why can't people understand that global warming and cooling has been going on since the beginning of time?

Question

when you look back through the prehistic eras there are many times where the climate was much warmer and much colder than the climate is now. So what makes the earth warming such an issue now when this is cyclical and has more to do with the shifting of poles the ellipticall distance from the sun and shifts in the earths crust....help me understand why we have to have global warming as an issue thrown in our face daily when this is obviously a natural cycle that we play just a tiny part in. Next we will be having people try to take our wetlands away due to the fact that they are a large contibuter to the warming trend. Did you know that decaying folliage is also a contributer to co2 but you burnt the folliage this would also contribute to increasing co2 levels so what gives.

Answer 1

liberal control of education system? think NEA

Answer 2

The points you make are valid. During the period we have climate data for (542 million years) the world has gone through 4 ice age cycles and each time has been significantly warmer and cooler than it is now. We're currently in a short term warming cycle that's been ongoing for 18,000 years; we're also in a long term cooling cycle which has been ongoing for 50 million years. These natural changes occur over very long periods of time with minute annual temperature changes.

The last glacial retreat was brough about by an extremely rapid rise in temperatures around the world, some 7°C in 7,500 years. In natural terms this is a phenomenal temperature increase. In the 10,000 years following the glacial retreat temps rose naturally by a further 1°C.

In the last 25 years temps have risen by 0.39°C, 40 times as fast as when the glaciers were retreating, 390 times as fast as in the preceding 10,000 years.

The shifting of the poles has no bearing on global temperatures, this is a magnetic variation only; it doesnlt affect the position of the earth in any way. Eliptical distance is a seasonal variation and affects temperatures only on a seasonal basis. The mean distance between the sun and earth is virtually unchanged (we're actually moving ever so slightly further away from the sun).

Wetlands and other biomass produce greenhouse gases but this forms part of a balanced natural cycle. Annually 120 billion tons of CO2 are absorbed by vegetation and soil whilst at the same time they release 119 billion tons. The oceans also absorb more than they release and each year there's a net loss of 3 billion tons of CO2 from the atmopshere due to natural cycles. Last year humans emitted 29 billion tons of CO2, far more than nature can handle and this is causing a serious imbalance.

Answer 3

People do understand this, in fact the climatologists, oceanographers, and others who study climate change know this very well. What is amazing is all the people who think the scientists don't know these things and have not taken them into account. I mean, do you really think the scientists have not accounted for this?

The scientists are the ones who discovered the evidence of these past fluctuations in the earth's climate and temperature and the scientists are the ones telling us about those past fluctuations, so how is it that you think the scientists are not aware of these things and have not taken them into account?

It is their ability to look at the past changes through the geological evidence that allows them to see that what is occurring now is beyond what we could expect to naturally occur (given 80 million years or so of geological evidence to draw from). The scientists can also explain to you the entire climate system and how the "greenhouse gases" following the standard undisputed laws of physics and chemistry are causing an artificial warming effect.

What gives is that it is a complex climate system and the science is difficult for scientists to explain to people in plain English so there is room for all sorts of detractors (most of whom are not scientists and have no real knowledge of climate science) to say the scientists are a bunch of incompetents who don't know anything.

Something I don't understand is that the people who think the scientists are incompetents apparently also believe that human beings can dump enormous amounts of garbage into the air for decades upon decades and not face any negative repurcussions for the pollution. Why would anyone believe that when it goes against all science and common sense known about pollution and the environment?

By the way, to argue against another answerer, there is great profit to be had in understanding. Switching to a green economy (it's still capitalism just with a green twist) can solve not only the climate change crisis (if we hurry), but most other environmental crises as we are talking about eliminating nearly all waste and pollution (we have the technology, it is the will to invest in it to develop it further and employ it that is lacking, although the tide is changing and the green revolution is truly beginning now -- I've been doing research on "sustainable capitalism," "green business," and sustainable/green architecture, building design and construction). AND if we are using renewable and reusable resources, we have a greater chance of a more socially just and less tense, peaceful world as our concept of "limited resources and competition" changes under a new reality. You see, global climate change may be a crisis, but it is also a golden opportunity for humankind to take a big step forward in consciousness and social evolution. If we want, we can take what is now a crisis and turn it into humanity's greatest achievement instead. We'll meet with other challenges past environmental crisis, but we'll also be better able as a more united humanity to deal with those crises.

Paul.
http://360.yahoo.com/reynoldseblacas

Answer 4

I think most people do understand this.
What YOU don't seem to understand is that the "little" (or maybe not so little) part we play in this climate change cycle is significant because it could cause drastic changes in the relatively near future.

It only takes a feather to tip a delicately balanced scale.

You need to read about the concepts of feedback mechanisms and thresholds.

Answer 5

There's no profit in understanding. But there's billions to be made in exploitation. there's no doubt in my mind that man does play a part in changing our world. Remember this sientific observation? "For ever action there's a reaction." Man's dumping in our oceans and polluting our atmosphere are causing changes and not for the better. Ever see the movie Soilent Green? Just how long it will be before our world will be uninhabital is hard to say. But I'm pretty sure our so called leaders will blow it up before then.

Answer 6

why is it so hard to think that we arnt speeding it up? we're DUMPING co2 and a crapload of other emissions into the air. DUMPING them. global warming and cooling is natural but we are definitly acting like catalysts. death is natural but let say a person shoved somebody over a cliff- yeah they were gonna die anyways and their death was natural but it was sped up but another factor that could have been stopped.

there has been technology for better gas mileage or other forms of power (esp. for cars) for years, but that would affected the stock market, we can destroy the only home we have but DO NOT do anything to disrupt the stock market.

i understand i'm being a little extreme, and i'm not a tree hugger really, but i do think we need to stop acting like humanity is the reason the world exists, we need to start behaving like we're stuck on this planet at least for a couple more years and start making noticable efforts to preserve it.