What % do you think Humans play in Global Warming?

Question

I think that humans are .00001% to blame for global warming, with the SUN (solar) being the the other 99.99999%. What % do you think that humans play in the global warming?

Answer 1

Agree with you. there is no way of knowing for sure the percentage but it is very small

Answer 2

Percent is probably not the best measure since we have not yet reached 100% of what we know is the natural maximum for global temperatures in a typical warming trend. That is, it would probably get this warm, and even warmer eventually even if there were no man made greenhouse gases in play. The correct question is either:

How many degrees above the natural maximum will it get due to human produced greenhouse gases?

Or

What percentage of the current warming rate can be attributed to man made greenhouse gases.

Answer 3

The Sun plays a role in global warming only on very long time scales, like 100 million years. Stellar evolution models say the Sun is 30% brighter now than when life first appeared on Earth. But that was several billion years ago. That amounts to only about 10% per billion years, or .000001% per century rate of change. In shorter periods we can't really say how much of a role it plays, because we did not had the ability to measure its output accurately before the space age.

Now you may disagree how much temperature change is due to humans, but the amount of CO2 in the air is another matter. We DO have the ability to measure it accurately now and thousands of years in the past by ice cores, and it has gone up DRAMATICALLY in the last 200 years. And the trend matches up with human activity quite well.

Answer 4

Wow - wherever you get that is terribly misinformed information.

If you plot a graph tracking only solar and volcanic heat as the cause, you actually get reverse correlation - meaning they are so far off it's not even funny!

So - start vaccinating against ignorance and get scientifically informed. Good science speaks in facts backed up with data, not charged emotion or poltical BS.

Start with wikipedia,
then visit the IPCC press release on global warming (you can see just how much/how little the sun and volcanoes really do).

Answer 5

What flavor Kool-Aid are you guys drinking. First of all, you are all so quick to offer up numbers, but don't cite any actual scientific evidence. Why is that? Because Limbaugh and Hannity don't call themselves doctors?
You are correct in the literal sense that human don't actually warm the planet that much. The Sun does all the warming. But we humans are trapping the heat that otherwise would be escaping.
The data are out there (yes, the word 'data' is plural.) CO2 concentration is rising at unprecedented levels. We humans are dumping billions of tons of the gas into the atmosphere every year. Those two statements are incontrovertible. It would follow that we are likely causing the rise in concentration.
Why is it that you people are so afraid to accept the science from scientists? Must we wait until we have really gotten to the point where our effects are irreversible?

Answer 6

William, where on earth did you get the idea that global warming has been limited to the era since the industrial revolution? With all of the nonsense if heard about global warming, that has got to be one of the worst.

The earth has been warming and cooling throughout its history. The have been some very large swings, and there are constantly small temperature swings. We've seen 0.6 deg C of warming in the last century. This is minute compared with the amount of warming that the earth saw 400 years ago, 700 years ago, 2500 years ago, etc. The end of the last major ice age around 18,000 years ago saw warming of 9 deg C.

Please learn some facts about the constant state of change of the Earth's temperature.

Answer 7

The verified scientific data says humans are about 90% of the problem. The sun is less than 10%. Which is why the vast majority of scientists agree global warming is mostly caused by us.

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

This is science, you don't guess, you measure data. And scientists have, of course.

Increased solar radiation is 0.12 watts per meter squared. In creased warming due to man is 1.6 watts per meter squared, more than ten times as much. Page 4 here.

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

Answer 8

You are correct though the actual percentage is unknowable with our limited knowledge of the subject. The burning of million of years of fossil fuels is a ridiculous argument. It is demonstrable that the vast majority of the CO2 increase was prior to industrialization and we have been on a warming trend for thousands of years. Even though we had nearly the same CO2 concentration, there was a cooling period from the 1940s to 1970s which is pretty hard to explain using the global warming zealots logic. Since they cannot explain this, they shouldn't be trusted to explain anything else either. Their opinions are always so predictable. It is always the fault of humans and of industry and nothing good can come from it. Their self loathing gets very tiresome and is entirely unscientific.

Answer 9

Since the sun has been pumping out energy for billions of years, but global warming is limited to the era since the industrial revolution, I think it is safe to say humans are responsible for the great majority. I'll go with 95%.

Pardon me "dsl67", I misspoke: the exponential rise in CO2 levels over a relatively short time frame, which is a major contributor to greenhouse gases and global temperatures, is limited to the era since the industrial revolution.

And you might want to rethink your reference to LD Roper's work. In another paper, referring to the 2001 Intergovernemental Panel on Climate Change, he says, (and I quote):
"This makes a convincing case that the recent rise in temperature (Modern Global Warming) is due to human activities."

Answer 10

You're probably right.
Contrary to some of the answers, we do not know if this phenomenon is exclusive to this era. It just happens that we now have the technology to measure such changes. In the 70's all the scientists were warning us about the next "Ice Age" coming within 20 years. I believe it was the cover story in "Time" magazine.
My point is that no one really knows. You will find just as many scientist saying that we have nothing to do with it as say we do. For now it seems that media outlets just support those that blame us.

Answer 11

of cource we are the cause, the sun please. we destroy the ozone layer that makes the sun so hot, more so than 30 years ago. also the huge trucks we drice today, we sure we are only a very small percentage. we are 80-90% to blame, and we will be sorry when man destroys the world.