Is climate change really man made?

Question

The earth has went through many changes without human interuption, such as volcanos, asteroids, and drought. Can anyone direct me to evidence that human beings are causing climate change in this era.

Answer 1

Here's the evidence, taken from the peer reviewed literature.

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

This is the big deal. 150 authors, 600 reviewers, over 1000 references.

http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1-report.html

And here's why it's the big deal:

"The drafting of reports by the world’s pre-eminent group of climate scientists is an odd process. For many months scientists contributing to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tussle over the evidence. Nothing gets published unless it achieves consensus. This means that the panel’s reports are extremely conservative – even timid. It also means that they are as trustworthy as a scientific document can be."

George Monbiot

It's summarized at:

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

There is no other standard of proof of a scientific theory than this. Does the scientific community generally accept it? There's no Supreme Court here. And man made global warming passes that test with flying colors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change

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

Why would you believe a few skeptics with little data instead?

"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

Answer 2

Science does not define causation. They know that there are too many variables to determine cause. However, they do know that there are links between things like increased carbon dioxide emissions and temperature increases. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) at www.ipcc.ch has a lot of imformation about those correlations.

Answer 3

Nope. Correlation is not causation. Any climate change that occurs during man's ability to observe it would be blamed on man by some. Statistically, someone could link this to man simply by his presence at the "scene of the crime". Despite what alarmists claim, there is no consensus on an actual mechanism that shows man is responsible for global warming.

Answer 4

The UN answered that question in 1999 in their second report on Global Warming. YES !!! If you want definitive data try the UNFCCC, the Hanley (Hadley?) Center for Atmospheric Research, or the CIAS computer data.

Do you believe that the ocean has risen one degree C in the last 30 years?

Do you know what that means?

Every one degree Celcius rise in ocean temperature is the same amount of energy as 1.3 BILLION (yes billion) 1megaTon atomic bombs.

That energy is expressed as extreme weather. That has already happened.

If current trends continue models predict the temperature to rise between 3-5 degrees C. There are 6 billion people on this planet. A 5 degree C rise is the equivalent of an atomic bomb for every man, woman and child.

Answer 5

MAN MADE CLIMATE CHANGES


I will give you what I am sure about Namely desertification.
ManMade Climate change that is and has effected a lot of people directly ,they dont give a damn about what scientists have to say ,and they dont need research ,they are living with the results (if they are lucky)

And i am not even talking about the ozon ,carbon emisions,Sunspots, Hairsprays or burning tires

Once upon a time
I went to the jungles of Oaxaca and discussed with the Natives the mountain before us ,Mostly deforrested ,scarred by landslides and dotted with madly steep corn patches (which only produced for 3 years ),and devoid of clouds.

They all agreed that the days were hotter ,there was less rain ,And the river was dry part of the year.

When they were boys ,the river was bigger and ran all year around,the mountain was always covered in clouds with daily rains .And the days were more bearable .

Their actions in the desperate plight to feed their enormous families of avarage 12 kids per family ,often much more ,had destroyed their home ground with indisputable climate changes.
They had changed their climate.This happens all over Mexico

In Africa I have seen lush wooded lands change into dessert within a few years by large invading comunities ,who devoured the trees for building and firewood ending up in a dessert with out water
and with a hot sun under which no new plantation was possible.The people had changed their climate,this happens all over Africa.

In Northern china two mayor dessert are merging and 900 vilages are buried under the dust ,thousands of refugee farmers who had changed their climate ,by intensive agressive agriculture are fleeing for their lives,this happens all over the world .it happened in the 20ties in the USA has everybody forgotton that ,was this not a climate change ?

Granted the climatic changes are local ,but effects neighboring areas ,there is less rainfall, rivers dry up ,

Collectively because there is so much of it all over the world ,the global precipitation is affected and so is the climate .And who did it ,the bloedy people did ,they are changing the climate

Like Ghengas Kahn changed the climate when he burned all the forests and filled the wells with sand ,Like the Phoenicians changed the climate of lebanon to build the trading fleet .Like the Spanish climate was changed by using their forest to build the Armada ,

So are we today changing the climate by massive deforestation,agressive corporate farming (using chemicals),overgrazing ,overpumping deep subteranean waters ,ignorence and impartiality

Global warming.carbon emisions ,polution ,sunspots ,solar flares,hairsprays , Al Gore, and skeptics are the rasberries on top

and read up what America is planning with the insane master plan for Ethanol production .http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...
Seems as if America is trying to compete with Global warming

I wonder who will win.?
but who ever it is ,
the rest of the world looses. Source(s) we are in the sh it,and if we can do something that will make the shi t less ,we should try to do it .

Answer 6

Just look at the huge increase of carbon dioxide in the air ever since the Industrial Revolution.

Answer 7

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established to evaluate the risk of climate change brought on by humans, based mainly on peer reviewed and published scientific/technical literature. It's the best source of expert scientific opinion on climate change. I recommend that you read their most recent report which came out this year.

http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1-report.html

It's very long, but you can read the Summary for Policymakers which condenses it all down into just 18 pages with some nice graphs and such.

http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/Report/AR4WG1_Pub_SPM-v2.pdf

The IPCC report concluded that they have a 90+% certainty that the current global warming is primarily caused by humans.

Answer 8

I think that whether we are here or not something would be going on with the earth but I think we are making matters worse then they would have been if global warming was occuring naturally without us here.

Answer 9

The NASA site is a short, but well respected source. A longer report is available at IPCC.

Answer 10

The short and simple answer, we just don't know. There is evidence to suggest we may have had a small impact, but its not nearly enough to show conclusively.