Is global warming for real or just political B.S.?

Answer 1

CO2 is not the cause of global warming. Go measure it . U will find 1 to 2 parts per million. Mother nature took care of this problem a few million years ago,when she introduced the plants. Plants take in CO2 and the plants keep the C and give us back the O2 . That is why CO2 is so much lower when u measure it beside than calculate what u want it to be. So CO2 is not a problem and never will. O buy the way look to measure it right on the ground as CO2 is very heavy .

Answer 2

Actually the temperature of the earth has increased less than 7/10 of 1 degree (C) from 1880 to 2005. That is an increase of about 1 degree (F) in 125 years. You may choose to believe that is global warming or you may not. Here is a link taking you to a NASA chart showing that temperature chart. http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2005/2005cal_fig1.gif There are numerous charts all over the internet showing the same. Some say that 1 degree is enough to impact the global climate, others say it's not. Most proponents of global warming think the earth's temerature has risen much higher than that and don't even know that it has only risen by 1 degree. But the charts do not lie as do the proponents on both sides of this issue.

Back in the '70s all the hype was about global COOLING and another ice age was coming. I remember that they blamed pollution for that too. They said that all the pollution was darkening the skies and not as much sun was coming through so the earth was cooling off. It took several years but they discovered that they were mistaken. So when someone says, "the sky is falling" don't believe everything you hear on either side of the issue. There are Spin Doctors galore out there.

Most of the time people will form an opinion and not really be informed about the subject with which they become so opinionated about. So it's best that you not form your opinions from other's opinions, (as in this forum) but on the facts presented.

Learn more about the '70s global cooling here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_cooling
I hope that helps...

Answer 3

I think it is very real. Just consider these facts, which are some of many:
- Now, in January, France is experiencing summer temeratures - people go sunbathing and even swimming in the open. In the middle of the winter! It is said that it's been the hottest winter in Europe for the last 100 years.
- Around New Year's Eve there a massive iceberg broke from the Canadian ice shield - it's surface is 64 sq. kms, the largest ever
-Scientists claim that the ice melting on the poles is already under way and has become irreversible for the foreseeable future.
-The Scandinavian countries have become so hot in the last decade that icecream is now very popular and its market growth is far above the average
- The frozen lakes and soil in Siberia are also melting and even in winter they do not freeze again already

These are just few facts about global warming. Everyone can feel it. It is already happening and the US and China are at the moment the primary driving forces behind it with their almost uncontrolled fossil fuels consumption. The US alone is responsible for more than 25 % of the greenhouse gases, causing the global warming.

Answer 4

yeah, agree with the above. there is no doubt that the earth IS warming up over the last 100 years or so and temepratures just keep climbing. there is also consensus that this is the most rapid climb in temps since the ice age. it also seems that this climb is responsible for some climactic changes and the rather catastrophic and freak weather behaviour recently (tsunamis, hurricanes, etc). HOWEVER the temp climb has been a matter of 1deg C or so. There is no consensus that this is out of control or that it will lead to irrevocable alterations of the weather. It may stabilise and then reverse. BUT on the other hand it may not. My personal take is that anything that causes people to behave in a more enviromentally friendly way and take better care of the planet is a good thing - so if people want to cause hype about global warming then I'm fine with that. Stop poluting and start using renewable energy sources!

Answer 5

global warming is real and there is a site of concerned scientists to listen to rather than the B.S. Too often the political comments are noted becuse of propaganda one way or the other but actions that are being taken and events happening do not get that attention.
How many saw that 13 states are suing the EPA for failing to set air standards recommended by the EPA's own scientists which stated those standards could save up to 24,000 lives a year, for example?
Or how many are aware that a 25 mile square piece of ice has broken off and is now drifting free? The global warming is real but the political B.S. is to what extent it is natural and to what extent we are doing things which cause that warming and what if anything should be done now.
If indeed it was all B.S., I am sure that the British billionare Richard Branson would figure that out and find other ways to spend his money other than committing all personal proffit from his airlines and rail company for the next ten years to developing energy sources that do not contribute to global warming.
Our politicians can offer B.S. but we can ignore that and find the truth for ourselves many places online but a greater danger is the person who goes to one side or the other based upon what he hears, and repeats, without question or without thinking for him or herself. Read for yourself what scientist themselves have to say
and remember that this is not a political groups but simply scientists coming together because they are concerned with the political B.S as well.

Answer 6

That the earth is warming up cannot be argued. Where it becomes political BS is in the general assumption that it is all down to us humans. There has been an item running on the BBC rolling news channel here in the UK all morning about how various places in Southern Europe are going to become much warmer, introduced by the statement 'green house gases are causing places in Southern Spain to become as warm as Africa' BS! All these statements are made based on computer predictions - not on solid fact - yet out Meteorological Office stopped issuing 'long range forecasts', ie for a month or so ahead - because 'they were unreliable'

Other answers on here repeat the fallacy that Antarctica is loosing it's ice cover. More BS. In fact, part of Antarctica has been melting for the past 6000 years - the peninsular - but internally ice is increasing - see Journal of Climate 13: 1674-96 (both satellite and ground stations show slight cooling over last 20 years) Science 295: 476-80 (side looking radar measurements show West Antarctica ice is increasing at 26.8 gigatons/yr, Reversing the melting trend of the last 6000 years) Science 296: 895-99 (Antarctic peninsular has warmed several degrees whilst interior has cooled somewhat. Ice shelves have retreated but sea0ice has increased)

People also quote in support of the theory the fact that Greenland ice is retreating. Well,it may be but it has come and gone in the past. The vikings settled there in the 10th century, but later disappeared. One of the reasons for this was the fact that the climate got colder:-

The second factor was climate change. The climate in Greenland got colder in the late 1300s and early 1400s as part of what's called the Little Ice Age. Hay production was a problem. Greenland was already marginal because of it's high latitude short growing season, and as it got colder, the growing season got even shorter, hay production got less, and hay was the basis of Norse sustenance.

and

The Vikings held out in their harsh Greenland outposts for several centuries, but by 1450 they were gone. One reason was climate change. Starting about 1350, global temperatures entered a 500-year slump known as the Little Ice Age. Norse hunting techniques and agriculture were inadequate for survival in this long chill, and the Vikings never adapted the Inuit's more effective strategies for the cold.

This is interesting as it refers to 'the little ice age' from which we are just emerging, and which shows that the planet's climate changes regularly without the help of humans.

Answer 7

Global warming is real. With the increase of democracy in the world the number of politicians is increasing geometricly, the resluting hot air is causing unprecidented heating of the air. This, as W has surmised, was not a problem when the world was ruled by monarchs and religious zealots. So in an effort to reduce the warming problem he has attempted to handle the problem like they would have in the past (the right-wingers dream world) and simply decree that there is no such thing as science.

Answer 8

It's real. Here's why/how:

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a molecule which absorbs infra red (heat) radiation reflected from the earth's surface and traps it in the atmosphere. This is greenhouse effect we all know, and without it in some form the temperature at the earth's surface would be about -20deg c instead of the comfortable temp it is today allowing liquid water and life to exist. the Swedish scientist Arrhenius figured this out about 100 odd years ago.

We also know that in the past there have been a series of ice ages and ice core data from trapped air bubbles and temperature records from fossil shells tell us the difference between the ice age and interglacial (warm period) temperature is about 7 degrees Celsius, and the difference in CO2 is about 100ppm (ice age concentration 150, interglacial 270).

If you look at the CO2 and temperature charts from the Vostock ice core (see sources), you can see they are closely linked. On the left hand side (green line) you see the spike of CO2 that we have added in the 200 years (blink of an eye) since the start of the industrial revolution. So what do you think the temperature is going to do? Especially given the physics of the CO2 molecule. The most obvious and sensible assumption is that it is going to go up and push the average global temperature to around 7 deg C above the average for a normal interglacial period.

Are we seeing this in our temperature measurements? Well, Capnemo helpfully points out the small observed temperature rise but suggests we don't have to worry. But if you look at that rise (and also the rise in human emissions of CO2 see wiki sources graph) you can see it is exponential - that is that for the period between 1910 and 1930 the rise is 0.3 degrees C and for the period between 1980 and 2000 (will get to 'global cooling' in a moment) you see the increase is greater at about 0.4. doesn't sound much but then if that continues we might expect 0.5 degree rise in the next 30 years then 0.7 or so etc and it soon goes vertical, pretty much following the CO2 on the Vostock core data as we might expect.

We as humans might expect to see the temperature increase straight away as we operate in 70 year timescales, but seeing as though even the fastest climate mechanisms take about 2,000 years to occur we must understand that even this small observed temperature is an indication that the temperature is still closely linked to CO2 as shown by the vostock graphs and basic physics.

Capnemo also helps out by reminding us that the pollution in the 1970s was linked to global cooling. What was happening was that the sulphate we were emitting along with CO2 was reflecting incoming sunlight straight away at the top of the atmosphere and preventing the CO2 from absorbing the heat at all - this lead to a plateau in the temperature record. Now, if we were to continue to emit sulphur dioxide and particles in the same manner then we may mitigate the warming effect caused by our CO2, but the reason we stopped was because people were dying in smogs etc, and we would have to emit a lot more now that our CO2 emission has gone up to cause the same plateau.

So I can't see any argument for saying that our recent climate change (or global warming I can't be bothered arguing which to use, both do the job) is not real and is not caused by humans. The bottom line is that an ice age and warm periods have been caused by changes between 150 and 270ppm CO2 and we have rammed that up to 380ppm. I'm confident temperature will follow. Politicians are always full of short term solutions and BS in the pursuit of power but this is a problem on a timescale of far more than 4 years and I suggest we look to ourselves to solve it rather than wait and get angry about the politicians dumb tax weapon of choice.


By the way the website link I have chosen for vostock data is full of unscientific misleading information, for example they quite laughable try to argue that the current warming is an extension of coming out of the last glacial period but the great big spike of human activity and the difference from the past 400,000yr trend doesn't get noticed. However, they do put on the current day CO2 levels and previous 4000,000 years on the same graph which makes it easier to see the spike of CO2 we have added in the past 200 years.

Answer 9

it's a very real problem, don't you know about the melting of ice in the south Pole because of the global warming?And the temperature is becoming more hot in some areas, like Mexico City, in the 90's they had problems with the air, because 40% of they air in the city was polluted, and much people star to have respiratory problems, like asthma. and there is the problem about the "black holes" in the atmosphere

Answer 10

True Capnemo, but one degree Celsius in global temperature is the difference between iceage and interglaciar periods (interglaciar is the opposite to ice ages).

It means that we are 0.2 in a scale of 1.0 above the peak, and going up.

2006 has been record in USA as highest tempearture (and almost record in global temperature), 2007 is expected to be global record.