Is Global Warming a science issue or is it a current event?

Question

Did the people who are most vocal about Global Warming even know about it before it became the media topic de jour?

Answer 1

It's definitely NOT science. It's more like bad science fiction - there's a lot of science jargon, but the overall premise is make-believe. I actually feel sorry for the scientists - they've been put out on a limb by politicians. They are backpedaling like crazy, but the politicians keep writing checks that the researchers can't possibly cover.

It will be a fiasco with the big loser being the environment. People are going to be so fed up with all the sacrifices demanded of them, that when they find out that they have been KNOWINGLY MISLED, they might swing so far back the other way that they will not care at all about destroying the environment.

Go ahead and print out a few Global Warming articles. By this time next year, almost all references will be changed to Global Climate Change. References will be edited to reflect the shift in terminology. Research that supports warming, but NOT climate change, will fall out of favor and may disappear altogether. Global climate change will prove to be even more nebulous and will require even less from gullible simpletons to believe in.

Answer 2

It's both a scientific and current events issue (and much more besides).

If you include me as one of those who is vocal about global warming then I knew about it before it became the 'media topic de jour'. The first report I wrote about global warming was a school examination piece back in 1983, I then went on and got a degree in climatology and had been involved with the science of global warming for several years before it became the big news that it is today.

Certainly far more people are aware of global warming and climate change now than they were 10 years ago but as a scientific issue it's not new.

Scientists have known about it for over 100 years but the politicians weren't interested in acting. Here's a short clip from a documentary from the 1950's in which one of the leading scientists of the day warns about global warming - http://dabble.com/node/7990034

Answer 3

Scientists have been studying global warming for over a century. It's now becoming a "current even" and politicized because global warming has been accelerating over the past few decades and we're reaching a point where we have to deal with it very soon or we're going to face very bad consequences for our inability or unwillingness to react to our changing climate.

So I guess you could say both - the science of global warming is obviously science. The politics of global warming is more of a current and future event.

Answer 4

There is Global Warming causing Climate Change.

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/

Answer 5

Science.

There is a huge body of scientific data and analysis supporting the main things about global warming. It was produced by thousands of scientists working independently around the world for well over 20 years. It all says the same basic things. Global warming is real, it's mostly (80-90%) caused by us, and it presents an extreme danger to our well being.

The idea that 99% of the climatologists in the world are wrong, neglect obvious natural causes as possibilities, or fake the data to get money, or engaged in a massive environmentalist conspiracy, is just ridiculous.

Denying global warming in the face of this is like denying evolution, or that we went to the moon, or saying you have a perpetual motion machine. It's not scientific. It's an "evil conspiracy" theory that has no basis in fact.

Major Republican political leaders, including McCain, Gingrich, and Bush, accept global warming as real. They don't get their science from Al Gore, they get it from the best scientists in the world. They've heard all the arguments on the other side, and they don't buy them. The US military is seriously making plans for dealing with worldwide chaos, if we don't reduce it.

Here's the accepted truth about global warming, with major data backup, and having gone massive review. It's actually very conservative, the majority of scientists think global warming will be worse. But this is what thousands of climatologists accept as true.

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

It's understandable why some people deny it. It's similar to other things they (generally conservative) hear from people they don't like (liberals and environmentalists). It's scary because it demands that we work hard to reduce its' effects. But global warming is reality. Denying reality is done all the time by people. But it's a very dangerous way to live.

Answer 6

History has a way of repeating itself. The last time...freshwater dumped into the Oceans, it stopped the weather conveyor currents of the Oceans and triggered a past ICE AGE which did not go well for North America and Europe. I think Americans, Canadians and Europeans home owners would take this issue seriously if you don't want to end up living in Africa, Central America and the Middle East. We have a lot of smart people who do research who are not politically or financially driven...let's listen to what the real experts have to say.

Answer 7

Probably not, but not all scientists believe the same thing about global warming. Scientists have been keeping an eye on global warming for many years now.

Politians sometimes need something to make them stand out and tend to fight extremely hard for their beliefs.

Answer 8

I don't have too much to add to this issue, but I just wanted to say that Global Warming and things about the Ozone layer have been talked about for years and years. However, it took extreme abnormally high temperatures to get everyone's attention. Plus, Al Gore, ;)

Answer 9

Yup! Scientists have known about global warming for years and kept track of it too, and even let us know about it but no one wanted to listen. Back in the 60's
Now! I fear, it is way too late to do anything about it.
Some of us have thrown stones at Al Gore and he is just the messenger that delivered what the scientists now know for sure.
It is a science and the current event is that we are in deep trouble.

Answer 10

It's a science issue. It's the same thing that happens every time a science issue is turned political; a bunch of know-nothing morons start to think that they know more than the scientists. Scopes monkey trial anyone?