is global warming man fault or is it a cycle?

Answer 1

Yes, climate change occurs naturally. And yes, man is the cause of the current global warming.

There are natural cycles of about 20,000 years, 40,000 years and 100,000 years that have been somewhat regular over the last 800,000 years for which we've been looking at ice core samples. (There's information from other sources such as sea sediments that goes back further, but it's not contradictory.) The information from the ice cores leads us to infer that we have been enjoying a cyclical warm period and we were about to head back into an ice age.

However, due to the buildup of greenhouse gases, the descent into ice age isn't happening. This would be a good thing except that the buildup is so huge as to send things reeling in the other direction.

This recent buildup is primarily due to deforestation, end products of fossil fuel combustion and methane produced by livestock. Right now CO2 is at a level 30% greater than any seen during the last 800,000 years and the rate of CO2 increase hasn't been seen in millions of years.

Here's some background info on climate change from a politically neutral source written about 8 years ago: http://www.lakepowell.net/sciencecenter/paleoclimate.htm .I found one inaccuracy in it. It says, "So far in the past 18,000 years, the earth's temperature has risen approximately 16 degrees F and the sea level has risen 300 feet." That directly contradicts the graph above where it shows a rise of only 5c which is 9 degrees F. Otherwise, the information seems to agree with other stuff I've read.

The 4th IPCC report was made available a week ago and said basically that the science was unassailable. It had been presented to policy makers earlier and as a result, Bush got into line in his SOTU address. And now, ExxonMobile, which had been responsible for funding most of the global warming skepticism (http://www.exxonsecrets.org/ ), just put out a statement saying basically the same thing (http://www2.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/Newsroom/NewsReleases/corp_nr_mr_climate_ipcc.asp ).

I think the discussion now is no longer going to be concerned with whether or not it's due to human activity and will move forward to what we should do about it.

Answer 2

We (humans) created this global warming. Granted, there are natural cycles--but they have specific causes and those factors aren't in play. Scientists spent years debating and researching the cause of global warming and determined tha tit is primarily the result of increases of CO 2 in the atmosphere--and that is due to our high use of fossil fuels.

Think of it this way. Some things (say a forest fire) can be caused by nature (by lightening, for example). But other forest fires are caused by humans (a campfire not properly put out,etc.). The fact taht some forest fires are natural doesn't mean they all are. The same is true of global warming. And in this case, it is very definately man's fault.

Answer 3

Global warming is clearly not natural. Here's some hard facts. The first report is the authoritative document, full of data. It's a 21 page summary, the 1600 page full report will be out soon with voluminous data as proof.

Lots of data here. For example, changes in solar radiation are 0.12 watts per meter squared, while changes due to man are 1.6 watts per meter squared, more than ten times as much.

http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf

And the data in the report shows a very rapid change, faster than any natural cycle would be.

And this graph of CO2 is very enlightening.

http://scrippsco2.ucsd.edu/graphics_gallery/mauna_loa_record/mlo_record.html

The little teeth are the natural "carbon cycle". doing its' thing. CO2 goes down a bit in the summer and up a bit in the winter, consistent with plant activity. The large trend upward is us. We're digging up carbon the natural cycle buried over many many years, and burning it real fast.

Volcanoes are insignificant compared to the effects of man:

http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/climate_effects.html

Which is why most all scientists agree global warming is real and caused by us.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1686

"there is a scientific consensus on the reality of anthropogenic climate change. Climate scientists have repeatedly tried to make this clear. It is time for the rest of us to listen."

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/16620307.htm

"the question of global warming was settled years ago for all but a few holdouts in the scientific community"

Unfortunately, we're kicking nature's butt on this one.

Answer 4

Its locally manmade, globally a cycle... However using the cycle argument achieves NOT ONE THING for us. Even if the problem is only 1% us, we should still try to reduce emissions and evolve tech to atleast generate more revenue, and locally cleaner.

*Things may clarify once there is a boom of american students who can fill that tech sector as employees instead of immigrants.

Answer 5

Both, man kind are the cycle and fault.

Answer 6

Probably a mix of both. It could possibly already be just from what's happening in nature, and the things made my different products that are harmful to the enviornment are making it worse.

Answer 7

a bit of both and man has done a lot of bad things and now has to pay the price

in North Africa,India,Mexico ,millions of people are effected by land loss and desertification


in recent times thousands of people have died because of exessive heat,usually old people.in India ,Mexico and France,
deforestation causing desertification,the desert conditions causing very cold nights and scorching hot days

in china, thousands of what used to be farmers are running for their lives from the dust storms that have burried their towns and turned their lands into dessert,the globe where they were got to hot for them .
and instead of producing food they are now needing it from some where else,and they will drastically effect the world food prices when they start buying water in the form of grains ,at any cost destabalising governments, in some countries ,could be the result
(are you seeing more Chinese around interested in agricultural lands ,we do here in Mexico)

,the Sahara is growing by 7 kilometers a year
and all of the desserts we know are a results of mans actions ,and they are increasing ,not getting less ,in the dinosaurs days ,there were no desserts.

collectively this planet is drying up because of bad farming practices like,over grazing and fertilizers,

as far as the food production is concerned, Global warming or some of its effects are serious,rising seas result in landloss

each degree rise in temperature means 10%crop loss

more landloss because of desertification every year,we have less areble land to produce food ,for an extra 70 million people ,

and there is less and less water (because of deforestation),to irrigate this production ,
and there are less and less farmers to do it..
who are overpumping deep carbon aquifiers
who are plowing more and more unstable lands because they have lost so many million hectares to desertification ,
because of bad farming practises ,such as using fertilizers and heavy machinary or over grazing

RISING SEAS
The northpole is melting ,and we will know it without ice in our life times.
this does not affect the sea level because it is ice that is already in the water.but the melting ice from Green land and the south pole ,are another matter.

Global warming is in theory reversable,but it will mean global co operation between all countries ,and taking into account human nature and the world politics ,it is unlikely that this will happen,

At least not untill we are all in the middle of planetary disastres and it becomes a battle for the survival of humanity every where.

SOLUTIONS
if you want to help the planet ,plant a tree every week ,if everyone on the planet did we we would be able to reverse the destructive processes

reduce carbon emisions,and they are already working on that by alternative forms of energy and regulations on carbon producing materials,aerosol cans,burning rubbish,industrial chimneys,powerplants etc.

the capture of carbon and the production of water and assist the aquiferous manta.

the world bank pays large subsidies for reforrestation to capture carbon and the best tree for this is the Pawlonia

Waterharvesting projects ,such as millions of small dams.to redirect over ground waterflows from the rains into the ground to supply subteranian water supplies.

the protection of existing forrests.

stop building more highways,urban planning to include vegetation stop building cities encourage people to return to the land to conduct their business from there which now has become possible thanks to the internet.

education to motivate people to auto sufficiency by building more home food gardens.

education on environmental awareness
education on family planning to curb over´populaion

Agricultural education and improvements to follow the principals or sustainability and soil management.

more environmental or land ,design to prevent bush fires,such as--fire breaks

,more dams.regulations and control for public behaviour

alternative effeciant public transport to discourage the use of the internal conbustion engine

recicling wastes,limit water use

i am a Permaculture Consultant for the department of Ecology for the regional government in Guerrero Mexico
http://spaces.msn.com/byderule

Source(s) Lester E Brown is the director and founder of the global institute of Environment in the United states .he has compiled a report based on all the satalite information available from NASA,and all the information that has
come from Universities and American embassies WORLD WIDE ,
his little book--a planet under stress , Plan B has been trans lated into 50 languages and won the best book award in 2003.