How much do you know about climate change (global warming)?

Question

Sorry, but climate change is the logical term. Because, we will not just experience very warm temps, but in the winter, very cold temperatures. The program on the History Channel I watched the other day had 8 ways the earth could be dramatically changed (or destroyed). Climate Change was the last one, number one. Probably not because it was the worst, but because it is the most likely.

Easy quick answer, yoda. Get back to 'me' when you have done your homework. Yes, Climate Change can be more than an 'inconvenience'.

Thanks, love bomb. It sounds like you've actually listened where others have turned an opinionated head. Carbon Dioxide Does make a difference!

Answer 1

I know quite a bit about about global warming. My favorite resources are Joseph Romm's "Hell and High Water" and the IPCC Summary for Policymakers.

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

I'm also just starting Monbiot's "Heat". I find the evidence that humans are the primary cause of the recent global warming to be very convincing.

I don't mean to be rude, but Mixed Peanuts' presentation was just full of misinformation and opinion. I'm rather curious what kind of grade it gets.

Answer 2

To answer your specific question - how much do I know..., I would hope I know a lot about the subject. I'm a qualified climatologist having earned my degree at University College London and with 23 years experience. Recently my main area of work has been conducting independent research and corroborating the research of others.

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Global warming and climate change are both correct terms to use provided they're in context. For want of a better way of putting it, GW is the cause and CC is the effect. GW is also something of a generalisation, the average global temp is increasing but not everywhere and not by the same amount.

Answer 3

I know enough to know that you have been suckered it to the lie, here's the truth if you care to read. GW is an outright lie, lead by fools and charlatans who hope to scare the American public into destroying our ecomny. I base this on the following facts that any 5th grader can easily check out if they really want to know the truth, instead of being lead by the nose like a complete fool.
1. The alarmist claim that burning fossil fuels is the cause of recent warming, however most of the warming took place before most of the increase of CO2. There was actually a significant cooling period from the mid-1940s to the late 1970s, while CO2 was increasing rapidly, and there was another increase from 1979 to 1998. In fact there has been no warming since 1998 – an eight-year period, and even a slight statistically cooling, despite the fact that CO2 has continued to rise.
2. The correlation between co2 emissions effecting global warming is extremely small compared to the correlation between global temperature and sun cycles. The sun cycles affect temperature in two ways first by the cycling up and down of actual heat energy that is emitted by the sun. This has a small effect on global temperature. The more important one is cycling in solar winds. Solar wind blocks cosmic radiation from coming into the Earth’s atmosphere. The more cosmic rays come in the more low level clouds there are and low-level clouds reflect solar heat energy back into space. If there are more clouds the earth is cooler and if there are fewer clouds, the earth is warmer. As solar wind cycles up cosmic rays cycle up and down in reverse and clouds up and down. So the solar window is very important to earth’s temperature, but you will not change.

Answer 4

As we emit more carbon dioxide into the air, it will eventually build up into our atmosphere, to the point that the suns reflective heat cannot escape back into space. Consequently, the planet will in time, continue to warm up. Don't believe me, check out our neighboring planet Venus. It's atmosphere is comprised of about 80% carbon dioxide, and it's surface temperature is 700-900 degrees. Because the suns heat cannot escape back into space.

Answer 5

I've read a lot about it. Here are some suggestions for information.

Best quick summary:

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

Best website:

http://profend.com/global-warming/

Best explanations of why the skeptics are wrong:

http://gristmill.grist.org/skeptics

Best information about what scientists believe:

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

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

Overall best document, but very long. Pretty easy to read for something so scientific. You could read just a chapter you're interested in.

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

summarized at:

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

Answer 6

Driving a hybrid can't save you. Neither can Al Gore. He's too busy making money from the big scare. Global Climate Change will not destroy the world. It may make your life inconvenient, but the world will live on.

Answer 7

I had to write an essay with a ppt n this. i will include it here.


Global Warming Debate:

First off I’d like to say that this is a very controversial topic. I’ve used some websites and included people’s opinions just to mix it up a little. I’ve learned that it all fluctuates based on what you believe and what ways you want to look at it.

SLIDE ONE:
All the time you can hear on the news, or in your local papers that such a winter was SO cold. And this winter wasn’t that bad at all. Such a summer was 70’s basically, and this summer has been hotter. I’m sure you’ve all heard it. Earth goes through cycles or phases. Earth has always gone through these cycles, and in fact will continue on, just like cycles tend to do. They
repeat.
Evidence gathered by scientists say that Antarctica is in fact growing. Now doesn’t that seem a bit strange? According to Al Gore, the Earth is warming considerably. Or in my own words “melting”

SLIDE TWO:
I e-mailed and asked some friends their thoughts on the issues. Connor Newman says that “the polar ice caps’ has risen in temperature by 1º in the past like million years. It’s not even real.” To me it looks as if Connor doesn’t believe that humans are to blame, but also doesn’t seem to get that it is just a phase. He just dismisses it completely. Amber Imes says that she “thinks it’s just a cycle the Earth goes through because she doesn’t think that us humans could change it quite that much so fast.” I have to agree with her. Why are we just now jumping on this? Just because Al Gore wrote a book?!

SLIDE THREE:

These two paragraphs back up this theory. In the first one it states that in the scientists research, they got their evidence by studying a two-mile long ice core. They were able to get evidence of Earths warming and cooling from this. The second paragraph basically says that when humans take action to prevent Earth from going through it’s phase’s or what they like to call “Global Warming” they will be lowering the global economy and the ability of the worlds peoples to adjust and adapt to the effects of climate change.

SLIDE FIVE:
Ok, so here’s is what caused so much attention to this topic. Al Gore wrote a book. People write books all the time. But this book was about HIS beliefs on global warming. Just because he believes them doesn’t mean everyone does cause they are right. In fact I think they couldn’t get anymore wrong. Well maybe, if he said dragons would take over the world, but moving on! Ok, so in this book of his it states that human-caused global warming poses a threat of extinction to polar bears; yet current polar bear numbers have increased dramatically, from around 5,000 polar bears in the mid- century to between 22,000 and 25,000 today. So…who didn’t do their research? How could he say something like that in this book, without making sure it was right? Secondly, he states how this ‘Global Warming’ has caused a decline of snow on the peak of a mountain. But according to some research conducted, it has been declining since the 19th century. So maybe he didn’t get that one wrong, but he made it sound like it just recently happened while in fact it was two centuries ago. Someone needs to get with the times!

FOLLOW - UP

This climate change has been going on since the dawn of time. Literally!! So someone writes a book, and everyone automatically nods their heads like robots. Also I guess this would be the time to tell you the earth is going to be uninhabitable in about 8 years. Well, that is according to Gore. Back in 2006 he said that Earth would be so hot that in ten years no one would still be alive. I found this laughable, and after researching it, a guy back in the 80’s said the same thing, and here we 27 years later. Seems like we out lived his assumptions too. It’s all just a cycle. Every 1,500 years Earth will go through it. And it will continue on and on. ‘Cause that’s just what cycles do.