Is global warming really happening?

Question

I'm doing a project for school and I don't thing it's happening but I need other people's opinions as soon as possible.

Answer 1

Have you been stuck in a closet. Or what?!

No snow in places which usually experience snow during winter. Last winter to be more precise. And it snowed in places which have never experienced snow before.

Prolonged monsoon season in south east asia. Causing widespread flooding.

Rising sea levels which could wipe out low lying countries like the Maldives.

Hurricanes, forest fires.

Answer 2

This is a good question and deserves a good answer. Global warming is absolutely true. The evidence is overwhelming. Do a web search on today's (4/11/07) Washington Post. There have been articles on the IPCC Panel final report among others. The final report of the IPCC was released just a few days ago in Brussels. This report has concluded and provides with high confidence (which means 90% certainty) on a number of responses "including threshold changes in ecosystems in the living world all over the globe". It is very worthwhile reading.

Now the real doubts, the real questions remain as to what the causes for this warming are. Is it due entirely to fossil fuel burning and land use practices (CO2 and deforestation)? Or is it due to variations in solar insolation? Or is it due to other unknown causes or combinations of causes? Whatever the cause, the outcome is clear - we are warming and it is imperitive that we find out why, how much, how long, and future consequences as well as those we are currently observing with a 90% confidence level. Ice sheets are melting, climates such as those in the desert SW of the US, and parts of the middle east are experiencing desertification, sea levels are rising, the polar ice caps are melting, and species are disappearing. It is estimated that some 20-30% of the world's species will disappear if the world warms another 2.7 to 4.5 deg F.

Answer 3

There is pretty good evidence that the climate is getting warmer. Glaciers are melting and average temperatures are up in most areas. This may be part of a natural cycle, because there was even more warming in the middle ages, when the Vikings established colonies in Greenland, and it cooled off after that, until weather in the 1600s was so cold that it is now known as the little ice age. But most people think it is being caused artificially by all the carbon dioxide that is being added to the air from widespread burning so much coal, oil and natural gas.

Answer 4

Global climate change has been happening since the earth formed 4.6 billion years ago. Why should it stop just because humans are around? The scientific community is as sure as scientists get about the fact we are warming up. Nearly all scientific literature attribute it to raising CO2 from burning fossil fuels (the others think it is from paving over large areas and building cities plays a slightly bigger role.) If you don't believe me look up the IPCC reports. They are an international look at the research being done to understand global warming.

Answer 5

This is science. Opinions don't prove anything. "Logical" arguments don't prove anything. The data is what's important and the scientific data says global warming is happening and it's mostly caused by us.

Very short version:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.png

The best summary of the data available:

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

Scientists have seen much stranger things than global warming proved to be true by data. So the data, not "logical" arguments, is what they go by. The data is why why the vast majority of scientists agree that it's real and mostly caused by us. Data about that here:

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

If you want to know more, here's the best website (warning - it's very big) with lots of data:

http://www.realclimate.org

"climate science from climate scientists"

By the way short term weather in a specific location can do just about anything anything. So short term weather does not prove or disprove global warming. You need to look at data in a large area over many years. That's what climatologists do.

Answer 6

I think it is global cooling as it has been much cooler than normal. The environmentalist say that doesn't count but if u only accept data to prove your point that is not science . and your results will be false.

Answer 7

yes it realy is

scientists who work for politicians ,get paid by these politicians and they have downplayed the facts because solutions are expensive and means change and change effects many peoples incomes,and upsets profit margins,so most of the world is kept in the dark of the real things that are going on.for political and economic reasons


Global warming is a very complex collection of many effects

this text only covers some aspects of global warming mainly man made desertification

industrial contamination ,the contaminating effects of the cities ,is another story

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 very few 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..
and there are 70 million more peole every year that have to eat and drink and wash

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.



http://www.greenpeace.org/international/...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/natur...



if forrest are being exchanged for ashalt,concrete and desserts
what is gonna keep this planet habitable for us

Global warming is in theory reversable,but it will mean global co operation between all countries ,and taking into account human nature and the world politics ,it is unlikely that this will happen,

At least not untill we are all in the middle of planetary disastres and it becomes a battle for the survival of humanity every where.

SOLUTIONS
if you want to help the planet ,plant a tree every week ,if everyone on the planet did we we would be able to reverse the destructive processes

reduce carbon emisions,and they are already working on that by alternative forms of energy and regulations on carbon producing materials,aerosol cans,burning rubbish,industrial chimneys,powerplants etc.

the capture of carbon and the production of water and assist the aquiferous manta.

the world bank pays large subsidies for reforrestation to capture carbon and the best tree for this is the Pawlonia

Waterharvesting projects ,such as millions of small dams.to redirect over ground waterflows from the rains into the ground to supply subteranian water supplies.

the protection of existing forrests.

stop building more highways,urban planning to include vegetation stop building cities encourage people to return to the land to conduct their business from there which now has become possible thanks to the internet.

education to motivate people to auto sufficiency by building more home food gardens.

education on environmental awareness
education on family planning to curb over´populaion

Agricultural education and improvements to follow the principals or sustainability and soil management.

and improve economis situations for people who live in areas where deforestation has become their only alternative for survival ,which is a short term solution that has long term negative effects

try to replace farming with eco tourism,

more environmental or land ,design to prevent bush fires,such as--fire breaks

,more dams.regulations and control for public behaviour

alternative effeciant public transport to discourage the use of the internal conbustion engine

recicling wastes,limit water use

here are a 100 more ways


http://www.eco-gaia.net/forum-pt/index.p... Source

Answer 8

Trust me im 51 and the world is getting warmer,weather we have caused it or weather its a natural phenomenal i dont know,only time will tell,you will here many sheep follow one line and vica-versa,best thing for you to do is just follow your heart and do what you think best.

Answer 9

YES... it is well established by 98 percent of the world's scientists. The only people who don't believe it are the 'experts' who have been hired by the oil companies to put out mis-information.

By 2012, you won't have to ask if it's real because much of South Florida will be underwater..

Answer 10

1. There has been a statistically significant increase in Earth's average temperature since the start of the industrial revolution.

The planet's average temperature has increased by about 0.6
degrees Celsius in the past century. In global terms this is significant: there is a difference of just 6 degrees Celsius between the average global temperature during the last ice age and today's average temperature. The warming of the past century is significant also in that it is truly global in scale. There have been regional warmings and coolings in the past thousand years, such as the "Little Ice Age" and the "Mediaeval Warm Period", but these probably did not affect the whole planet, and were smaller than the temperature change which has been measured over the past century. Northern Hemisphere records of past climate indicate that the 1990s were probably the warmest decade of the whole millennium.

2. Scientific measurements of the planet's temperature are reliable and soundly based.

Measurements of the Earth's average surface temperature are based on tens of thousands of observations taken daily around the planet on land and at the ocean surface - a record going back to 1861 whose reliability has been very carefully assessed. The five warmest years globally since that date all occurred in the 1990s, and the ten warmest years since 1983. Several groups of scientists have studied temperature measurements from thousands of climate stations and worked to remove any bias such as those caused by urban heat islands. A warming trend has been observed over the oceans for the last century as well as over the land, and this cannot be explained by urban development. The short satellite record, of temperatures about three kilometres above the ground, shows less warming than the surface since 1979. Balloon measurements agree but show warming prior to 1978. There is emerging evidence of physically real differences between surface and 3 km temperature trends over a decade or two.

3. It is a basic fact of physics that when carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere, the planet will warm.

Carbon dioxide traps the sun's heat. The more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the warmer we can expect the planet to become. Quantities of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have been rising steadily since the late nineteenth century. In addition several other gases such as methane that trap the sun's heat have also increased. The rate of warming resulting from these extra "greenhouse gases" is not uniform. The planet has many complex processes going on in its oceans, land masses and weather patterns.

Measurements of changes in carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere, and temperature from the Vostock ice core record in Antarctica. Today's levels of carbon dioxide and methane are indicated on the right. Also indicated are changes in heat from the sun, measured as solar radiation, received at higher Northern Hemisphere latitudes.

However, ice cores tracking global temperatures, carbon dioxide and methane concentrations, going back more than 440 thousand years, show that when carbon dioxide and methane concentrations are low, the Earth's temperature is lower, and vice-versa. Today's carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere are higher than they have been in the past 440,000 years at least.

4. Computer models, which map present and likely future changes in temperature and climate, have improved in the past few years.

Computer models of global climate have become significantly more reliable in the past few years. They can now skilfully reproduce global temperatures and sea-level rise over the last century - an important aspect of validating their results - and their ability to produce probable future scenarios, given a set increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, has improved. They have reproduced well the course of a brief cooling episode due to the Mt Pinatubo volcanic eruption.

5. There is good agreement among the world's climate scientists that the increasing amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are warming the planet and changing climate.

This agreement was reached after rigorous mathematical comparisons of recent climate change and the signatures of climate change expected from changing greenhouse gases as determined from climate models. Surface and lower atmospheric temperatures have increased, while those in the stratosphere have decreased as expected. There is always a place for scientific criticism of scientific conclusions. However, it would be unwise to dismiss the weight of evidence assembled by the world's best climate scientists. The countries of the world agreed in 1992 that the evidence showed that the treat of global warming and climate change was sufficiently great to demand international action to prevent dangerous changes to the planet's climate. This agreement was not reached lightly and should not be dismissed lightly.

6. Warmer temperatures can spark large and at times sudden changes in the stability of Earth's processes and ecosystems.

These are not yet usually included in scientific predictions of how global warming might further change the details of climate. Our climate is the product of a complex range of interlocking reactions between air, ocean, land and ice masses. A change in global temperature of the size expected as greenhouse gases continue to increase, can spark a broad range of consequential changes. Some might be beneficial, but some might not be. The most serious negative effects will include sea level rise which will continue for many decades even if greenhouse gases were stabilised. Some global warming also leads to further warming. For example, as the planet's snow and ice masses melt with warmer temperatures, global warming increases because there is no longer such a broad expanse of white ice to reflect the sun's incoming heat directly back to space. Plants absorb more carbon dioxide when it is available, and this increases their growth rates. However, their respiration rate also rises and increased soil moisture stresses due to warmer temperatures may cause net increases in plant stresses in many regions, though not all. So although not all changes will be detrimental, many ecosystems will come under stress as they are regionally tuned to the current climate.

7. As temperatures rise, so will sea levels.

This is mainly based on the simple fact that as the oceans warm, they will expand. The oceans take a long time to fully absorb the extra heat in the atmosphere. For decades after carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere have been reduced, the oceans will continue to swell as the extra warmth in the atmosphere makes its way down to the deeper ocean. In addition, melting of the mountain glaciers will contribute to the total sea level rise. This will be partially offset by growth in the Antarctic ice cap arising from more snowfall around the edges. Throughout the 20th century there has been a consistent rise in sea level of around 1 to 2 cm per decade. This rise is expected to accelerate as the oceans take up more and more of the extra heat in the atmosphere.

8. In a warmer world, more rainfall extremes are likely, with changes in climate extremes.

One of the greater certainties of climate science is that as temperatures rise, so will the amount of water in the atmosphere. This is partly because more warmth means faster evaporation, and also because a warmer atmosphere can hold more water. Therefore the heaviest rainfall is expected to become heavier except in those regions where substantial drying occurs because of climate change. There will be important implications for flood protection, water supply, drainage, agriculture, horticulture, the hydroelectricity industry and a wide range of other sectors.

Extremes such as a high temperature can be expected. Because there is a lot of year to year and decade to decade natural variability there is not enough information to provide definitive conclusions on trends in cyclones or hurricanes. Climate models still have insufficient detail to provide definitive predictions.

9. Climate change caused by global warming will have many detrimental effects on human populations, and on ecosystems.

For example, warmer temperatures allow temperature-limited disease-carrying insects such as mosquitoes to expand their range. Malaria has recently appeared in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, where previously it was too cold for mosquitoes to survive. Other potential human health threats include an increase in the number of deaths from heat stress, as the number of very hot days increases together with higher humidity levels. Threats to ecosystems include the danger that the speed of warming, which is likely to be unprecedented in human history, could result in large-scale die-back of forests, as temperatures become too hot for trees to survive.

10. Changes in temperatures observed over the past century cannot be explained away as merely examples of the natural variability in climate.

Climate is by definition variable. However, a wide range of careful studies shows that the changes in global temperature observed during the 20th century, including some patterns of change, were likely to have been significantly greater than those resulting from natural variability alone. The world's best climate scientists agree that the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible influence on global temperature. This conclusion is steadily being strengthened.

so now judge by yourself