I wouldn't suggest anyone start to panic just yet.

Answer 2

There are tons of people and resources out there that will tell you how we can make this better.

The truth of the matter is that this world has gone through several periods of warming and cooling over time. Al Gore will tell you that the last 14 years have produced the 10 hottest years in recorded history. That sounds scary ... but it isn't a valid sample size. If you look deep enough into our history you'll see that this kind of stuff happened without humans pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

What should we do??? More research into what has happened in the past and what is the real cause. I heard recently that Greenland was actually green when the vikings found it ... interesting and it is something we should definitely look into.

But I'm not trying to knock conservation efforts. I'm just saying that some of the theories about humans killing the glaciers don't add up. We should all be active in conservation ... for many different reasons.

Answer 3

From 1931 to 1939 the temperature was hotter than it is now. Sone of the highest temperatures ever recorded was in 1936. It got so hot and dry that the Midwest dried up and blew away. The eastern states was covered in a dust cloud. Al Gore hadn’t invented global warming so they called it the “ GREAT DUST BOWL. “ Have anyone seen the Midwest coming by your door?

Don't fall for all the global warming doom and gloom stories. Man has been predicting environmental doom for decades. Remember Erlich's Population Bomb. The world was supposed to be plunged into worldwide famine back in the 80's. Billions were supposed to die off because the planet could not sustain us. Did it happen? Al Gore claims to be an expert but never presents factual scientific evidence to support his claims.

No less than 4 times in the past century has the media sounded the alarm about climate change. First it was global cooling, then global warming, then cooling again, now warming again. Do you sense a pattern here? We go through cooling and warming cycles, and the media jumps on it and tries to scare the hell out of us. The global temperature has been cooling since 1998. In about 10-15 more years, the alarmist media will notice that we are going through another cooling cycle, and sound the alarm again about global cooling.

Also realize that some 'greenies' want to limit the use of fuels to inhibit 'green house gases' - this means that coal and petroleum will not be allowed. Yet they don't propose any alternatives. Nearly all the electrical energy produced in this country is generated by coal and fossil fuels.

The current plans of the extreme environmentalist will destroy the economy and liveable conditions in this country. Yet, there is no attempt to make China and India reduce carbon emissions, just the current industrialized nations, especially the USA. China and India are two of the greatest polluters.
Is the climate changing, yes, do we know why? Probably not, because ever time a true scientist presents research that the greenies disagree with or it doesn't fit their agenda, attempts are made to discredit the scientist and his research.

Answer 4

Calm down. Calm down. I am a scientist currently working towards my Doctorate in Physics. I do not, and never have, worked for any industrial corporation or environmental organization. I spent several years working for an organization known as "the medical equivalent of Consumer Reports". I possess no loyalties to any side of a debate except those based on logical, rational, verifiable facts.

Why the CV? Just so no one can accuse me of one particular bias or another (and to establish that I, unlike some other individuals, actually understand what I talk about):

So, let us engage in a crash course on the Earth's temperature.

Since the 1850's, Earth temperature has increased. No reasonable individual disagrees with this statement (Especially, since records consistently bare it out as fact).

The "Industrial Revolution" really took off in the late 19th century (NB: after the world began warming). The timing of this "Revolution" means claims the "Industrial Revolution" has caused global warming are, prima facia, false.

From 1300 to 1850, the world experienced what climatologists call "The Little Ice Age". When an Ice Age ends, what happens? The planet warms. No problem. The world experienced several Ice Ages before today, each of which ended and preceded a subsequent warming period, followed again by another Ice Age. These changes happen as sure as Winter follows Summer follows Winter follows Summer...

So, the world warmed over the last century and a half. Is any of the warming due to human activity? No one knows for certain. (NB:While no debate exists over the fact the world has warmed up, substantial doubt exists how much human activity has contributed to it. This distinction is a vital one to remember because someone surely will try to convince you that "everybody agrees" the warming must come from human activity. But, that claim would be inaccurate.) In 2006, ~65 climatologists wrote to the Canadian Prime Minister, asking for funding to study the *causes* of global warming (as compared to the potential *effects* we often hear about).

As a physicist, however, I can show "greenhouse gases" can not reasonably lead to global warming: The premise of the theory is that energy (light) from the sun reaches the Earth's surface and finds itself trapped by such gases, preventing the heat (infrared light) from radiating into space. Ask anyone with experience with polarizers (such as photographers and physicists) and they will tell you, if light cannot pass through a medium in one direction, it won't pass through the other way either. So, if the sun's heat (infrared light) that the Earth tries to radiate cannot pass through the atmosphere to do so, it would not have been able to pass through the atmosphere to reach the Earth in the first place.

Since we know the sun's heat (IR light) does reach the Earth enough to warm the planet, the atmosphere must also allow the IR light to radiate out.

Also, the Wall Street Journal reported recently that computer models show, even if all human production of greenhouse gases stopped immediately and never resumed again, the "thermal savings" with respect to global warming would amount to 0.1 Fahrenheit degree over the next 100 to 150 years (not a significant amount).

Lastly, though the exact citation escapes my memory at this moment, a recent study has shown, that while greenhouse gases continue to increase in concentration in the atmosphere, the planet has slowly cooled off some, adding further confusion to the debate.

In any event, relax. The universe contains numerous regulators to provide us sufficient time to determine how much humans collectively contribute to global warming. If you still feel worried, take the opportunity to set an example for all of us by voluntarily practicing the environmentally emphasized behaviors you think help (adopt a highway, buy recycled, organize a voluntary can collection in your neighborhood, etc.). The actions most worthwhile will catch on with others and provide the world with whatever "environmental insurance" they provide.

Answer 5

First, relax and stop panicing. Nothing one person does will significantly change Global Climate. Thier have been four Ice Ages in the history of the planet. All four Ice Ages ended. The end of each Ice Age could have been considered done by "Global Warming". People were not around to have influenced any of these four Ice Ages demise, yet they did end. Their are cycles in the heating and cooling of our planet. I will not denige that Human kind has greatly affected the planet. No one person has done this. Collectively, we have increased the CO2 and CO in the air. But even with the increase, it is measured in Parts Per Million or Parts Per Billion. As for your worries that the world will end. It will not end. The world has been here for billions of years and will be here for billions more. The ultimate destruction of this planet will happen when our Sun goes SuperNova and fries every planet from Mars inward. Their is nothing anyone can do about that. No one alive today will have children or grandchildren who wil have to endure that. That will happen millions of years from now. It is certainly a good idea to be more consciensious about the resources we consume and to try to be as effecient as possible. Will my not using a light bulb affect Global Warming ? No. Will 6 billion lightbulbs not being used affect it? maybe. The important thing about Global Warming is not the histaria which people place on it, but the shift to sustainable resources. The Oil will run out one day. We need to plan and prepare for that now, before it happens. Is it a crisis right now? NO. Will it be 100 or 200 years from now? yes. We have time. Lets use it wisely and not be paniced about it.

Answer 6

The first thing you should do is research. There are many people arguing about how/when/where this is happening. I believe that the earth is going through a natural cycle that is being aggravated by our pollution. Search the Internet with key words: climate change, sea level rise, glacier melt. If we all do our part to cut back on pollution and share the scientific data we read with our friends and family, perhaps we can slow down the cycle. I have been overwhelmed with depressing information about this. However, I still want to make an effort to help in any way I can. I want to support the people who can help on a larger scale. Yes, this is depressing; but if we all work together we might be able to fix some of our mistakes/problems.

Answer 7

Hi,
Not wanting to get too much involved, I notice some portions of Linlyons critique of Winkerbean's post which I feel require a counter-critique.

First, for more complete coverage of Global Warming than I could hope to provide here, I direct readers' attentions to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_controversy.

Secondly, for a partial list of Scientists who question the human causes of global warming, may I suggest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_skeptic?

Returning to the points raised that caught my attention:

Linlyons wrote:
<<< 2006 was the warmest year yet.

No, it wasn't. 2006 was the 6th warmest on record: See http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn10800-2006-was-earths-sixth-warmest-year-on-record.html. The records at the US National Climate Data Center show the warmest year on record was 1998, with a slight cooling trend since then.

However, I readily will admit that 1 decade or either warming or cooling does not provide a long enough period of time to make an accurate prediction with respect to what will happen over the course of a century or millennium.

If anyone really wants to examine climatology over a small period over time and a small geographic area (not that I consider such anecdotal evidence to carry significant weight) we could consider the fact the US Northeast current finds itself in a a "winter heat wave" while Anchorage, Alaska just received record snow fall. The total area of Antarctica Ice shelves are shrinking, but the total volume of ice is increasing (Check the Washington Post, New York Times and USAToday if you don't believe that one). The ozone hole currently remains near record size while England finds itself in record cold temperatures not seen in over a century. My point: This climate stuff at any given moment is a mix-mash of variation at best and mind-boggling at worst.

Linlyons wrote:
<<< while the race would survive if an ice age were to come along,
<<< there would likely be a 50%+ decrease in population. it may be
<<< that you'd like to volunteer your children.

Before anyone starts a potentially distracting use of raw emotion in response to logic to win debates, I must ask, where did this '50%+' statistic come from? Particularly, what sources give this number and how did they come to their conclusions? For example, if they simply said, "What if the world plunged to -40 degree temperatures every day for a century?" I would find the conclusions drawn by it vastly unreasonable. If, instead, they asked "What if the planet cooled over a period of, say, 30 years to -40 degrees and remained their every day for a century?" I could grant more credence to the statistic.

As a parallel, if the world's population tripled overnight, we would experience massive famine and overcrowding. But such an event requires biological capabilities never before seen in humans. So, we can discount the conclusions drawn from that particular scenario. On the other proverbial hand, if the world's population continues to increase at whatever rate occurs naturally (that is, biologically), the laws of economics show the population will never exceed the planet's capability to support life for any significant amount of time. As soon as the population exceeds the Earth's "maximum occupancy limit", people will die until we return below that limit.

So, while it can be to engage in hypotheticals, we need to make sure we deal with reasoned and/or realistic ones, first.

Answer 8

Well, i come from Malaysia, i think there is a impact of global warming. Recently, there was a serious flood which happen in a whole state(Johore). It is located in the south part. Flood has never happen before here. Now, climate has change and disasters occur everywhere. In oder to prevent global warming, what we can do is to reduce the carbon dioxide and other industrial gases to atmosphere. We have to stop deforestation,i think deforestation is the major factor contribute to global warming.More trees are required to absorp the carbon dioxide. And, we can not burn rubbish everywhere.We have to be more environment friendly, please recycle as much as possible.

Answer 9

There are tons of ways to at least try. Big, effective change has to come on the parts of nations, but the US doesn't really want to jump on that train for some reason. It "isn't in our economic interest." If you think about it, though, preserving the Earth is in our long-term interest. We should be quickly developing new engines that create no emissions, creating products with less packaging that is more recyclable, recycling what we can, driving less and relying more on public transportation, etc etc.

As a person without much influence on larger political policies though, there is plenty you can do to start. Recycle what you can, don't use what you don't have to, drive less, combine trips to the store, ride a bike if feasable, carpool, turns lights off. Not only will many of these suggestions help to preserve this precious and very limited Earth, but it will save you money as well :)

Answer 10

Everyone was worried about an ice age in the 70's. Now it's global warming. In 30 years it will be an ice age again. The world changes beyond our control. We should just sit back and enjoy.