how can we prevent global warming??

Question

bcuz in school we were talking about it and my science teacher said in 9 years global warming will have killed all animals in the cold zones like anrtica. and in 10 years 1/2 of the world will be under water?!?!?! i am freaked out..i'm 2 young to die!!!!!

Answer 1

First, answering your question.

Conserve energy (you can help).

Develop alternative sources of energy. Nuclear, solar, wind, biofuels.

Develop means to capture (sequester) carbon dioxide.

Second the people who say it isn't real are wrong. There's tons of scientific data saying it's real. The best summary of the data is here, but it's not easy to read:

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

Here's two good websites:

http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/f101.asp

www.realclimate.org

"climate science from climate scientists"

The video recommended above is just silly.

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2355956.ece

" A Channel 4 documentary claimed that climate change was a conspiratorial lie. But an analysis of the evidence it used shows the film was riddled with distortions and errors."

The junkscience guy is also silly. Before this he said cigarette smoke was not harmful.

This is science. You can't determine the truth about global warming by who argues best. You need to actually look at the data.

That's what climate scientists do, and the vast majority of them think it's real. Proof here:

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

Answer 2

Man made Global warming is more hype than Science.

Here is why:

Earth's 4.5 billion year history is one long story of climate change. This fact is pretty much accepted by those who think global warming is a natural process, and those who think it's caused by man.

In more recent history there has been: a mini ice age in the seventeenth century when the Thames froze so solidly that fairs could regularly be held on the ice; a Medieval Warm Period, even balmier than today; and sunnier still was the so-called Holocene Maximum, which was the warmest period in the last 10,000 years.

Those who think global warming is a natural process point to the fact that in the last 10,000 years, the warmest periods have happened well before humans started to produce large amounts of carbon dioxide.

A detailed look at recent climate change reveals that the temperature rose prior to 1940 but unexpectedly dropped in the post-war economic boom, when carbon dioxide emissions rose dramatically.

There is some evidence to suggest that the rise in carbon dioxide lags behind the temperature rise by 800 years and therefore can't be the cause of it.

In the greenhouse model of global warming, heat from the sun's rays is trapped by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. If it weren't for these gases, Earth would be too cold for life.

Greenhouse gases trap heat from the sun within the earth's atmosphere. This is the greenhouse effect. Traditional models predict that increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases lead to runaway heating.

If greenhouse warming were happening, then scientists predict that the troposphere (the layer of the earth's atmosphere roughly 10-15km above us) should heat up faster than the surface of the planet, but data collected from satellites and weather balloons doesn't seem to support this.

Those who think global warming is a natural process say that the troposphere is not heating up because man-made greenhouse gases are not causing the planet to heat up.

For some people, the final nail in the coffin of human-produced greenhouse gas theories is the fact that carbon dioxide is produced in far larger quantities by many natural means: human emissions are miniscule in comparison. Volcanic emissions and carbon dioxide from animals, bacteria, decaying vegetation and the ocean outweigh our own production several times over.

Others would argue that carbon dioxide isn't the only greenhouse gas and that human emissions could tip up a finely balanced system.

New evidence shows that that as the radiation coming from the sun varies (and sun-spot activity is one way of monitoring this) the earth seems to heat up or cool down. Solar activity very precisely matches the plot of temperature change over the last 100 years. It correlates well with the anomalous post-war temperature dip, when global carbon dioxide levels were rising.

In fact, what is known of solar activity over the last several hundred years correlates very well with temperature. This is what some scientists are beginning to believe causes climate change. Others feel that solar activity only explains the fine details of temperature change.

So how does the sun affect the earth's temperature? The process scientists suggest is that as earth moves through space, the atmosphere is constantly bombarded by ever-present cosmic rays. As these particles hit water vapour evaporating from the oceans, clouds form in the atmosphere. Clouds shield Earth from some of the sun's radiation and have a cooling effect

When solar activity is high, there is an increase in solar wind and this has the effect of reducing the amount of cosmic radiation which reaches Earth.

Answer 3

Look, I want to give you the straightest answer I can without sounding ignorant. That said, I do believe that humans may be increasing the rate of "climate cycle", however there is nothing we can do to control this naturally occurring phenomenon.

If you examine Earth's history, we have encountered numerous ice ages/warm spells since the beginning of time. The last ice age occurred about 14,000 years ago, that is a fact.

Second, if you look at the history of Earth in terms of ice ages, we are in what is called an interglacial period that lasts about 20,000 years.

My argument would be that we are still emerging from the previous ice age (hence the warming), but at the same time we are headed towards the next.

Read the attached article below for more complete information. It should enlighten you to the natural fluctuations in Earth's temperature.

Global warming and the conservation of natural resources are two separate issues. Despite the fact that I do not believe in "Global Warming" as most do, we certainly need to preserve fossil fuels and energy for other reasons.

For your teacher not to express both sides of this "hot debate" is the issue that I find most disturbing. If hes/she teaches science, then they really missed the boat because scientists should look at facts and data and not push personal beliefs on anyone.

Please read the article below, I can not stress that enough. I have studied this issue in depth for several years now, and not one peice has offered as much factual information as the article below.

Answer 4

Your teacher is full of crap! The average temperature of the earth has heated up about 1C over the past 150 years from natural processes. Most of this heating occurred BEFORE 1940. This means the rate of increase is dropping not rising. The Antarctic ice sheet has been growing and there is not one scintilla of evidence that the Arctic region is becoming more ice free as a result of the slight warming that has occurred.

I suggest that you get a copy of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and read this if you want to get the well sourced scientific background that will help refute that propaganda that the alarmists are spewing out in order to frighten young minds like yours.

Answer 5

Amen Flyboy!!
the PIG Guide a very good reference and I've thought about sending about 100 copies to my kid's school districts for banter in the classroom.

Please watch this video and forward it to your teacher.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XttV2C6B8pU

The Panic can be directly attributed to political powers trying to gain some sort of control of the population.

Be smart.

Check out this website as well.

http://www.junkscience.com

Do not buy the panic or the hype. What is going on has been going on for nearly 4.6 billion years. Normal Solar cycles.

Actually the ice sheet propaganda is bogus. In Antartica, the Ice sheet shifts. One year it is larger on the east, the other west, south or north. Don't buy everything your teacher says until you've done your own research.

Unfortunately most teachers are taught to teach the leftist view of things. And it is all propaganda with about 3-5% truth mixed in to make sure they have some content validity to get their point across.

Answer 6

There is actually nothing you can do to alter the climate and warming is a part of the process we know as climate. Its been changing for billions of years and humans have only been aware of climate for a few years

Answer 7

We can use solar or wind energy instead of powerplants.
We can stop deforestation since trees reduce carbon dioxide.

Answer 8

Visit the website below. It will describe what you can do to help (i.e. change lightbulbs to energy-savers, turn off the tv when you aren't watching it)...

Answer 9

chlorofluorocarbons (cfc's) used in some cans like hair sprays deplete the ozone layer and cause a bigger hole in the atmosphere which causes global warming so buy cans that say no cfc's.