What is causing global warming?

Question

Is it natural causes, man made, or something else?

Answer 1

you have to look at it two ways, 100 years ago was the last time new york did not have any measurable snow, so is it a pattern or is it that now there is a 25 square mile chunk of ice broke off in northern Canada, which is huge, is this all a pattern or is it global warming causing this? and are we responsible for the global warming or is it because we are coming out of an ice age still? its all confusing, if we stop now will it really help or is the damage done? to answer, are we the cause? i have no idea and I'm sure no one else does for a fact either..............welcome to the 21st century, have a good day.

Answer 2

The climate system varies both through natural, "internal" processes as well as in response to variations in external "forcing" from both human and non-human causes, including solar activity, volcanic emissions, and greenhouse gases. Climatologists agree that the earth has warmed recently. The detailed causes of this change remain an active field of research, but the scientific consensus identifies greenhouse gases as the primary cause of the recent warming. Outside of the scientific community, however, this conclusion can be controversial.

Adding carbon dioxide (CO2) or methane (CH4) to Earth's atmosphere, with no other changes, will make the planet's surface warmer; greenhouse gases create a natural greenhouse effect without which temperatures on Earth would be an estimated 30 °C (54 °F) lower, and the Earth uninhabitable. It is therefore not correct to say that there is a debate between those who "believe in" and "oppose" the theory that adding carbon dioxide or methane to the Earth's atmosphere will, absent any mitigating actions or effects, result in warmer surface temperatures on Earth. Rather, the debate is about what the net effect of the addition of carbon dioxide and methane will be, when allowing for compounding or mitigating factors.

One example of an important feedback process is ice-albedo feedback. The increased CO2 in the atmosphere warms the Earth's surface and leads to melting of ice near the poles. As the ice melts, land or open water takes its place. Both land and open water are less reflective than ice, and so absorb more solar radiation. This causes more warming, which in turn causes more melting, and the cycle continues.

Due to the thermal inertia of the earth's oceans and slow responses of other indirect effects, the Earth's current climate is not in equilibrium with the forcing imposed by increased greenhouse gases. Climate commitment studies indicate that, even if greenhouse gases were stabilized at present day levels, a further warming of perhaps 0.5 °C to 1.0 °C (0.9–1.8 °F) would still occur.

You could get more information from the link below...

Answer 3

natural causes + man made.... Thier are parts of nature that cause the earth to warm up and thier are man made things that cause it... The biggest contributer is are power generators these include anything like a power plant down to stuff like cars ect... They turn a fule sorce into electrical power with the by product of lots of heat and Co2 along with some other gasses and in neuclear reactors case radiation. Also they create magnetic fields that mess with the earths own magnetic field and possibly cause damage to the earths magnetic core even. If you think of our earth as a battery and the generators we build on its surface as AC voltage we are actualy trying to short circet the earth in a way... Not a good idea and we would be wise to switch to DC voltage power generation like solar cells asap. I presonaly believe we are turning the earth into a lightning rod for the sun in a way although I cant prove that itll act that way with such long distances. But given enoth AC voltage it very well could be that way.

Answer 4

We are. Virtually everything man creates; moves; builds; processes; and destroys- contributes to Global Warming. And the more people we "create", the WORSE the problem is going to get... We're creating our own "Hell", one global warming degree at a time...

Answer 5

If it is man made then the anti nuclear environmentalists caused it.

Answer 6

greenhouse gasses cause it, an exaple is exhaust from a car or several tons of carbon manoxide (i think) from a volcano eruption, if you want more information try searching it on wikipedia.com

Answer 7

man made of course

Answer 8

air pollution and ozone leak... freon and all that stuff... but, yeah, people...:(