Global Warming/Freezing?

Question

I am a little confused. There are so many that say global warming not only exists but that it is caused by humans and their SUVs. There are also many that say global warming in a hoax.

What I don't understand is this show I was watching on the discovery channel the other night. It was about a tribe that existed at the end of the ice age and how they lived and stuff like that. It said that at the end of their age most of the ice covering the earth melted to pretty much what we know today. Now my question is: What SUVs were these ice men driving to cause all that ice to melt?

Oh and Thank You to the first person who answered this for reminding me.

Who the heck is Al Gore to tell me that my SUV is causing Global Warming while he is flying around the word in his PRIVATE jet burning fuel!? For crying out loud his FIVE homes aren't even enviromentaly friendly.

Answer 1

Don't be simplistic.

For the most part, average global surface temperature depends on three things: solar energy taken in, energy lost through radiation and redistribution of heat. The amount of solar energy taken in depends on the amount being produced, the amount striking the earth and the amount reflected, all of which can vary, due to earth's orbit, sunspots, size and positioning of continents (which has, indeed changed over the years) and amount of ice pack cover.

These processes have been going on for millennia. Ice ages have come and gone; average surface temperatures have varied during the last 65 million years by 20 c (36 degrees F). The greenhouse gases only come into play in determining the amount of energy lost to radiation. Greenhouses gases act to block the escape of radiation.

The earth and CO2 is like a juggler being thrown more plates. Sooner or later, if you keep throwing more plates at him, there's gonna be broken plates. Anyone who denies this is either literally a moron or has a vested interest in not understanding. As Upton Sinclair said, "It's impossible to make a man understand something when his livelihood depends on him not understanding it."

As far as Al Gore goes, part of the carbon neutral equation is for people to invest in processes that create carbon sequestering. to offset their CO2 "spending". Al Gore has done plenty of this.

But really Al Gore is irrelevant. We no longer shoot the messenger when we don't like the message he brings.

Answer 2

It is a good idea to think of Global Warming more as Global Climate Change, the actual overal tempeture of the earth is increasing. Scientists studying things like Ice cores from Antartica have started tracking the changes in the earths temperature over the billions of years we have been here. There was a time where our atmosphere had very little oxygen in it.

So over the billions of years, earth has developed a temperature cycle, with a pattern of slowly getting warmer peaking then slowly getting colder, and then gradually getting warmer.

The actual cause of the iceage is still widely debated one theory is that there was a large metorer that kicked a lot of debrise into the atmosphere which cut down on the energy from the sun getting to the surface of the planet.

But what we do know is something dramatic happened to alter the climate of Earth in a shortened period of time, and then the cycle began again as whatever happened was filtered and adjusted to over time.

Climate change is actually a natural phenomenom, and we are in a natural upswing in that change where the global temperature is increasing but what isnt natural is the dramatic increase in CO2 & other pollutants being released into the atmospher by humans.

Scientists have made a prediction based on past evidence on how gradually our climate should be changing, and also made predictions based on the effects that we have had on our atmosphere since the dawn of the industrial age, and how that may effect the increase in temperature. The problem is that the increase we are seeing are following the impact of humans not the natural cycle of earth.

You have to realize that the global climate is a complex system, and overall changes in the system cannot be brought down to a single factor causing the changes.

There is no question our climate is changing, and that the overal temperature of the earth is increasing. What is really in debate is if humans are causing these changes to be more dramatic and sever, and if we are then how are we going to take responsibility for our actions.

The earth will keep on floating through space with or without us but if we make our planet uninhabitable, then well we better start looking for another planet to live on.

Answer 3

The global climate has a naturally occurring cycle of warm periods and ice ages. That's why it took so long for scientists to contend that the SUVs were causing change, the Earth is in a warming cycle right now and the Earth was warming anyway. The problem is, because we are in a warming cycle and we are reaching the maximum warmth the Earth has experienced naturally, those extra greenhouse gases might push us over the divide into frying the planet. Good question. I hope that you take into consideration what I said and do not naturally believe the people above me that want to claim global warming as a hoax. (Who would it benefit to falsely claim it exists anyway?)

Answer 4

The United Nations just issued a report on Global Warming, and the news was...... barely tepid. (bad pun?)

They did not find nearly as much evidence of man's contribution to Global Warming as the theory's proponents had hoped.

It seems the pendulum is swinging back against the Global Warming crowd. Maybe some people are remembering that back in the 1970's some scientists begged the government to consider spraying huge glacial areas with soot to increase global temperature...... they believed we were in a dangerous Global Cooling period.

Back around 700AD, Greenland was colonized. It was so warm back then that they raised sheep and farmed wheat and barley. Now it is so cold that no crops could grow, and no farm animals could survive.

Answer 5

Just remember that the same type of scientist that today are telling you that you have to live in a cave to save the Earth were telling us 30 years ago that we had to put soot on both polar Ice caps to prevent an Ice Age. It's all about politics and control of your life....

Answer 6

Global warming is a problem that is unavoidable at our current rate and something needs to be done. Sadly it is not at the top of the world agenda right now.

Answer 7

You, my friend, are an example of the intelligent few among us. Don't fall to the political image- motivated reasons for idiots like Chirac to spread global warming propaganda. Chirac (prez of France) is obsessed with telling america how it can be "green", yet most environmentalists would have a fit if they discovered that his country receives 80% of its energy from nuclear fission (the only reasonable source of energy)!

Answer 8

Smoking is good for you too, right?