The world has been through warming cycles like this before, prior to man showing up on the scene.?

Question

I have no problem agreeing with scientists that global warming is happening. What I would like to see is a cogent answer to this question: If we humans are causing global warming, why are the other planets in our solar system also having an increase in their surface temperatures?

The Martian icecaps are melting! If that is not the fault of humans (I am pretty sure it isn't), then does it not logically follow that the sun is the culprit? If the sun is warming up all other planets in the solar system, wouldn't it be warming up earth as well?

Again, I believe the earth is getting warmer. But please, somebody explain to me how it is man's fault when Mars is warming as well. I really do want to know.

Tiffany - you did not deal with the Mars question. Please address my question, then get to your thoughts on other matters. Thanks.

It has been almost an hour now and every proponent of global warming has ignored the basic question I asked. It seems to me "blaming man for global warming" advocates are afraid of dealing with my question directly. I find that curious. I would be interested in knowing (no way to know, of course) how many of the agenda driven advocates out there decided not to answer this question because it doesn't fit their agenda?

Um, Joseph, we have telescopes and the like to tell us the Martian ice caps are melting. Amazing, you believe the scientists who tell you the earth is warming, but not the same scientists who tell you other planets are as well? Curious.

Answer 1

Man is contributing to global warming, but nobody can show that it is a significant amount. The Martian ice caps are what tilts the argument for me. If they weren't melting, I would agree that man is the culprit. But the sun's temperature is not a constant. The sun is heating up the whole solar system. I mean it is called the solar system for a reason. As for the sun getting warmer, it happens. When it does, so does the SOLAR SYSTEM

People who are going crazy over global warming are trying to get rich peddling alternative lifestyles. There is a buck or two to be made in this. A large industry is beginning to form in the alternative energy area. I am sorry, but I am suspicious of their motives, for I too have noticed they never address the Martian issue.

Answer 2

The problem is we can't test other planets, we have no history for them, we've only been able to see them for a few hundred years, and only been able to measure temperature for less than that. We don't know if they could be linked. Some argue sun activity, but noone knows for sure. It plays it's part, but seems to affect us worse than other planets, and that's a really big problem, the reason seems to be our polluted atmosphere.

Noone is saying it's man's fault on other planets, you're just trying to twist science here to your own liking so you don't have to do anything.

Well no matter what the cause is, we should still clean up our air, I hate the idea of kids dying because they go downtown in summer and their asthma acts up. I hate the idea of the millions being wasted on health care for something we can avoid.

And we need to act because it means a fundamental change in the way we live.

Whether we are the cause or not, it's happening, we are able to control our own climate and stabilize it, keep the warming within a small range or maybe even stop it altogether. Then if we find we aren't the cause, and it starts getting colder fast, we can just pump out the pollution again. We can control the climate, we should just to avoid the economic pitfalls from not doing so.

To do nothing is just lazy, which seems to be the boomer way to be. Sorry I'm not a boomer, so I can't understand laziness.

Answer 3

I just finished up a course on water resources sustainability and we read a couple of different articles about "global warming" before man. I don't have the article in front of me, but the gist (sp?) of it was that the levels of carbon dioxide flux enough to cause varying temperature cycles. There was a mini "ice age" during the Middle Ages (The river under the London Bridge froze and there is documentation of festivals on the ice) and I believe there was one before that.

Now we are in a warming cycle, and while our anthropogenic efforts are causing warmer temperatures, eventually we will enter a cold cycle again. It's all very cyclic, with the amplitude (?) of the graph increasing over time.

So according to some researchers, global warming isn't really our fault per se, but we are contributing to the change in the cycle.

Answer 4

It's very simple, really. Take a look at the attached link. It's from NASA (I hope you consider NASA to be a reputable source).

The reason one of Mars' polar caps is melting is because of SEASONAL variation. Snow melts in the spring. It is now spring for Mars. No surprise.

If you read a little further, you will find that Mars' OTHER polar cap is GROWING. Just like Earth, when one hemisphere is in winter the other is in summer.

So now it's your turn to answer: If Mars' polar cap melting is caused by an increase in solar radiation, how could one of them possibly be GROWING?! For that matter, why is it that nowhere on Earth do we actually MEASURE a change in solar radiation? Most research I've seen indicates that the only variations we've seen from the Sun in the last fifty years have been exactly what we expect from normal cycles.

Perhaps Mars isn't getting warmer overall, neh?

Answer 5

The point you make about the Earth having warmed in the past is absolutely true.

We can extend the climate record back for 542 million years (beyond that there were only single celled organisms which makes oxygen isotope analysis near impossible). During this time the planet has been completely free of ice on four occasions, each time temperatures and carbon dioxide levels have been considerably higher than they are now. During the cold ice age stages temps and CO2 have been lower.

The world is never constant but what we're experiencing now is something way beyond anything that's happened before.

Turning to the point you make about Mars. There are five solar bodies on which warming is known or suspected to be taking place but there are a total of 173 planets and moons in our solar system, and no warming has been observed on the majority of them. Whatever the cause is it has to be local to each planet or moon. If there was a common cause such as the sun then there should be warming on all the planets and moons.

We have very limited data from Mars (and the other moons and planets). We do know that Mars, like our own Earth, is seasonal and that during the summer the south polar ice cap melts and the north polar ice cap expands - the opposite occuring during the Martian winter. The ice caps are unlike our own in that they're frozen carbon dioxide, Mars being much, much colder than Earth. It also has almost no atmosphere at all and what small amount it does have is almost all carbon dioxide. Whatever warming or cooling there may be on Mars is incomparable with that on Earth.

It's suspected that warming on Mars may be the result of global duststorms that engulf the planet for several days at a time. Such an event, if it were to happen here on Earth would also lead to climatic changes.

There's some very interesting science to be learned about what's happening on Mars but unfortunately there are some people who have hijacked the science and distorted it to suit their own aggendas - this isn't very helpful for people like yourself who want to know what's actaully going on. There are several articles on the internet about warming on Mars that you may want to read, one that you might find interesting is this one from NASA - http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/research/2007/marswarming.html and here's a link to the NASA website with all the search results about warming on Mars - http://search.nasa.gov/search/search?q=mars+warming&entqr=0&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&ie=UTF-8&client=nasa_production&actionType=searchIndex&numgm=5&ud=1&site=nasa_collection&oe=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=nasa_production&btnG.x=20&btnG.y=13

Answer 6

Heres a theory, everything in the universe is moving to the point of equilibrium, which would be closer to the sun, this could be the partial reason for an increase in our temperatures. As time goes by there has been studies showing a decrease in the amount Oxygen and an increase of CO2 in the atmosphere, the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere affects the temperatures as well. Despite these many problem, we are making the biggest contribution to the drastic temperature changes. A lot of chemicals and pollution in the air from us is causing the ozone layer to erode away, exposing us to more ultraviolet sunrays that create a greenhouse effect. Getting rid of the ozone layer can also allow other factors to have an effect on us.
However, I do believe that mankind isn't at fault (completely).

Answer 7

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this era of global warming "is unlikely to be entirely natural in origin" and "the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence of the global climate." Ice records indicate that this global warming is recording as the worst of all. Surely we must have an impact on the earth. Watching the movie an inconvenient truth displays the facts and explains more clearly our impact on the earth and global warming. Its easy to blame other reasons why the earth is getting warmer, but its harder to realize and change the way we live..

Answer 8

Wow! what an itresting question. I actually .had a conversation with my father about this. he said, "global warming is almost like boiling water. It depends wich factor controls it. I may put the lid on the pot, but what really affects the pot? right! the fire beneath it. When the temperature goes up it boils faster. when the temperature goes down, it boils slower.

although man may be causing part of the warming, (like the lid on the pot), it's also a pretty good idea to check out the sun. But you should still try to act on the situation. What would happen if suprizingly, man was the cause-we didn't do anything-and we all died and went to hell. Then it's a good idea to change to alternative energy. you can even make money from it-(in times where the u.s. has a horrible economy).

I hope the information helped-goodluck!

Answer 9

Is it? I've never heard that before
Regardless of whether the plant is warming or not, our planet is in distress. Look at the oceans, look at the number of animals is the world, look at water systems and pollution. We need the whole of Earth's environments is function and we ARE doing are part to kill those. There are more environmental problems than just global warming. It is quite serious. Our planet is hurting. :(

Answer 10

Global warming isn't really the fault of humanity, but that doesn't mean that we aren't still going to suffer the consequences.

Of course, alternative energy sources are still worth pursuing, regardless of global warming. Clean, cheap, RENEWABLE energy sources are more of an economic and practical advantage. No one wants to breathe filthy air, whether or not it is warming up the planet.