Given the evidence of past global warmings why do people think they can stop the next one?

Question

The question is probably cause and effect. Does CO2 and methane cause global warming or is excess CO2 and methane the result of global warming? Hence is there a provable definitive answer?
Many people are pasionate about the problem, but passion has a habit of affecting judgement.

Answer 1

This is from professor of physics/astronomy:

Global warming theory came from observing the planet Venus which has an atmosphere filled with carbon dioxide, in fact, lead flows like water. The question became how and why did this happen to venus, hence, global warming theory developed- The atmosphere of venus is filled with carbon dioxide, which prevents the rays of sun from escaping back into space-hence it is so hot- theory applies to earth- if we continue to build up carbon dioxide then it is postulated the earth will trap sun rays and end up like venus. Starts first with polar ice melting and of course everything that could follow- like I said- lead flows like water on venus....

Answer 2

None of the past global warming had the potential to turn the globe into a version of Venus. That is extreme, but it is a possible outcome. Previous global warmings, with melted ice caps (or nearly) caused the inland seas here, covering a lot of the lower lying land. Already some pacific islanders are seeing their islands gradually disappearing. There was a news bit on PBS radio today about the problems Alaska is having with the melting permafrost, the tundra, and other lands.

Previous global warmings were caused by natural happenings. This time man has caused the warming that is gradually accelerating. The cycles of the earth show that we should be in a mini-ice age now. Not this time. When the natural warming combines with man's doings, there will be extreme results.

Answer 3

The only way to stop global warming is wait until the heat is so intense that it burns the cash out of the controlling world leaders who care little about the people after them and care more about the money they make selling the products and services that contribute to the factor of Global Warming, which in my understanding is not a direct human cause even though the toys we use for transportation contribute to the GW gases in our atmosphere. However, GW has been around long before man ever step foot on the earth. It is a natural occurrence and one we can't stop. So don't go getting on the Green Peace ship just yet, unless of course you want to use up all your hard earned cash and through it in a pit with the rest of those who think they can make a difference in this natural disaster. False non profit organizations I have no use for and GW is one of them.

Answer 4

Global warming and cooling is caused by warming and cooling trends in the sun. There is nothing that people can do except migrate when the conditions of a certain area are too harsh to support life. I feel that the current craze of trying to stop global warming is a political effort to distract the attention of voters so they are not paying attention to the more critical issues that are at stake in any upcoming election.

Answer 5

We won't be able to "stop" it, but more or less control it by reducing pollution and energy use. Global Warming is when heat fails to escape back into space at night, and more heat is added by the sun. This happens because CO2 and methane are trapped in the atmosphere. Get "An Inconvenient Truth"

Answer 6

because it is caused by our CO2 and we are speeding up the process

ANNALS OF SCIENCE about the effect of global warming on the Arctic. Part one of a three-part series. The Alaskan village of Shishmaref sits on an island known as Sarichef, 5 miles off the coast of the Seward Peninsula. Shishmaref is an Inupiat village. In the early 1990s, seal hunters began to notice that the sea ice was changing-it was forming later in the fall and breaking up earlier in the spring. This caused the island to become more vulnerable to storm surges. In 2002, the entire village voted to move to the mainland. The National Academy of Sciences undertook its first rigorous study of global warming in 1979. Mentions studies by Syukuro Manabe and James Hansen. The Ad Hoc Study Group on Carbon Dioxide and Climate, headed by Jule Charney, found that if carbon dioxide emissions continued to increase, the climate changes would be severe. It’s now 25 years since that report was issued, and, in that period, carbon-dioxide emissions have increased from 5 billion a year to 7 billion, and the earth’s temperature has steadily risen. The world is now warmer than it has been at any point in the last 2 millennia. The impacts of global warming are no longer just hypothetical. Nearly every major glacier in the world is shrinking. The oceans are becoming not just warmer but more acidic; the difference between day and nighttime temperatures is diminishing; and plants are blooming weeks earlier than they used to. These are the warning signs that the Charney panel cautioned against waiting for. The most dramatic changes are occurring in the Arctic, which is melting. Most of the land in the Arctic is underlaid by zones of permafrost. The writer visited Fairbanks and Deadhorse, Alaska, with University of Alaska geophysicist and permafrost expert Vladimir Romanovsky. Describes signs that the permafrost-which has existed for 120,000 years-is melting. Writer observed Romanovsky collecting data from some of his 60 electronic monitoring stations. Rising temperatures can cause the organic material that has been frozen for millennia to break down, giving off carbon dioxide or methane. In 1997, the Des Groseilliers expedition found that the Arctic sea-ice depth had declined significantly. Donald Perovich, of the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), studies the interaction of solar radiation with sea ice. Anything that changes the earth’s albedo changes how much energy the planet absorbs, with dire consequences. The ice-albedo feedback is thought to be a major reason why the Arctic is warming so rapidly. Mentions the Madison Boulder. Antarctic ice cores show that carbon-dioxide levels today are significantly higher than they’ve been in the last 420,000 years. Some of the climate models Perovich has assembled predict that the perennial sea-ice cover in the Arctic will disappear entirely by 2080. In 1859, British physicist John Tyndall identified the natural greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation and then reemit it; if these gas levels increase, the earth’s temperature will rise. Mentions Svante Arrhenius. Swiss Camp is a research station set on Greenland’s ice sheet, which is the second largest on earth. Mentions Konrad Steffen, Swiss Camp’s director. Much of what’s known about the earth’s climate over the last 100,000 years comes from ice cores drilled in central Greenland. Ten years ago, Jay Zwally, a NASA scientist, installed G.P.S. receivers around Swiss Camp to study changes in the ice sheet’s elevation. Discusses the rise in sea levels due to global warming. Mentions thermohaline circulation. No nation has a keener interest in climate change than Iceland. Oddur Sigurdsson heads the Icelandic Glaciological Society, which surveys the country’s 300 glaciers, which have been rapidly declining. The glacier Sólheimajökull has shrunk by 1100 feet in the last decade. Discusses last fall’s Reykjavik symposium on global warming. The study found that temperatures in the Arctic were rising at a surprising rate and that humans had become the “dominant factor” influencing the climate. Mentions oceanographer Robert Corell.

Answer 7

probably because they think that man can totally conquer nature.everything runs in cycles.ice ages,global warming and life and death.it has all happened before and will happen again.it is my belief that what man has done to the earth and environment is nothing compared to what mother nature does.how much methane and other caustic gases are released into the atmosphere every time a volcanoe burps.and that is a constant event that has been going on long before man was on ther earth and will continue after we are all long gone!!!peace!

Answer 8

The arrogant scientific assumption of man seems to have created this global warming panic so time educating the ignorance of man is the only thing that can make it stop.

Answer 9

I don't think that (the real powers in government) believe that can stop GW. only the uneducated public do. Anyway I believe it is more along the line of the more that the government can control our entire lives the more that they like it.

Answer 10

People are always in denial about the inevitable problems of the world until they actually take place. It's human nature/stupidity.