If GLOBAL WARMING gets unabated, don't you think our earth's atmosphere won't explode and diffuse into space?

Question

We do not know when and where is the breaking point of the capacity of our atmosphere to hold so much heat within. Scientists concentrates on the effects like melting of icebergs, climate change, etc. But then, no one has taken notice of the vulnerability of the atmosphere itself! Cosmic disturbance might even trigger the sudden bursting of our fragile atmosphere. Nations are fighting because some are selfish and grabbers. Others retaliates. No one thinks for the benefit of the whole humankind. Wow! What a bleak future ahead of us?! Is there still any hope? Doomsday clock has been moved closer to our destruction, our own self-inflicted demise in this universe.

Answer 1

“CapNemo” likes to go to all the global warming questions and paste in a statement pooh-poohing the threat. His statement is misleading and incorrect.

He says it’s only increased by 1 degree (F) in 125 years. This is a misleading number, because it is a global average: land and sea. We don’t live in the middle of the ocean and that’s not where the polar ice caps are melting. The temperature change over land surfaces has been twice that, and most of it in the last 40 years.

He says, “The average temperature in Antarctica is 109 degrees below zero.” If you go to his source, it says, “Temperatures reach a minimum of between -80 °C and -90 °C (-112 °F and -130 °F) in the interior in winter and reach a maximum of between +5 °C and +15 °C (41 °F and 59 °F) near the coast in summer.” OK, now the observation that the caps are melting makes more sense. It melts at the coast, in the summer, DUH! (Note by the way that his average number (-109) is only 3 degrees lower than one of the minimum numbers. I wonder, what kind of math did he learn?)

Then he says, “Back in the '70s all the hype was about global COOLING”. All what hype? I was around then. I don’t remember any hype. And if you go to his source, it says, “This theory gained temporary popular attention due to press reporting … The theory never had strong scientific support”. He tries to mislead us, by implying that a temporary flurry pf press reporting is comparable to what we are seeing now and that some hype without scientific basis is somehow similar to a consensus within the scientific community about global warming.

The truth is that those 2 degrees are HUGE in the scale of average weather change. But the real problem is the speed of change and that it's accelerating. Scientists are predicting a temp 4 to 8 degree (F) increase over the next 75 years. “This may not sound like a great deal, but just a fraction of a degree can have huge implications on the climate, with very noticeable consequences." (http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/U/ukweather2080/5_predicting.html ). Yes, scientists predict, that's their job. They've gone to school years more than we have and spent their lives studying this stuff. This representrs humanity’s BEST GUESS at where this is all going. Of course, you can believe it snows in hell, or any other stupid thing you want. No one can stop you from believing what you'd rather hear, than what is the most probable outcome.

The link between CO2 and global warming is undisputed at this time. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased by more than 50% over the last 115 years (250 to 381 ppm, http://awesomenature.tribe.net/thread/fcc70c8b-be7e-489b-85f7-6c6c08031c65 ). In the last 30 years, it increased at a rate 30 times faster than at any period during the last 800,000 years. In other words, this change is totally unprecedented. (http://awesomenature.tribe.net/thread/fcc70c8b-be7e-489b-85f7-6c6c08031c65 ). What else is totally unprecedented about the last 115 years? Industrialization and the population explosion. Duh. This is not rocket science; it is simple arithmetic!

"If Bert Drake is right, the good news is that, within the foreseeable future, Maine residents will be able to stop banking their foundations and to store their down parkas and snow blowers in the barn permanently. The bad news is that a lot of those barns will be underwater" (http://awesomenature.tribe.net/thread/fcc70c8b-be7e-489b-85f7-6c6c08031c65 ). Yes, this is opinion. Who is Bert Drake? He's an SERC researcher who's been studying this for 17 years. If we aren’t going to believe our scientists, who then shall we believe??? Oh, I know. Let's believe CapNemo!!!

If global warming wasn't a real threat, why have 178 nations ratified the Kyoto Protocol to limit CO2 emissions? Why are the US and Australia the only two holdouts among the industrialized nations? (http://environment.about.com/od/kyotoprotocol/i/kyotoprotocol_2.htm )

CapNemo’s statement reminds me about the frog in the pot on the stove that doesn’t move as the water gradually gets hotter and hotter. From this seemingly insignificant 2 degree change, we’ve already seen enormous consequences. (http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/Impacts/) How much hotter does it have to get for some people to wake up and face the music? And in the meantime, while you’re pondering all of this, be sure to check the dates on people’s references. Things are changing so rapidly that older information is no longer useful.

Average Northern Hemisphere Temperatures for last 1000 years:
http://www.co2science.org/scripts/Template/0_CO2ScienceB2C/images/subject/other/figures/mannetal_nh1000.jpg

Answer 2

I'm not sure what you mean by, "so much heat," and other claims you are making. The temperature of the earth has only increased about 6/10 of 1 degree (C) from 1880 to 2005. That is an increase of about 1 degree (F) in 125 years. Source: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2005/2005cal_fig1.gif You may choose to believe that is global warming or you may not. There are numerous charts 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 over the last 125 years. I've seen claims as much as 1 degree every 10 years. That's preposterous! Anyway the charts do not lie as do the proponents on both sides of this issue.

The average temperature in 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 they said 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. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_cooling It took many years to discover that they were mistaken and it was all just hype. 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 have become so opinionated. 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...

EDIT:
ftm- That's what this forum is about. Ppl ask questions and other ppl answer. It matters not if we paste an answer or type it.

1. Your chart showing 2 degrees increase is of the Northern Hemisphere. My NASA chart shows the temperature of the EARTH, not just the northern hemisphere. In fact here is a site http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/bigdea... from the EPA stating the global temperature has increased less than 1 degree over the past century. All the global charts show similar temp changes. None of them show 2 degrees. You need to compare apples to apples here and stop the manipulation of what is being said. Global means all the earth, not just the northern hemisphere.

2. The second reference I gave says, "Temperatures reach a minimum of between -85 °C and -89 °C (-121 °F and -130 °F) in the winter and about 0 °C (32 °F) higher in the summer months." If you AVERAGE the winter temps given with the summer temps, you come up with -109 degrees average for the year. Again you are manipulating the answer to say something it does not say. You HAVE to take the minimum and the maximum to get an average. I'm surprised you don't know that.

3. I never said global cooling had strong support, in fact I said it was hype. The article proves that it was just that.

Next you go on to say, "Scientists are predicting..." It's what they do, they say, "it could, it may, maybe, probably, we predict..." Where are the FACTS in predictions and maybe and probably? The truth is there are no facts in those words. They keep their jobs by keeping the hype going... most people can see that.

Last, I clicked on your references and they either go to a "file not found" or a type of blog site where ppl give opinions. We want facts - not opinions.

You have twisted what I said by adding northern hemisphere charts when I referenced global charts, you have played down the temps in Antarctica, when my facts are accurate and you have not really given any working links where we can check what you are saying.

Sorry but that won't work in this forum...

Answer 3

That cannot happen. Venus has (natural, for Venus) global warming far worse than Earth could ever have, even theoretically; so bad that it is 900 degrees there, and its atmosphere is perfectly happy being that way.

By the way, the doomsday clock is about nuclear war, not environmental pollution. It was a way for concerned scientists to point out how close the United States and Soviet Union were to an all out nuclear war that could kill billions of people in one day. It is an old cold war thing that seems to have been revived since North Korea detonated a nuclear bomb. It has nothing at all to do with global warming.

Answer 4

The atmosphere of the earth has changed greatly over the ages. We don't know for sure whether we significantly change the environment or whether it is doing it by itself. After all, we can't even predict the weather accurately tomorrow.

Answer 5

ummm, the earth can hold lots of heat, the earth is relatively cold now compared to what it has been. buddy you need to learn some facts before crying wolf. Read a book or something and try to understand what it happening instead of listining to other people and crying about their arguments.

Answer 6

Sheesh, it's exactly this kind of scientific ignorance (often accompanied by poor grammar skills) that drives global warming hysteria.

Answer 7

think of global warming as just a fevel for mother earth
it will corrects itself and a new cycle of life will emerged
as long as we able to study our historys
human will have hope to achieved to be peaceful race in future

Answer 8

our atmosphere is going to stay where it is now, the air won't leave the earth because of gravity!