How long will it be before Global Warming will start to hurt our future?

Answer 1

Firstly I would like to comment of Spitfires answer; hurricanes, tornadoes and especially tsunamis are not caused by global warming, these events have been taking place long before, and will continue to be so, despite global warming.

I think that what most people have mis-interpretated is the usage of the word global warming. I see on here people thinking its going to be some form of 'heating up of the earth caused by polluting the atmosphere with massive amounts of CO2. In reality though CO2 only accounts for approx 0.014% of the atmosphere, thats a tiny amount. Secondly, the oceans contains just over two thirds of the total amount of CO2 on the planet as dissolved CO2 in water. During cold periods, such as a mini ice age, the total volume of CO2 absorbed by the oceans is greater than that released but when temperatures rise (for whatever reason) the volume of CO2 released is greater than that absorbed. The temperatures of the oceans currently are increasing. However, the data that is produced and has been latched onto by the media/governments does not take into account this variation. Also, the time of year measurements are taken has quite an effect!
Another factor that has been ignored is the ability of the oceans to conduct heat; the more saltier the oceans are the greater the heat transfer due to the ionic content. Now at present there seems to be a link between the volume of salt in the oceans and the melting of the ice caps; in other words there is an increase in the salinity of the ocean water that increases the conductivity of the heat transfer which limits the formation of new ice on the sea surface.

One point I will make and I do hope that you take this on board as its probably the most important piece is that the planet's temperature increases and decreases in response to varying factors; predominately solar radiation of the sun and rotation tilt and distance of the planet from the sun!

I don't think that encouraging people to be more cautious about the materials that we use and to promote recycling is a bad thing, actually its quite a good idea. Using re-newable sources of fuel as apposed to finite sources is only going to be beneficial in the long term, both sustainability and economy wise. However, one thing I will protest and I do so with quite a passion, is when governments use things such as the Stern report for policy, which written by an labour economist I might add, automatically become scientific fact even though Mr Stern is not a scientist. I trust the respected scientist, I don't trust the politician!

I have included a link below to the CO2 organisation whom are comprised of very highly respected international scientists in various fields of science, from biology, chemistry, physics, geology that have spent their entire lifetime researching CO2 and its effects on the planet. Please read it, you will learn something regarding the effects of CO2, temperature and Global Warming.

Answer 2

You have to realize that climate changes just as weather changes. Climate just is a longer period of time.

The earth came out of the last ice age with no help from anyone just as it will go into the next ice age regardless of what we do. It has been getting warmer and warmer for the last 10,000 years with some fluctuations downwards for a few centuries and then rebounding. If politicians and scientists had been alive then, I wonder if global warming would have been an issue.

This is a natural cycle. Has mankind impacted it, it's been even warmer in the past. No one can say for certainty or is willing to put their professional reputation on the line. Read what is said with a critical eye. The terms "I think" or other vague terms are used. This is not the same as saying "Without a doubt this will happen" which actually locks the person into a position.

A million people screaming "global warming is happening" does not make it true.

Answer 3

Each day the Earth is getting effected by global warming more and more. If no one starts realizing what this can do then the future that everyone thinks of with flying cars and cities and factories will turn into a giant burning waste!

Answer 4

Anthony asks why anybody would make it up.

Well, it is not a case of making things up. There is a measurable increase in global warmth/ What can be grossly exaggerated (not actually made up) is the effects of that warming.

And why would anyone want to exaggerate the likely effects.

Politicians - so that they can gain votes by appearing that they are going to save the world from disaster.

Scientists - they will get massive funding if they go into research to try to forecast and alleviate global warming. And of course, it is the Politicians who say yeh or nay to that funding, so the Polticians fanaticism feeds the scientists, so to speak.

I am not saying 100% this is what is happening, but just answering Anthony's question above.

Politicians and scientists have jumped on bandwagons before. Where livlihood and lifestyles are concerned, money comes before morals many times.

Answer 5

Not sure it will come to that before other factors connected with global air pollution hurts our future by causing unprecedented numbers of lung disease, emphysema, and cancers. Or triggering large scale war to compete for remaining natural resources. In the case of oil, it's already starting.

In geological time, 500 years is a mere blink of an eye. The numbers measuring the rate of melting of our polar ice caps indicate that the Earth's albedo (its ability to reflect the sun's energy by having reflective white ice polar caps) will go down, which definitely means less and less of the sun's energy will be reflected back into space, which means (no-brainer) that it will get warmer and warmer. People talk about how the Earth goes through cycles naturally, Ice Ages, etc. But the Earth in all of its history did not have to deal with air pollution on this scale because this many cars and other industrial pollution did not exist. So, even though 500 years may seem like a long time, and certainly you and I will be beyond caring by that time, future generations may curse us yet for what we've done to them. Hopefully by then techonogly will exist that is capable of effecting a positive change on the environmental health of the Earth. Who knows.

But runaway heating by the loss of the Earth's reflectivity index is a very real possibility. And this is not theory, the melting of the polar caps is well documented by scientists from all over the world, not by Al Gore or some political party with an agenda, but by people who do this for a living, and use precise surveyor equipment, photographs, and maps, to precisely pinpoint where the ice shelf was, say, 3 years ago and how much it has receded. The rate is alarming and we have lost ice cap masses bigger than the state of Texas in just a few years. And it just makes me shake my head in pity when someone says they don't care about the polar bears. Sad as that statement is on its face, maybe they will care about their own, because the predicament of the polar bears is only a symptom of exactly what I have been talking about -- the shrinking of the Earth's polar ice.

Answer 6

The earth has been warming up since the last ice age. It will continue to do so no matter what we do or don't do; though we could well be speeding up the process. Earth has gone through a few ice ages and cycle like this until the sun burns out in 4 billion more years.

Answer 7

Longer growing seasons are not going to hurt you. When the climate was naturally colder as it was a couple of centuries ago, the world experienced famine. Man made global warming causing a catastrophe is the rantings of a demagogic politician and scientists who don't get paid if there is not a crisis.

Answer 8

If global warming exists, then it will hurt our future right now, being that the future has yet to happen.

Repetition of "it's a myth," doesn't make it a myth. I see more evidence to support it than doesn't, and what could anybody gain by making that stuff up?

Answer 9

It won't so relax and enjoy life. People never ever used to worry about things that occur naturally and that man can't change, stop, or "fix" so why all of a sudden is everybody freakin' about it? It's just a overhyped bunch of bulloney that a small bunch of dumb clucks got over-publicized by their paranoid squawking about a mass delusion of death by nature. They suffer from brain pollution called the Chicken Little Syndrome. It's just nature doing what nature does all the time, which it to change from one year to the next. Don't sweat it. It will go away by itself.

Answer 10

West Nile Virus in New York City because mosquitoes aren't dying in the winter time.
Killer bees in California because it's not getting cold enough in the New Mexico desert.
Drought in Africa, Australia, California,
Fires in Georgia/Florida and California.
Changing wind and weather patterns

Hon, we are in the middle of it.
If we haven't noticed it yet, you can blame the particulates in the air that are blocking the sunlight and lowering the pan evaporation rate.