What can be done to stop global warming?

Question

Why aren't we doing anything about it?! We are making the problem even worse. They're opening new coal mines in China. What can be done to keep the Earth an enviorment for human life. Can we save us from ourselfs?

Answer 1

It would take a whole lot of people doing a whole lot of effort.
I find that when I make choices in my own personal life, I am making a difference. Insignificant as they may seem, but I can affect others by my lifestyle.
Example: use public transportation, walk if it's only a short distance away, reuse-reduce-recycle, choose locally grown produce, etc.

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. Source: 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 temperature has risen much more 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. The average temperature in the Antarctica is 109 degrees below zero. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica#Climate It seems to me 108 below (one degree warmer) is still pretty cold and not enough to melt anything. But there are those that say it will.

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 many years to discover that they were mistaken and it was all just hype. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_cooling 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. (Many do not provide any proof or links to prove their point, just their opinion.) With that said we do have a responsibility to do our part by doing whatever is within your power to keep our planet alive and well.

I hope that helps...

Answer 3

I'll sum it up in just a few sentences. There is a thing called the Kyoto Treaty which lists all the contries that have agreed to try and stop Global Warming. Unfortunately President Bush refuses to sign the treaty the second time around which makes us all look bad because we are the number one polluter twoards Global Warming. Its all caused from carbon emissions turning into greenhouse gasses and holding in the suns hea radation. If you really want to know alot about this subject buy, An Inconvient Truth its a film by Al Gore which explains all about global warming in very good detail. Hope this helps, Brodster

Answer 4

Some of the answers demonstrate that the problem is purely political. If we needed to we could sheild some of the sun but that won't be necessary. Try to look at the positive aspects. Don't let the chicken littles of the world convince you the sky is falling. A little warmth is a good thing. Conversely, cooling is very bad.

Answer 5

Nobody has figured out how to shut the Sun off yet, so it continues to heat the Earth. There has been a lot of hyperbole about "global warming", and the average surface temperature is undeniably higher than it was 200 years ago, but no one as yet has proven that the cause is man's attempt to improve his living conditions.

Answer 6

Maybe not, maybe so. Who knows. Ask in fifty years!

But if you want a fully serious answer, blame agriculture. Agriculture is a major polluter, far worse than most people are aware. Do you know how many calories of oil are used to provide you with one calorie of grain?

Let's put it this way. If the entire world adopted the US/European system of farming (dominantly grain-fed animals), and widespread use of cereal crops became the norm globally as it has in the United States and Europe, the current oil stocks of the world would be exhausted in twelve years.

Europe and the US currently produce something like 80-90% of the world's grain. This is "a lot of grain". I think it costs, from field to shelf, about 30 calories of oil per one calorie of finished grain product - or about 50 calories of oil per one calorie of meat. This oil is used in many forms - threshing machines, tractors, transportation, combine harvesters, generators for various farm equipment, etc etc...

When you consider that livestock accounts for a significant portion of our output of so-called greenhouse gases anyway, and you factor in the amount oil utilized in farming, agriculture becomes THE dominant polluting segment of industry. Not chemical plants, or power plants, but farming.

If we are to combat global warming, our first order of business is not with cars, or power plants, or new ways of saving or storing electricity (such as pursuits involving superconductivity), but with a re-evaluation of our current farming practices. Not only are cereal crops seriously inefficient, but they are also niche crops; naturally, barley, wheat, corn, etc, are all plants found on flood plains directly after flooding. They help extract certain nutrients from the soil, altering the pH balance, and allowing more efficient photosynthesizers to fill the niche.

Effectively, then, by growing cereal crops on prime land, we are removing a significant portion of the higher-level photosynthesizers on any given spot. This results in the denial of habitats for key species, and equally problematic, soil erosion, meaning that if we remove those crops, it takes several years for any level of recovery - decades for recovery to prior heights. Go to certain places in America and look at where the farmland meets the prairieland; there are, in many places, six, seven foot drops at the edge zone of the farmland. This is caused by constant pressure on the soil where it should not be.

Agriculture needs to accept more of the blame.

Answer 7

I am more concern about the fear tactics about something that norther nature resolved several million years ago. She introduced plants that absorber CO2 and give us back the oxygen. The problem is solved . Check on photosynthesis and if that is not enough ,go measure it the CO2 is not there where did that dreadful menace go.

Answer 8

Well let me put it this way volcanic eruptions do more to erode the atmosphere then all the aerosol, factories and automobiles etc... can. so there is not much I suppose we can do.O and unless your on a serious diet I would not complain about agriculture.

Answer 9

Those of us witha brian need to be saved from you.
http://www.clearlight.com/~mhieb/WVFossils/ice_ages.html

Answer 10

by 2060 the ice capes will melt so their is not much we can do to stop it.