Why is there so much controversy about whether or not global warming is happening?

Answer 1

Ever since Al Gore started talking about it, the conservatives got this idea in their head that all the educated experts were really just in on one big liberal conspiracy to keep the Weather Channel's ratings up or some such nonsense. The bottom line is, there is no good reason to sit on our butts doing nothing. There is every reason to take action immediately.

Answer 2

There's not much debate about whether it's happening. The earth has been warming since around 1600 or 1800 AD depending on who's guestimating. The real controversy is how much is it warming, what's causing it and whether it's really the big emergency that the alarmists would have us believe.

And politics and economics enters the mix. The alarmists have a political agenda. There's big bucks in research and researchers who don't deliver the "correct" conclusions tend lose funding. The governments have an interest in global warming. If the government decides that we must burn less fuel the most practical way to limit our fuel consumption is to tax it more. Pretty attractive prospect for them, isn't it?

When you want to know why people do what they do "follow the money".

Answer 3

It is pretty much accepted that global warming is occuring, the controversy is more about the cause of global warming....we are probably still in an extended warming cycle
since the last little ice age....what do you think caused the ice to melt? The controversy is whether or not global warming is caused by man, or is just due to natural effects such as the amount of heat the sun is putting out, which is still increasing.

I for one do not believe that man is the cause of global warming.

Answer 4

It's mostly because it is an historical sort of science for which we cannot do much in the way of simple and direct lab experiments. So, we make models. And the thing about models is that they are often sensitive to the initial data you put in them. They are also open to a lot of critique.

In historical sciences, you are always wondering if you have enough data to make the conclusion you have. You can't just go out and create more data to check things. You have to go with what you can find.

So, you get arguments about what the things you find mean. And in this case, since the whole thing has been politicized, the very nature of scientific back and forth has led to a sort of 'taking sides', something that is largely anti-science.

Answer 5

The controversy is not over whether or not the climate is
changing ..The climate has been changing for 4 1/2 Billion yrs.
The question is about how much, how fast, the consequences
and how much man is contributing to the change..
I personally feel it is a tempest in a teapot..
Let it change...
The sky is not falling..
Mankind will adapt and we will be fine...

Answer 6

Voila! an marvelous subject rely wherein effortless floor between 2 very countless issues could desire to be stumbled on. despite in case you have faith in international Warming or no longer the actuality nonetheless maintains to be temperatures are turning out to be and the polar ice caps are melting. you may could desire to blind or stay decrease than a rock to no longer word those issues. the main reason i think of that many human beings positioned this off as fiction is because of the fact in the event that they agree and stick to technology this time it makes them seem undesirable for putting different issues off that technology has additionally shown actuality (evolution, vast bang theory, etc.). they do no longer wanna edge with it now to circumvent finding undesirable interior the long-term that's undeniable BS. it rather is wintry climate right here in Florida and we are dealing with 80 degree climate! I recommend that's often warm, no lie, yet wintry climate is commonly the time the place it drops to a minimum of 60. Why human beings can no longer positioned their ideals aside to realize our planet is in extreme problem is previous me. the two way Christianity has continually achieved the alternative of what it rather is supposedly meant to do....

Answer 7

Ignorant and stupid people find it easier to deny a problem than to address it.

Most of the political idiots that say Global Warming is not real are stupid. They also know that dealing with the problem will cause some kind of economic damage to their state or their community and this might cause them to not be elected again regardless of the actual damage to the Earth. So they deny it just to keep themselves in office..These morons need to be identified and dismissed.

Global warming is real and it will cause us humans a lot of trouble. Every little bit helps when it comes to eliminating the pollution that is causing the problem.

Answer 8

Because the evidence is sketchy, consisting of computer simulations of what is believed to go on in the atmosphere. Controlled experiments are obviously not possible. We know that atmospheric CO2 is increasing, in amounts that suggest that mankind is responsible. We think that the temperature is increasing, which it obviously is in some areas. But there is not, and cannot be, any proof that the effects are related. The cost of doing something about it will be horrendous; the UN has proposed a plan, with a price tag of $557,000,000,000,000 -- far more than the total value of every asset on the planet.

Answer 9

It's An economy Versus ecological
The One who stand with economy they will say GW is happening. if they say they did happen it mean they must decrease the couse by reducing the pollution, reducing pollution mean reducing profit, reducing profit mean economical break down.
the one Who stand with ecological they are really concern abut the future hold for the earth. the higher the pollution the faster GW will be. the faster the global warming is, the faster earth destroyed.

Answer 10

Trillions of dollars are at stake, depending on political ideology rather than scientific fact.