Is global warming a new phenomenon?

Question

or has this been happening thoughout earths history??

Many people are worried about global warming today. They fear that the polar ice caps will melt, raising sea levels and creating environmental chaos. Such concerns are not new. The historical record tells us of many warming episodes—and subsequent cooling periods—that have bedeviled humans for thousands of years.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/BruceBartlett/2007/06/27/climate_history

trillien....funny how that happens isn't it???....lol

Matt D.......AMEN!!

Answer 1

I grew up hearing about the green house effect in science class but I never heard my teacher bringing it up in the context of fear or suggesting it was going to destroy the planet. If I did though, I totally wouldve believed it and that is what is happening now with Al Gore leading the hypocritical environmental charge with his 1-dimensional science and fake concern and outrage. All the while he is unwilling to make any lifestyle sacrifices including his private jet and swank houses that uses more than 20 times the energy mine does.

More and more I see that liberals need these fake causes to rally themselves together in order to promote their agenda. Manmade global warming exists for no other purpose to combat capitalism and give libs a boost by appeasing the eco-activists and giving those modern hippies someone to vote for.

Answer 2

Yes, there has been a cyclic warming and cooling throughout the earths history BUT there has never been the added impact of the CO2 that man is currently producing, not to mention the other chemicals we are pumping into our oceans and rivers and the atmosphere.

Cons love to use this argument but science shows that they are spinning facts and hiding from the truth. For those who say that man contributes only a small amount of CO2 to the atmosphere they should look at CO2 increases since 1970. Smog only became a problem after the beginning of the industrial revolution.

Also you need to have a look at Chaos theory. I'm not talking the usual butterfly flapping its wings causing a hurricane story but proper chaos theory. It basically says that small changes to systems lead to a breakdown of the system and a runaway effect that we simply cannot predict. We have no idea what the final consequences of our contribution will be nor do we know how fast it will hit us.

The only reason we don't do anything about CO2 is because of the oi lobby, the auto industry lobby and manufacturing lobby.

Answer 3

Of course global warming isn't new, but that's totally irrelevant.

The current global warming began when we started to come out of the last ice age. Natural causes accounted for almost the entire global temperature increase until about 50 years ago. Then global warming began to really accelerate:

http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/info/warming/

So how do you account for this acceleration? Natural causes doesn't cut it - what natural causes? The sun? Volcanoes? Magical fairies? None of these can account for the recent acceleration. When scientists include greenhouse gas emissions in their models, they find that human emissions account for 70-95% of the warming over the past few decades:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.png

So the answer is that no, global warming is not new. That humans are the primary cause of global warming and causing it to accelerate is new.

Answer 4

Global warming is not new but the climate has been and is being seriously adversely affected by the increase in the amounts of heat trapping greenhouse gases being put into the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels and certain other human activities. Study the situation and look at the findings of reputable scientists.

Answer 5

It is a naturally occurring process which keeps climates in check. Through out the decades of the human existence, we have become quite industrial. All of these new gases and such being released by so much industry (such as plants, cars, planes, electricity, etc.), it is speeding up the natural process causing things to be thrown off balance. By doing simple everyday things, such as recycling, not driving as much, and turning off unused lights in the house, it will help put things back on balance.

Answer 6

The difference is that this time we seem to be causing the global warming with our emissions of green house gasses. Its going to be a massive problem--drought in agricultural areas could lead to mass starvation and economic collapse and mass migrations that would make present worries concerning border security look trivial. The value of the real estate going under water in places like Florida, New York, Holland, and many other places would decimate the banking and insurance industries--already many insurance companies are pulling out of Florida because they know global warming means only financial losses for them there. It is one of those problems that is much better to head off now than to continue stumbling blindly into with terrible consequences.

Answer 7

There IS a cyclical component to climate. Climate change these days is also affected significantly by increased greenhouse gas accumulation in the upper atmosphere. Previous levels were around 210 ppm (pre industrial era), now they're at 300 ppm. Increased greenhouse gas accumulation leads to increased temps.

You have to distinguish between the two to understand the phenomenon that the world's scientists agree is a threat to the planet.

Answer 8

The increasing of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is natural and has occured peridocally throughout the earth's history. However, our rapid releasing of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere has been getting worriesome since about the 70's.

Answer 9

Nothing new, dinosaurs, and the Glaciers themselves prove that. The earths climate is ever changing. Man in his absorption of self importance thinks he can control the universe. They will point out some scientific study, (that we tax payers paid for) and say this is evidence that the earth is getting hotter. I would like to point out that I could have done it much cheaper, by pointing to the Great Lakes which were formed by melting glaciers and say, " where was man when those baby's formed." Must have been awful warm to make that much water.......

Answer 10

No, the Earth has always cooled and warmed on it's own. The Earth has had many different periods, which is obvious based on fossil records and such. To think that man alone is responsible is rediculous. It's been turned more into a political game than anything else. One volcano will spew more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than mankind has the entire time we've been on Earth.