Is global warming for real? Has it been exaggerated? Or is former Vice President Al Gore right?

Question

I tend to believe what I have seen in the documentry An Inconvienent Truth. The info in the film checks out with other sources.

But still, there are some who think that Gore's claims are inaccurate or simply wrong.

I thought this was a question worth asking here.

So is global warming for real?

Answer 1

You'll get lots of answers saying it's not, but none will offer any actual scientific evidence, just blather about a liberal plot and all that.

Answer 2

Vice President Al Gore is a career politician, not a scientist. I'm sure he's got good intentions, but he's engaging in bad science. We know that the world is getting warmer. We also know that it does that about every 15,000 years or so. What we don't know is if it's happening faster this time, if we caused it, if we can do anything about it, or if it's even a problem. Good science takes time and study- and we only noticed this about 30 years ago. That might sound like a long time, but when you're discussing cycles that happen in the range of 30,000 it isn't. Making political noise about it is simply alarmist and distractionary. There's other things the government should be working on right now, and when the Scientists actually know something they'll tell us. For a great example, read the book "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton.

Answer 3

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 4

Depends on what you want to believe!!!! Global warming is real, but it has happened many times before, as witnessed in geological investigation, and also in historical records. Weather patterns have only been documented continually for about 250 years. We don't know what short term cycles really are, let alone long term ones. Many of the recorded cycles occured befor the use of fossil fuels. Although they may contribute to the trend, they are not the only cause!!!! More greenhouse gases were emitted into the atmosphere during the Mt St. Helens eruption, than in all the years of fossil fuel consumption combined. Why does Al chose to leave that tid bit out of his slide show? Because he is a politician with an agenda, and he's selling something!!!!!

Answer 5

Don't believe Al Gore concerning this issue. He has basically become a special interest spokesman for this issue and thus has lost a lot of credibility. Instead, use what your eyes and mind tell you. The intensity of storms over the past decade or so has increased. The length of winters has decreased. If you look at the climate in the mid- Atlantic states, it is almost a mirror image of the climate that Florida used to have in the eighties. The climate in Florida now reflects the climate of Mexico back in the eighties also. That means that everything is warming up and heading north. That heat is definitely reaching the polar ice caps and ice doesn't do well in heat.

I work at a job that is directly effected by weather. I have several amounts of databases to track past weather conditions to try and forecast current conditions. The conditions I have seen before does show increased storm intensity with a slight increase in frequency. Not at the rate that Gore wants us to believe, but then again don't trust someone who has completely sold themselves to special interests, no matter what party they belong to.

Answer 6

Almost everything in science is based on theory, but it's hard to see why people would deny the existence of global warming except to support their political party. Environmental issues are usually concerned by the liberals which is why conservatives try to be rebellious and refuse that it exists. Hello! The environment effects everyone and should not be tossed around between biases and prejudice between political parties. There's definitely something wrong with the weather up there and so far, only global warming can explain it. All the gas emission and pollution that we've been causing since the Industrial Revolution HAS to go somewhere. For every cause, there's an effect.

Answer 7

The world is currently in a warming period between ice ages. It is still controversial whether human carbon emissions are a significant part of the process. The documentary exaggerated the impact of the process because it is pushing a political agenda for a demagogue. Read Michael Crichton's State Of Fear for a real good discussion of the issue in a novel format.

Answer 8

Yup!!! It's for real....it's not exaggerated.....Big Al is absolutely dead on the mark with this one.
There are too many signs every where in the world pointing to this urgent problem....
and as for the naysayers who are quick to point out all of the lack of evidence and cyclical ignorance.....go look at some of the closer wilderness areas in Maine or New Hampshire and you'll see what climate change has done to it...
Declining water tables for the last 20 years, declining wild life, dwindeling streams and lakes....the list goes on and on and on.......so let's all go out and use more fossil fuels and see if we can get this sucker really warmed up huh?.......
Even if Big Al is wrapped up in special interests groups...so what...if things were to improve the environment and slow the rate of global warming down just a little so that we won't all melt in a 100 years, is that such a bad thing? Who are these idiots that think it's ok to continue the track record of the past?. Do you think big oil is just the right thing to make the world a better place? OOOhhhh Yeaaahhhh.......all of those OPECKER's just love that idea...

Answer 9

The sun rises and sets every day. Can you do anything about that? No. Just like global warming; it is cyclical. This has happened many times before. I doubt anyone was worried about it and quit driving their SUVs in the 12th century the last time it happened. Al Gore is "Chicken Little" trying make money and stay relevant. He doesn't matter anymore.

Answer 10

Yeah So What

One degree in 100 years So run out and buy a cheap little car for more than it's worth.