All right! Lets settle this once and for all! I need as many opinions as I can get!?

Question

Okay! Are we having Global Warming or NOT? I read questions on here where people say that they have read that an ice age is starting/ DOES ANYONE TRULY KNOW? I think we are having Global Warming. People say oh no its just a cycle the Earth is going through then someone else will say oh there is no way that global warming is man made, and then others will say YES its global warming and its all of our faults! WHO IS RIGHT AND WHO IS WRONG???? I dont get it why cant ALL scientist agree that we are having Global Warming?????

Answer 1

Unusually for me I'm just going to give a short answer. Ignore the rantings and ravings and the opinions of both sides, instead look at the evidence, the facts, the science. Opinions mean nothing, it's the facts that count.

Answer 2

Global Warming itself is real enough but that is not the end of it.
It would be great to settle it but there are people who use the conflict for their own purposes. Some may be very worthwhile purposes like extending the life of fossil fuel deposits and increasing the amount of space allocated to nature but their use of scare tactics leaves me a bit cold, especially since it impacts on youth suicide.
Others may well be involved in the Energy business.
A lot of grants here need some Climate Change components to get through.
All adds to the confusion.
I can probably help a little though.
http://www.just-boilers.com/Earth_recovering_from_LIA.pdf
This link (unlike the wrong one I had been using) pretty much shows that some of the warming is natural and some is not. The authors seem to have some bias.
Does anyone really know?
The future is unknowable, the present is fleeting. Only records from the past can have any validity. Some scientists try to use models and claim to have a crystal ball. Others work entirely from past measurements and extrapolate into the future, better but still uncertain.
My own calculations are for 0.5C increase per century natural increase and 0.2C caused by CO2 increases over the last 50 years. That means that I expect there to be 0.9C increase per century until about 2100 when the natural heating cuts out.
What happens then depends on the CO2 levels. Coal runs out about 2300 so there may be an additional increase of 0.8C. I think that that adds up to1.7C maximum increase by 2300 and the heating stops then, unless we find more coal in which case it continues.
I could summarise the data in the paper but I'll let you read it.
The IPCC doesn't take the LIA (Little Ice Age) into account because when they started work on their project there had been little work done on the LIA.
This is part of the reason for disagreement amoungst Scientists. Some are conservative and resist change, some are very adventurous and look for change.
Part of the confusion comes from the variations observed in Global Warming.
There is a graph in the aforementioned link that shows that the warming trend is like a wavy line that has been tipped up on one end. Generally upwards but unevenly. Warming is also unevenly distributed. Did you know that there is less warming in the Southern Hemisphere generally-go figure.
Short term changes that may be caused by CO2 are masked by these fluctuations, another way of saying that is that the change is within the range of expected variation, sounds the same but it isn't.
The fluctuations generally fit solar cycles.
There is a nice graph of solar activity from 1610 (first telescopes) here: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/18oct_solarminimum.htm
Links from here will show the modern solar cycles - no sign of an Ice Age here.
Why do I think that the natural heating cuts out?
We will reach the temperatures of the medieval warm period, that should "undo" the cooling effects of the LIA. If warming continues then the greenhouse effect will be the likely culprit.
In effect we argue because there really is uncertainty and it does make a difference to our response. Major attempts to reduce greenhouse gases have major consequences on our standard of living.
Others argue because they wish to impose their values on others. Vegetarians tell us that all will be well if we stop eating meat. Conservationists tell us that we will upset the delicate balance of nature and we will all die. Others say that if you follow the advice of the conservationists most of us will die anyway.
If I say that none of these things are true they will be all over me so you can use your own imagination.
I will tell you though that many of these radicals are also scientists or at least they think so. Now that's being argumentive hey!!
Spell check not working please forgive typos.

Answer 3

All those that are skeptical are akin to those that belive the earth is 6000 years old. Little did I know that my readings over the course of the last dozen or so years would make me a complete knuckle-dragging ignoramous on par with those that deny the holocaust. All the while, I haven't even been getting paid by Big Oil or any of those other nefarious earth wrecking organizations known as Corporations.

I have been a total dupe, it is Answers such as Bob's have helped me see the light today!! I will no longer read scientific journals. I will scrupulously read websites such as Gristmill, Wikipedia, Profend, etc. I will obey my masters and stop thinking. I will put away my skepticism and accept that man is the ONLY cause of global warming and that as an American I am more responsible than anyone else on the planet.

Whoops, sorry, I must have skipped my coffee this morning.

Where to begin?

The ability to attribute any percentage of global warming to any particular cause remains beyond the ability of science at this point in time. I have three papers here that talk about the source of our recent warming:

1. Pure appl. geophys. 162 (2005) 1557–1586

"The warming of about 0.3 _C in recent years has prompted suggestions about anthropogenic influence on the earth’s climate due to increasing human activity worldwide. However, a close examination of the earth’s temperature change suggests that the recent warming may be primarily due to urbanization and land-use change impact and not due to increased levels of CO2 and other greenhouse gases."

Note that they have a logical explanation for the observed warming. Reading the paper in full gives you the ability to see how they arrived at this determination.

2. Environ Geol (2006) 50: 899–910

"Inspection of the global atmospheric temperature changes during the last 1,000 years (Fig. 11) shows that the global average temperature dropped about 2_C over the last millennium. This means that we live in the cooling geologic epoch (which comprises most of the Holocene), and the global warming observed during the latest 150 years is just a short episode in the geologic history. The current global warming is most likely a combined effect of increased solar and tectonic activities and cannot be attributed to the increased anthropogenic impact on the atmosphere. Humans may be responsible for less than 0.01_C (of approximately 0.56_C (1_F) total average atmospheric heating during the last century."

Warming not due to humans. Read the paper and you will be able to follow how they arrived at their conclusions.

3. Geophys Res Lett, Vol. 33, L05708, 2006

"We estimate that the sun contributed as much as 45–50% of the 1900–2000 global warming, and 25–35% of the 1980–2000 global warming. These results, while confirming that anthropogenic-added climate forcing might have progressively played a dominant role in climate change during the last century, also suggest that the solar impact on climate change during the same period is significantly stronger than what some theoretical models have predicted."

Finally a paper that is willing to put a % attribution out there. They consider man and sun, nothing else. This is a good start, but it needs to include many other mechanisms that are still being investigted.

Let it be said by no one that my position is unclear. I accept that the metric known as average global temperature is increasing.

I DO NOT accept that the mechanism is entirely attributable to humans pumping CO2 into the atmosphere. I think that the problem is far more complex than that. The interactions of the oceans, atmosphere, man, clouds, solar irradiance, cosmic ray flux, location in the solar and galactic grid, land use, and other factors all combine together to create what we call climate on this planet. No one has produced anything that gives any sort of attribution to all of these and other factors. Until such time that an attribution can be accurately made, science needs to continue investigating all of these factors.

Answer 4

It's a fact that the earth is warming, the debate is the cause.

"I dont get it why cant ALL scientist agree that we are having Global Warming?????"

They do agree....The only scientists who have been presenting studies on causes other than humans, were being funded by big oil companies, auto makers, and electrical coop companies. There truly is no debate among scientists about the cause of global warming. Virtually every reputable scientist around the globe, agree that the cause is due to increased greenhouse gases. Namely C02 (carbon-dyoxide).

C02 levels in the atmosphere have been relatively stable for 400,000 years that we know of. How do we know this ? 2 mile long ice cores drilled in the artic contain tiny air bubbles trapped in the ice....these are analyzed, and scientists can even tell you what temperature it was when that ice bubble became trapped as well as how much c02 was in the atmosphere. Here's the kicker, ...the most dramatic and sustain rise in c02 levels corresponds EXACTLY with the start of the industrial revolution.

Your going to get all kinds of people answering here who refuse to believe any assertion that the earth is warming, much less that humans are the cause...but the evidence is out there, and facts do not require belief.

This isn't a liberal agenda, which i'm sure will be said at least once or twice here. This isn't an evil ploy by sunblock manufacturers to get you to stock up on cases of SPF 50. This isn't just American scientists talking here... This is scientists from every country around the world. There is no benefit to anyone monetarily, to prove that global warming is caused by mankind, but there is tons of money in continuing bad practices in terms of the environment. Like I said, the only scientists who want to convince you otherwise are getting funded directly by those who profit from the destruction of our environment.

If you buy solar panels, the electric company loses money.
If you buy a hybrid the oil companies lose money.
If automakers have to start making cars that require by law more fuel efficiency, their sales will drop...because Americans love muscle cars. You can't have muscle car that gets 40 mpg.

Anytime you hear a scientific study, one way or the other about global warming....try to research who funded the study. Follow the money.

Answer 5

Global warming is real. If it were to occur after the average temperature of the earth had already stabilized, it would be something to worry about.

Presently, the earth is still attempting to come out of an Ice Age. Global warming, therefore, is the natural way that the earth has always moved back to a stable average temperature.

You can check the sources I have listed. There was an Ice Age before the one we now live which never saw temperatures as low as present day averages.

The environmentalists have the same kind of control over most people's perception of true environmental science that the clergy used to have over the perception of which celestial object occupied the center of the universe in the minds of the people of the 14th century.

Hundreds of years from now people will view the followers of this ridiculous religious belief exactly the same way we now view 'Earth Is The Center Of The Universe!'
There is no real proof that global warming is anything other than that.

Answer 6

first of all global warming is not the point of discussion...it is climate change...and climate change is made up of cycles of warming and cooling ... which match quite closely with the cycles of the rise and fall of eustatic sea levels which will rise during a warming cycle and fall during a cooling cycle .... we have been in an overall warming cycle since the end of the last ice age about 12,000 years ago .... the ice extended as far south as new york and southern indiana and sea levels were prob about 200 feet lower than they are to day ...which would have pushed the shore line out many miles from its present day location ....the question is has man caused this overall warming and that answer is no ..... but what about today is man helping accelerate the warming .... seriously i doubt it .... can more study tell us that for sure ... maybe only the further study will show that ... will the warming cycle end ... Yes it will ... they always have and then we go into a cooling cycle which will last for how many thousands of years ...........

Answer 7

I was just doing some reading on this subject and found a very telling article stating data taken from the Vostok, Antarctica ice core. The graph plainly show a pattern of regularly rising and falling temperatures over that last 400k years. According to the graph we are currently in that time period where the temperatures have historically been rising. I found two interesting differences in this data.
First, the time from the start of the warming period to the peak was about 10k years 330k years ago, then about 5k years 240k years ago, and about 3k years 140k years ago. This current warming trend appeared to start about 15k years ago and has 2 degrees Celsius to go until the peak so how can scientists be telling us we are in the fastest warming period in the history of the planet?
Another interesting point on the graph is the obvious huge increase in CO2 doesn't seem to be causing any temperature difference in the long run.
I am assuming someone will come along to tell me this is false data or that I am reading the wrong conclusions from it, but looking at that graph, it really is hard to believe anything out of the ordinary is going on.

Answer 8

Oh my goddess, of course global warming is occurring. At an alarming rate, hence all the hype.

The cause is humans and humans alone. Population control is the most beneficial thing we can do. Only procreate enough offspring to replace yourself on the planet and that's it. We'll make more when we need to, probably never.

All one has to do is look at the glaciers and how much they have melted in the last 40-60 years.

And look at all the crazy weather we have had in the last 5-10 years. Records breaking all over the place. Katrina, the tsunami, droughts, floods on and on.

One thing is for certain however, humans will adapt and survive as we always have and always will.

Answer 9

No, it 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 10

Knowing an "accepted" truth today, does not mean it will be true tomorrow or a hundred years from now.

But there is one truth that you don't have to wait for - it will always be true:

Do what you can to conserve energy and resources. Live your life with as little burden on the environment as possible. Something as simple as using the internet to visit Yahoo! Answers has an environmental price tag. We all pay for it in one way or another. So instead of waiting for a government or business entity or scientists to handle the problem for you, do what you can do to help out the environment.