Is there really a problem with global warming?

Question

Or is this some way for governments to control us? Why are some scientists saying we are actually cooling down and then there are others who say the globe is warming and we are to blame? Do WE really know how to fix the problem?

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008597

http://www.oism.org/oism/s32p686.htm

http://www.denverpost.com/harsanyi/ci_3899807

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/278/5341/1251

Answer 1

I think there is global warming. But, I don't think it's because of the reasons Al Gore claims. They are part of the problem, but not all. The earth has gone through warming trends in the past and this appears to be a normal cycle it is going through. However, humans may be hastening it some what.

Also, the earth periodically changes its axis and magnet fields move about in the earths core; having influence on the weather, ocean currents, etc. In addition to this, the earth's orbit around the sun changes over time and causes the earth to warm and cool depending on how close it gets to it. These are all events that have happened in the past and will happen in the future.

There is nothing the human race can do to change this except take better care of the only place we have to live.

Answer 2

Charlatans have been scaring us about environmental doom for a long time. Man made global warming is just the latest one. Former ones include Global Cooling, the Population Bomb, periodic predictions of running out of oil over the last century.

The simple fact is that the climate changes all the time. Always has, always will. There are cities that early civilizations abandoned because the climate changed. There are ancient cities that are now underwater, because sea levels rose. These happened well before industrialization. From around 1100 to 1300, the earth went through a very warm spell, warmer than now. Then after that it went through what is called the Little Ice Age, which was significantly cooler than now. We've been warming since then.

We're told the glaciers are melting. News flash! The glaciers have been melting on and off since the last ice age. We're simply in an "on" cycle again. Only now, supposedly it is man's fault. I'm not convinced.

Oh by the way, the Mars polar ice caps are melting too. Those Martians must be driving SUVs too.

I'm not ready to completely deny it outright, but I think we need a lot more science done to make it convincing that man is the cause of global warming. And even then, we need to consider:
1. What are the realistic effects, both positive and negative. They can't be all negative, right? If the polar bears become extinct, won't other life thrive in the warmer temps, including man!
2. Would the trillions we spend to stop global warming be worth it? Could we not invest those trillions by helping the worlds populations become more prosperous, with safer food and water, better eduction, better medical care, etc. As they become richer, they'll be able to deal better with climate changes.

Answer 3

99+% of scientists around the world believe global warming is real and mostly caused by us. The reason is that skeptics have "logical" arguments and proponents have the data. This is science and the data wins.

Here are two summaries of the mountain of peer reviewed data, short and long.

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

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

There's a lot less controversy about this is the real world than there is on Yahoo answers:

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/329.php?nid=&id=&pnt=329&lb=hmpg1

And vastly less controversy in the scientific community than you might guess from the few skeptics talked about here:

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

"There's a better scientific consensus on this [climate change] than on any issue I know - except maybe Newton's second law of dynamics. Global warming is almost a no-brainer at this point,You really can't find intelligent, quantitative arguments to make it go away."

Dr. Jerry Mahlman, NOAA

Bottom line:

"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

How to fix the problem:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,481085,00.html

And what happens if we do nothing:

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL052735320070407

Good websites for more info:

http://profend.com/global-warming/

http://www.realclimate.org

"climate science from climate scientists"

Answer 4

The earth has warmed up during the past century. Most scientists accept that as fact. What is the cause of this warming? The popular theory is that co2 in the atmosphere is heating up the world, and humans by burning oil and fossil fuels for coal burning power plants are contributing to it. So according to them we have to burn less oil, and use less

There is also the belief that it is not humans but the sun that contributed to the earth's warming. Scientists long held this belief and would measure the sunspot activity going back centuries. Sunspot activity strongly correllates with levels of Carbon 14 and Berrylium 10 isotopes found in tree rings and ice cores. Therefore, accurate, long term reconstructions of sunspot activity can be made with low margins of error. The reconstructions of sunspot activity correlate strongly with almost every reconstruction of global temperature.

After the sun produces heat, the oceans store the heat like a battery stores electricity. Unlike the land which reflects heat back into space very quickly, solar heat is absorbed into ocean water and trapped there. This is a very important point because when people look at global warming over time, they do not consider the cumulative heat effect of the warming ocean. As the sun’s total irradiance has increased over the last 150 years, the basis of global temperature, sea surface temperature increased. Thus, as the sun shines on the ocean year after year, the solar heat this year is basiclly added to the solar heat of the previous years.

Heat in the ocean is distributed around the Earth by various ocean currents then released back into the atmosphere.

A growing body of “empirical” evidence suggests that solar activity, its amplifiers such as cosmic ray flux and the resulting feedbacks such as increased atmospheric water vapor and decreased albedo are responsible for as much as 95% of 20th century warming.

A recent paper by Dr. Jan Veizer of Ottawa, Canada, based on dozens of studies and his own research of 40 years, concluded that solar activity has been the “climate driver” for billions of years. While the climate can be affected by the many factors , it is the sun and its effects that have caused changes in climate for 4 billion years. Dr Veizer first set out to prove that CO2 was historically what caused changes in climate, but noted, “Personally, this last decade has been a trying period because of the years of internal struggle between what I wanted to believe and where the empirical record and its logic were leading me.”

So why are some scientist saying we are heading into global cooling? Because they are projecting a low level of sun spot activity.

Answer 5

No we don't know how to fix the problem. The USA is blamed for most of the damage but after traveling abroad I am not so sure the blame is put on the right culprits.
We can't even be sure their is a real problem because the earth's history show these cycles could be normal

Answer 6

what kind of world r u staying in everyone is all but screaming about global warming the scientist have already declared that in the wake of such a disaster we have 7 years to restore the environment if not we won't be able to live or save the planet the climate is turning warmer and the snow off cold areas is melting so that we will either die of heat of drown to our deaths we must do something about

Answer 7

If Al Gore says it, doesn't it HAVE to be true? I mean, aren't we using his internet? ;)

Seriously, the historical record using tree rings, ice layers, etc. show that global warming isn't happening.

There have actually been documented periods in earth's history where the levels of carbon dioxide have much much higher than they are now & the disasters being predicted now didn't happen then. In fact, one of those instances either caused an ice age & happened during the ice age. I'll have to go look that one up again.

Answer 8

FACT OR FICTION
many North Americans are used to fiction and they feel more comfortable with fairytales instead of the truth,

Many blindly believe that our fate is in Gods hands ,and their focus is on the beautifull heaven that awaits ,they are not to concerned with the world their children will inherrit

there may come a time that for the sake of our survival the two views will be seperated in to Enemies and friends of the planet

World leaders are not concerned with the well being of the masses ,on the contrary .it was stated at a conference in Copenhagen,in 1998,by An American statesman , that the Agenda demanded a decrease in the world population of 60%,and you cannot achieve this if you start saving everybody.

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

HOWEVER CLIMATE CHANGE IS FACT FOR MILLIONS
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 mans existance has its effects,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 many 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

We as humanity can behave in a less stressful manner as far as the Environment is concerned ,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, Source(s) Lester E Brown is the director and founder of the global institute of Environment in the United states .he has compiled a report based on all the satalite information available from NASA,and all the information that has
come from Universities and American embassies WORLD WIDE ,
his little book--a planet under stress , Plan B has been trans lated into many languages and won the best book award in 2003

Answer 9

Every climate approach on Earth is temperature pushed, be it the wind, rain, snow, fog and many others. Any difference to the volume of warmth to be had to force our climate goes to intent disruption to climate on a international scale. This isn’t to mention that it is going to continuously be catastrophic and it needn’t be a foul factor both. The media generally tend to cognizance at the poor facets of international warming however there are positives as good. On the plus aspect there’s extra rainfall in a few drought susceptible places, deaths and ailments regarding bloodless climate are lowering, in a few locations developing seasons were multiplied, many crops and animals select hotter stipulations, melting permafrost has spread out new places for agriculture, greater altitude land can now be harvested and farmed, we don’t have to use as a lot vigor for heating, melting glaciers are offering safe water presents in places wherein water was once intermittent or scarce, massive melting within the Arctic method ships are ready to sail circular the north of Canada and Russia. The down aspect is that sea-stages are emerging that's inundating low-mendacity coastal places and contaminating recent flooring-water assets; a few island groups were evacuated and others are within the method of being evacuated now. The quantity of heatwaves has doubled, the quantity of heatwave days has tripled, deaths from heatwaves have rocketed. Rainfall stages have elevated globally, there’s been a 5 fold develop within the quantity of floods. This has resulted in trendy crop destruction, over one hundred million folks displaced and approximately 30 million left homeless. Because alterations to the elements aren’t steady, there’s additionally been a massive develop within the quantity of droughts. As a difficult rule of thumb – the rainy locations are becoming wetter and the dry locations are becoming drier. A outcome of drier climate is that the land turns to abandon, in China by myself greater than 1 folks have misplaced their houses and land to encroaching deserts. Loss of efficient land is main to conflicts and fuelling. The struggle in Darfur began over tribal rivalries, at present it’s as a lot approximately manipulate of the rest valuable land. Whilst a few farmers are making the most of hotter climate the international photograph is extra miserable, principally in Africa and Asia wherein crop screw ups are a lot more average than they was. Globally, meals construction has fallen underneath the sustainable stage for the primary time in human historical past (it continuously was inconsistently shared out however now, even though it have been all shared similarly, there might nonetheless be shortages). Half the sector’s glaciers external the Polar areas have melted. Millions rely on glacial meltwater for his or her plants and consuming water. As presents have failed they’ve been pressured to desert their land and migrate. This is principally so for the colossal quantity of folks dwelling within the shadow of the Himalayan mountains. The hotter local weather is warming the sector’s oceans that is main to a discount in alkalinity (acidification) that's impacting on marine existence. Especially susceptible are plankton which sort the groundwork of the whole marine meals chain. Diseases unfold greater in hot, damp stipulations. Germs and micro organism thrive and sickness vectors monitor the increasing isotherms. Dozens of temperature touchy illnesses at the moment are going on in hitherto unaffected places. There’s a colossal monetary burden, Sir Nicolas Stern, the previous Chief Economist with the World Bank headed a record that observed the present rate of local weather difference is $six hundred billion a yr with losses anticipated to arrive $two trillion a yr by means of 2050. By and enormous the folks within the built international would be the least affected. Not most effective are we external the places which are experiencing essentially the most massive local weather alterations, however we even have the assets to mitigate towards most of the results. The penalties in Africa and Asia are a lot more mentioned, their already fragile lifestyles is way more inclined to disruption and it’s in those poorer countries that the consequences of local weather difference are rather hitting tough.

Answer 10

No. Its completly over hyped . Our planet has been much warmer and much colder. A cows produces more "harmfull" gases then the average car.


Interesting articel

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=649152007