global warming?

Question

Do you believe that the cause of global warming is by the fault of humans or is it just the earth returning to it's natural temperature after the ice age?

Answer 1

Years and years of research have proved that Earth has gone through cycles of global warming/cooling for millions of years before the first human even staggered down from a tree. Global warming is a NATURAL and cyclic phenomenon the Earth experiences. Our civilization is not *causing* the current global warming, but we are certainly accelerating it.

Answer 2

It is a natural phenomenon, mankind has little if any effect on it. It is happening on Mars right now - those who believe climate change is a man-made evil, get out your telescopes & tell me how many factories or 4x4 vehicles you see on Mars!

What Mars DOES have in common with Earth is that it's climate is controlled by a million mile wide nuclear fireball known as The Sun. On average, the Sun produces energy equivalent to about 100 BILLION one-megaton nuclear bombs EVERY SECOND! We're flattering ourselves to say the least if we belive that we can have a major impact on the plans of such a mighty beast.

Man-made pollution may be polluting the atmosphere, making it less pleasant, but to suggest that we're making an impact on such a powerful force is laughable.

For a more scientific version of events, I recommend viewing a documentary called "The great global warming swindle". It was originally shown on UK Channel 4, but is now available on Youtube & Limewire.

Answer 3

Keith P, There's one problem with the article that you link to, and your belief that it shows that global warming is man made. The ice core data doesn't show that the earth has been in a cooling trend over the last 6000 years. In fact it shows that the temperature has been relatively stable for the last 12,000 years.

See the attached link for info on Ice core data in both antarctica and greenland. You can see that the earths temperature has been basically stable with swings of about 1.5-2 deg C on either side of present temperatures over the last 10,000 years. The present warming is neither faster nor warmer than has been seen over Earth's recent history.

Answer 4

While the Earth does go through natural temperature cycles, that doesnt mean that pollution caused by humans doesn't have an impact. I do believe that humans are at least partly to blame for global warming.

Answer 5

The data shows clearly this is not natural. Look at the graphs on Page 11.

http://www.ipcc.ch/spm2feb07.pdf

The blue is what would happen if it was natural, the pin includes warming due to us. The black line is the measured temperature.

You can't rely on logical arguments to understand global warming. You need to actually look at numerical data. Climate scientists do that, and the vast majority of them believe global warming is real. Data about that is here:

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

Science is all about the data, not about who can argue words best. And the data is why:

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

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

Answer 6

Ice ages (and inter-glacial periods) are caused by natural cycles in the earth's orbit, known as Milankovitch cycles. This is a well-known process known as "orbital forcing" of earth's climate.

The earth's orbit can be computed for centuries into the past and future, and for the last 6000 years orbital forcing has been making the Earth slowly cooler. That means that the current warmth is not part of the normal cycle of ice ages. In other words, humans are responsible.

Answer 7

It's too early to tell. It's true that human activities can spew out greenhouse gases, and it's also true that the Earth has had many cycles of lower and higher temperatures. More evidence needs to be gathered before we can tell, if ever.

Answer 8

The thing is, Earth doesn't have a normal temperature.

Answer 9

Global warming is a very complex collection of many effects

this text is limited to effects of people in the country,industrial effects on the environment and the internal combustion engine as well as the over all effects of cities ,is another story

climate change is caused principally by desertification ,and most desertification is caused by man
the thinner ozone layer helps to speed this up.and this is caused mainly by air polution ,also as a result of mans actions

MANS EFFECTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT


DEFORESTATION

in the past
the Building of the Spanish Armada deforrested Spain
the Phoenician trading fleet turned Lebanon in a dessert
Ganges Khan put everything to the sword and torch, then filled the wells with sand,
the sun finished of the job and whole countries turned to wastelands.
He would have been envious of the effects of modern day farming.Slash and burn destroys the protective vegetation (which helps to form the soil ),
leaving it open to the Sun ,and then ,wind and, water erosion.
The Plough turns the soil ,killing micro-biotic life (essential to soil building) and accelerates the drying out .
Pressures of the :vehicles, cattle and rain impact brings the salt to the surface.

Mono cultures ,aided by chemicals Exhaust and pollutes the soil .
Adding to this the effects of overgrazing has resulted in large scale desertification.

expanding populations and expanding farming ,that has to keep pace with the expanding populations are very strong forces that encroach upon the rainforest's
clearing them for farming and settlement areas .

In Mexico is a famous jungle that the Media has been trying to save for years
the Naturists ,and the government ,keep watch .laws are made for protection the wild and to forbid logging.
TV put out a series of documentaries
there are campaigns in the News papers
and all of this has not made the slightest difference

Rainforest's always are in third world countries and always in third world countries corruption and the need for money s highest

ON THE GROUND
go to the countries on the equator ,check what has happened in history
and listen to what is going on in the many disaster areas on this planet today,(and there are more each year )

: i have seen lands that have been turned from jungle into desserts by people in a matter of a couple of years ,because of the slash and burn method used by settlers and expanding agriculture,and i have seen rivers dry up because of deforrestation in many places in Africa and Mexico ,

there are natural cycles in the planets life
but a lot is influenced by mans existance ,and this is increasing with overpopulation,putting strains on Natural resources and increasing contaminations as well as destructions of essential componants the ensure living conditions for all life forms

in North Africa,India,Mexico ,millions of people are effected by land loss and desertification and some have died as a result

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 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,


each degree rise in temperature means 10%crop loss

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.

Source(s):

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

i am a Permaculture Consultant for the department of Ecology for the regional government in Guerrero Mexico

Answer 10

I seriously doubt there is a "natural temperature." The climate is always in flux.. all we can do is buckle up and enjoy the ride.