The current debate is not about global warming but whether it is narutal or manmade?

Question

The question is does it really matter where the source is. If your house was burning would you add fuel to the fire or try to save what you got with everything in your power. The world pop has doubled since the 20's, # of vehicles have skyrocket, pressure on resources is maxed out, can someone really tell me that all that doesn't add up and create more energy (heat)

Answer 1

Natural OR manmade is irrelevant. It's happening and there's not much being done to address the problems that it's going to producethe Liberals and the Media are exaggerating a lot of the information and the Conservatives are simply burying their heads in the sand and Refusing to see it all. As for the SOURCE of the heat, as many have already noted it IS the sun. The sun heats up our planet ALL the time and the output of the sun has variations over long periods of time. However that is NOT the whole story. The average energy radiated by the sun has not changed by more than 1/1000 of a percentage point in a VERY long time. So, what IS the reason for Global warming? Well, Carbon Dioxide, methane, other carbon containing gasses, water vapor, Nitrous oxides and suflerous oxides ALL allow visible light to pass through them. When the visible light hits a solid surface, much of the energy of that light becomes changed to Infrared heat. These gases are opaque to infrared heat and so it gets trapped in the lower atmoshpere, This causes MORE water to become eveporated which adds to the warming effect. Past a cedrtain point, this can snowball to become what is referred to as a "Runaway Greenhouse Effect". This is precisely why Venus has such a hot atmoshpere. It's NOT because it's CLOSER to the sun but rather has an uncontrolled Greenhouse warming of its atmoshpere.
Yes, the pressure on our environment is a major problem and pollution IS an environmental disaster looming on the horizon. But polution is NOT the ONLY source of Greenhouse gasses. the LARGEST sources of Carbon Dioxide, belive it or not, are termites and ungulates (cows and other grass eaters with more than one stomach). Four cows can produce enough Methane to heat a typical American 2 bedroom home for a winter. And there are literaly millions of cattle in the US alone. Termies release Carbon Dioxide as they digest wood and other cellulose containing vegetation. A typical acre of forest can contain up to three tons of termites, each of which produces its OWN weight in Carbon Dioxide every single day. Now add in the methane that is produce by swamps and bogs from Anaerobic decay of peat (methane is MORE opaque to infrared heat than Carbon Dioxide) and we see that there is a huge amount of Greenhouse Gases emitted everyday, just by nature alone. Add to this the release of carbon in the form of Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Monoxide with the burning of fossil fuels and we can easily see that the atmosphere is becoming overwhelmed with higher than normal levels of Greenhouse gases. Under normal conditions (without the interference of humans) the termites would be a food source for ALL sorts of animals such as birds, bears, moles and other rodents, raccoons, Coyotes, badgers and lots of other predators who will eat them to supplement their diet of carrion and kills. However, due to human hunting and attempts at controlling rodent populations for agricultural and health reasons the total numbers of predators on termites has lessened. If humans had not intervened there would have been a natural balance overall of the ratio of predators to termites. Alos humans hunger and desire for high quality beef has expoanded the population of ungulates to levels that are unprecedented in the history of the planet. The burning of fossil fuels has released enormous levels of carbon that have been "stored" for millions of years in the form of oils and coals and ALL of this carbon has entered the atmoshpere in the form of Carbon Dioxide Carbon Monoxide and water vaper. All of these are Greenhous gases which are opaque to infrared heat, thereby trapping the heat in the lower atmoshpere, raising overall temperatures.
Hope this has helped you to understand this a little better.

Raji the Green Witch

Answer 2

I am an old man, and I have grown weary of hearing certain sectors of business and politics, and even religion, go on and on about their favorite issues which get endorsed by their candidates for higher office, and once in office these same politicos completely and entirely screw the economy up, give no assistance in the fight against global warming, even going so far as to say it's the result of natural phenomena and not man made at all.

The republicans have repeatedly shown, no matter which one of them sits in the White House, that the bottom line of a business ledger is more important than the world's environment. So we keep emitting green house gasses until we no longer have breathable air.

I don't have long to live, but I have children and grandchildren and soon great grandchildren. And I know there is not a damn thing I can do to help save them. We humans have allowed the pollution genie out of the box. We can't unscramble eggs or put the toothpaste back in the tube, and we can but won't stop global warming. It is already too late because we will not cooperate with each other as nations, or even individuals.

God help us, because we are apparently incapable of helping ourselves.

Answer 3

You are correct. There is ZERO doubt about whether the globe has been getting warmer over the last century or so. Last year was the hottest year on record in the last 112 years in the continental U.S. (link 1). These are facts. The only way to dispute them is to suggest that the laws of physics made thermometers work differently.

Of course, just because things have been getting hotter up until now, it doesn't necessarily mean they will continue to. Nor does it say exactly what the source is.

Critics are right about some things: the amount of greenhouse gases man produces IS dwarfed by natural sources, for example (an almost equally indisputable fact). But we also know that sometimes small changes can produce huge outcomes; the so-called 'butterfly effect'.

So that is what the debate is about. Man has made some changes that are relatively small. Are they small enough to make no difference, or will their cumulative effect be devastating?

It seems like most of the people who should really understand what's going on have looked at the data and come to a similar conclusion. This, of course, does not guarantee that they are correct. But then who bets against a scientist on the outcome of some scientific experiment?

Quite a few people, it would seem.

Answer 4

It is both. The earth goes through a natural cycle of warming and cooling, as evidenced by the past ice ages. But, the amount of carbon dioxide in the air today is the highest it has ever been, by a long shot. How do we know? Simple. Cores of ice from glaciers are analyzed. These cores go back through hundreds of thousands of years of precipitation, layer upon layer of it.
Man has gone far beyond the bounds of the natural cycle of warming and cooling on the earth. There is other evidence of this as well. Look at the sink holes that are beginning to show up in the Arctic and Sub Arctic. Fairbanks, Alaska is a great example. The permafrost is melting.

Answer 5

Not exactly. There are many who claim that Global Warming doesn't exist, no matter whether it's manmade or natural. So they say it's all a boondoggle. I don't happen to agree but the opinion is out there. Just read a few of the posts on thsi site about Global Warming if you're not sure of this.

Answer 6

wait? what are your numbers for this so called "global warming theory." You can prove it? wow, your a better man than most. what is the numbers? 1 degree in the last 100 years (giving you the benefit of the doubt)? oh no! in 1,000 years it will be 10 degrees hotter? That is horrible! I know that if my house was burning down at that rate I would be running scared.

Answer 7

If you watched An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore traces back to prehistoric time when global warming was caused by volcanos. It does not even compare the the CO2 rates in the world now, which is a very invalid argument for people who choose not to change.

Answer 8

You're right. There are indeed manmade and natural causes. Scientists can't seem to agree on which is the most significant. But, it doesn't really matter. We have to decide if we want to go ahead as is (and continue contributing to the affect), or attempt to slow it down (we definitely won't stop it).

Answer 9

OK let me explain the concept of the inverse:

If it's not man-made, then curtailing the actions in question, that, if it's not man-made, are not causing it, will have no effect, thus it would be unnecessary, thus there is no reason for the State to force individuals to curtail those activities, which, in a free society you'd want the State to have to have a reason to do.

Answer 10

scientist have already proven that global warming has occured in the past long before humans existed, so have we caused global warming... no; have we accelerated the rate of global warming...possibly. we must remember that Earth is a planet of extremes. just as it had an extreme ice age it is probably going to experience a temperature increase as well. (Anyone think we'll see new creatures emerge)