There's global warming on Mars, Pluto, Neptune & its moon Triton-y do people think its SUVs causing Earth's?

Question

See Kegwin, et al, who wrote in Science, 1996:274:1504-1508, the mean surface temp of the Sargasso Sea, which was obtained by readings of isotope ratios in marine organism remains in sediment, which shows we are, today, below the three thousand year average, and far below the Medieval Climactic Optimum. E.g,, you can visit the Skaftafell Nat'l Park in Iceland, as I have, and historians know from extant deeds that somewhere around FORTY old Viking era farms are **currently** buried the Vatnajokull glacier system - i.e., it was warmer then! Y are people so close-minded on this issue? Are these the same people that think Dan Rather "really found a memo" too????

Answer 1

The sun (or, in the case of Mars, giant dust storms) may be responsible for the other planets, but it's not the main cause of global warming on Earth.

Actual data shows it's not the suns radiation that's the major cause of global warming on Earth, it's us. Solar radiation is carefully measured. Climatologists include it in their analysis.

The results are in the sites below. The data is verified and peer reviewed. Short version.

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.png

Long version. Increased solar radiation is 0.12 watts per meter squared. Man's warming is 1.6 watts per meter squared, more than ten times as much.

http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf Page 4.

What scientists think. Not from the "liberal" media.

""While evidence suggests fluctuations in solar activity can affect climate on Earth, and that it has done so in the past, the majority of climate scientists and astrophysicists agree that the sun is not to blame for the current and historically sudden uptick in global temperatures on Earth, which seems to be mostly a mess created by our own species."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,258342,00.html

Honestly, do you think the vast majority of the scientific community is that dumb and "closed minded"? Or that these people are?

"I wasn’t convinced by a person or any interest group—it was the data that got me. I was utterly convinced of this connection between the burning of fossil fuels and climate change. And I was convinced that if we didn’t do something about this, we would be in deep trouble.”

Vice Admiral Richard H. Truly, USN (Ret.)
Former NASA Administrator, Shuttle Astronaut and the first Commander of the Naval Space Command

"Global warming is real, now, and it must be addressed."

Lee Scott, CEO, Wal-Mart

"Our nation has both an obligation and self-interest in facing head-on the serious environmental, economic and national security threat posed by global warming."

Senator John McCain, Republican, Arizona

“DuPont believes that action is warranted, not further debate."

Charles O. Holliday, Jr., CEO, DuPont

Answer 2

I don't know where they got that Pluto warming thing. I have read the Pluto is cooling and in a few decades its thin atmosphere will freeze out completely onto the surface. That is because Pluto has a very eccentric orbit, and until recently it was at perihelion, actually closer to the Sun than Neptune. Now it is farther from the Sun than Neptune and moving farther all the time. No way it is warming. I have heard about Mars warming. Of course Mars was thought to be MUCH warmer in the distant past. There are various theories as to why Mars is warming, but the Sun getting hotter is not one of them. The output of the Sun is being measured by satellite now much more accurately than it can be measured from the ground, and it isn't getting warmer. And I have not heard about any other warmings, but there may be some. And coolings too. But of course nobody spends hours and day searching for references to cooling so that never gets posted here. Because that wouldn't be a good argument for solar system warming causing Earth's global warming. And lastly, I notice 2 of those links are not scientific web sites. They are hardly better than the National Enquirer.

Answer 3

There's 9 planets (if you include Pluto) and 163 moons in our solar system - five of them are warming, 167 of them aren't.

If you're going to claim that the Earth is warming due to solar variation then I trust you can explain why the Moon isn't warming, or Saturn, or Venus, or Deimos or Phobos or any of the other moons and planets.

Do you know what "ratios in marine organism remains in sediment" means?

The world is NOT warmer than the 3000 year average just as it isn't wamer then the Medieval Climactic Optimum (better known as the Medieval Warm Period).

Temperatures are currently about 0.5 degrees C above the maximum during the Medieval Warm Period http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:2000_Year_Temperature_Comparison_png and are the hottest they've been for 130,000 years http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Ice_Age_Temperature_Rev_png

Glaciers gouge out the earth, they are incredibly powerful and can literally move and shape mountains. If a farm got in the way of an advancing glacier it would be pushed out of the way on the same sort of scale that a bulldozer is to a Monoploy house.

There have been warmer periods in the past, glaciers have advanced and retreated, farms and other buildings have been destroyed. This doesn't affect the fact that temperatures are warmer now than at any time in modern history, that over 90% of the worlds glaciers are currently retreating or that in the last few dacades more than 50% of mountain glaciers have melted.

Answer 4

I am of the opinion that global warming is a POORLY understood concept that starts out with a flawed premise (i.e. that there is actually a physically valid global temperature).

The following five points are quotes from some sources that are not blogs, newspapers, magazines, TV news, or any other ill-informed non-scientific source. Rather these are excerpts from papers and lectures given by a number of different scientists. All but number 6 are peer reviewed materials.

Read what they say and think about the arguments they make. These are no longer voices in the wilderness, but rather they are part of a growing body of science that brings the concept of global warming into question.

1. "Inspection of the global atmospheric temperature
changes during the last 1,000 years (Fig. 11) shows that
the global average temperature dropped about 2C over
the last millennium."

2. "Despite the increasing trend in atmospheric CO2 concentration, the patterns of 20-year and 60-year oscillation of global temperature are all in falling."

3. "Distinct and equally valid statistical rules can and do show opposite trends when applied to the results of computations from physical models and real data in the atmosphere. A given temperature field can be interpreted as both 'warming' and 'cooling' simultaneously, making the concept of warming in the context of the issue of global warming physically ill-posed."

4. "The Arctic was as warm as or warmer in the late 1930s than it was at the end of the 20th century. "

5. "The main cause of climate change during the last millennia is the corresponding cyclic variation of the 80- and 200-year component of irradiance correlated with activity. That is why, the contemporary is not anomalous but is ordinary secular global warming."

Are these guys all crackpots, too?

Answer 5

Global warming is well known to be solar caused and happening in the whole solar system. It has also been shown many times to be part of a normal pattern.
Here it comes..... HOWEVER
We do not know what amount we are contributing (dont give me those carbon percentages, its more complex than that-think chaotic dynamics). What we do know is that even as part of the normal cycle, it includes extremes we cant cope with well. Why not take some action to try to limit it? Why not at the very least take some action to limit our contributions so that it doesnt get sped up? The safe way is the smart way in this case-take precautions and continue the studies so that we wont find out things cant be helped after its too late to do something.

Answer 6

Global warming on other planets is obviously not caused by SUVs. It is caused by other mechanisms. For example, on Mars it is caused by wobbling of the orbit, coupled with dust storms.

A lot of stupid people who get their "science" from listening to anti-scientists like Rush Limbaugh think that global warming on other planets proves global warming on Earth cannot be caused by greenhouse gasses. Buit that is like arguing that gangs in Los Angeles could not be responsible for bank robberies in Los Angeles because there are bank robberies in places without gangs.

Despite what you hear from crackpot political websites, and the nuts who parrot that garbage on internet message boards, almost every real scientist believes Man is causing significant global warming. The few oddballs who disagree are constantly recycled giving the impression that it is more than just a few kooks who disagree. Ther tobacco industry did the same thing--they paid a few kooks money to say that smoking is not harmful and that secondhand smoke is not harnful, and kept recycling them to give the impression there was a real controversy.

It is obvious to anyone with an IQ over 40 that most of the opposition to the science comes not from real scientific reasons, but because of a fanatic compulsion to trash Al Gore.

Answer 7

Great question! Glad there is still some sane thinking going on.Some links to further your intelligent stance.(Keep it up by the way.)
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=2f4cc62e-5b0d-4b59-8705-fc28f14da388