Is there any unbiased scientific evidence supporting the position that global warming is caused by humans??

Question

Hello:)

What data supports the idea that Global Warming is caused

by humans with big consequences for the environment??

Can you please give me detailed and convincing evidence?

P.s. Please don't write about that human is not the cause of global warming. I just want to know about my question.

Answer 1

One way of looking at this is to compare atmospheric concentrations of various gases at different times in history. Before about 1750, the ones we are primarily interested in were more or less constant for more than a thousand years. Whatever was being produced was just as rapidly being removed.

After 1750, the picture changed... and VERY rapidly on a climatological scale. Unless some aspect of nature happens to be exactly mimicing our own industrial development (a rather unlikely prospect) there isn't much other place to lay the blame (or credit) for changes other than our own doorstep. Nobody claims that the man-made contributions are large compared to natural ones... but the natural ones (as mentioned above) cancel themselves out.

According to the Department of Energy (link 1) since 1750 atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide has increased by 34%, methane (which has 21 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide) by 153%, nitrous oxide (310 times the potential) by 18%, and in addiation there are any number of warming halogens which simply weren't in the atmosphere at all until we put them there.

These measures of historical concentrations are not without some dispute, but they have been pretty well accepted (at least up until now). Unless someone comes up with better data and given that even the Department of Energy considers this to be valid, I think the conclusions are pretty obvious.

Answer 2

See the graph in the source. It clearly shows carbon dioxide levels in the air started going up about the same time people started burning coal. And it is going up even faster now that more coal is being burned, and oil too. There is no doubt that people are causing the CO2 increase by burning fossil fuels. Nobody really disputes that. And CO2 is a greenhouse gas. That means it traps heat from the Sun that would otherwise be lost from Earth to space. So it would be expected to cause warming. The only question is how much warming. I don't really see any convincing evidence that it will be a significant amount of warming. Not enough to be a danger to people. But it is a concern. But when we run out of oil and coal, the problem will go away. Of course that WILL be bad for us because our modern technology depends almost totally on energy from coal and oil. So for our own good we need to find other energy sources before oil and coal run out, even if we don't think global warming is a problem.

Answer 3

I think there is some evidence, unbiased, but not unequivocal.

We as humans do provide lots of CO2 to the atmosphere, and as humans multiply, even more is produced. However, we also are cleaning up the particulates that industrialization produced, which can allow more heat to arrive on the earth.

The CO2 can then act as a trap; the shorter wavelength heat energy from the sun, and solar flare particle energy, can reach the earth better with no dust layer to reflect it back into space, and so it hits the earth, is converted into longer wavelength heat, and stays trapped.

One interesting piece of evidence is the LIA, the so-called Little Ice Age back in the 1700's roughly. While it coincides with a proven solar activity deep minimum, it also coincides roughly with a plague that killed off a very large of people, so reducing the CO2 in the atmosphere through fewer warming fires, empty cities, etc.

So if we can kill off maybe half of the world's population with a nice plague, those that are left will, according to this analysis, have it nice and cool for a long time.

The greatest supporting data are the variously smoothed graphs claiming to show that the temperature and the CO2 concentration track almost identically recently, since the Global Cooling scares in the middle of the last century, and extrapolated until the end of this century to show very high CO2 and very high temperatures. This extrapolation, on the basis of fairly minimal current data, is used as a QED for Global Warming due to human activity.

The BIG consequences are also extrapolated for the projected curves...and might not be bad overall...more shallow water seas for fishing and edible plant growing, mild climate to the poles, with vast amounts of new untouched farmland made available, and new mineral deposits made workable. People able to build new cities to the North and South, with the new concept of proper urbanization...green belts, public transportation, plenty of living space with green trees and parks and even green yards around houses.

Don't know if this is either detailed or convincing, but figures don't lie, even tho liars figure!!

Answer 4

There is no such thing as unbiased research.

No matter how much someone might profess to be unbiased, they have some biases. This will show up in the tests/experiments being used in the research.

We have data that says that CO and CO2 content in the atmosphere is rising.
We have data that says this trend has been ongoing essentially ever since man discovered the internal combustion engine.

We have data that says that despite rising CO and CO2 levels in the 1970's.. we had global cooling.

That kind of points toward mankind's CO and CO2 production NOT being the driving force behind global warming...

It is possible that CO and CO2 production MIGHT be affecting the natural warming cycle we are in... but the major factors are from natural causes. CO2 contribution from automobiles (what the environmental extremists keep harping about) is VERY MINOR compared to natural sources of CO2.

But they don't want the average person to know that... Which displays a strong bias.

Why are they so strongly biased?


Follow the money.

Answer 5

I'm sure that you will get myriad responses, but just a suggestion: look for scientific evidence supporting the position that global warming is caused "primarily" by humans. Or humans significantly contribute to GW. Scientifically, it's hard to support a position that there is a single or overriding cause in a system as dynamic as global climate.

I know, not the answer you are looking for, but I hope I've helped to refine your "search".

Answer 6

NASA's list of web sites covering Global Warming and Climate Change:
http://globalchange.nasa.gov/Resources/pointers/glob_warm.html

Evidence from Antartic Ice Cores:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000352EA-658A-10C7-A58A83414B7F0000

Check the Chart for this ice core data:
http://www.daviesand.com/Choices/Precautionary_Planning/New_Data/

There is plenty of evidence, and there are plenty of people who don't want to know.