what are some signs in America of Global Warming? And why is the global community only interested in America?

Question

i'm in Wisconsin, and with the news always talking about global warming, i look outside and we had a high of zero most of last week, and it's still freezing. Then you got New York who's piled under at least ten feet of snow.

When people are talking about CO2 immishions, they talk about America and her cars (i got a little Ford escort, not a Tank-like Hummer). Wouldn't coal make more CO2 (since burning carbon would put more carbon dioxide into the air)?

Some countries like China are burning way more coal than we are, but with that Kyoto plan, USA needs to reduce our coal usage, but China is given even more leeway, does that make sence?

So i guess my questions can be summed up with
1.) If we are suffering from global warming, WHY ISN'T IT GETTING WARMER??
and
2.) If global warming really is a real threat, why doesn't the world focus on the biggest purpetrators, instead of the country with the most money?
wow this is a long question, i'm sorry.

Answer 1

Global warming is a farce - there is nothing we can do to create nor prevent it. We (all mankind) account for less than 10% of the total problem.

You touched on why everyone focuses on America and not China. Kyoto protocol is a way to hinder the US economy so the other nations can have a competitive edge. We just kick their rumps and they hate it.

Answer 2

Yours was a complicated question but a good one. I'll try to answer the second part first by taking a quote from an internet source on so-called allocations: "Under a cap-and-trade program, policymakers would set a limit (the "cap") on total carbon emissions during some period--presumably at a level below what would otherwise occur--and require certain entities to hold rights, or allowances, to the emissions permitted under that cap. Each allowance would entitle the holder to emit some amount of carbon, such as a metric ton. After the allowances were initially distributed, entities would be free to buy and sell them (the "trade" part of the program)."

This cap and trade program is what permits China to burn more coal than we do as you have correctly noted. I believe this concept of allowances and cap and trade were established by the Kyota agreement as a way of allowing some contries to more gradually enter into the process of reducing emissions.

Now as far as your first question goes, the earth's mean temperature is indeed rising and is evidenced in the retreating glaciers of the world and the reduction in the size of the polar ice-caps. Both of these effects are being seen in ocean level rises already. For example, it was reported in the Wash. Post just a few days ago that a city along the Chesapeake Bay was concerned about one of its graveyards slowing being flooded with the Chesapeake. Global warming does not mean that there will be no more winter weather on the planet. The earth will still move about the Sun in an elliptical orbit that places it closest to the sun in the Winter but with its axis at the north Pole pointed away from the Sun and with an opposite arrangement 6 months later. These conditions will still produce winter snows and freezing. However, in the course of time these conditions will moderate to the extent that we will see changes in both the flora and fauna of tropics, mid-latitudes, and even high latittudes but this is likely to take 80 to 100 years. The most significant changes will be along our coastlines.

Answer 3

Maybe not the answer you are looking for, but have you heard
about the ice age? I hear all the time about global warming. In my
opinion, we have been having global warming since the ice age ended; obviously! No one ever speaks to this point. The Antarctic has been melting for ages, and of course we don't want to see this, and there may be things we could do to slow this, slightly. However, it is a fact that the earth has been warming for centuries, and I for one believe it is inevitable.