Can anyone here prove global warming?

Question

I recently read the answers to a similar question, and everyone was quick to say that anti-global warming people are wrong. What have you researched?

Answer 1

Anyone who says yes is lying. For one thing, there is no such thing in science as "proving".

For another, and this does not get nearly enough attention, global warming science is based ENTIRELY on computer modeling. And the methodology employed is to simply disregard all the natural variables that they haven't been able to research, and to then stroke the model until it resembles what has been observed. When someone like Dana says, "natural causes simply can't account for nearly enough warming to match the average global temperature increases". what's really being said is, "modelers have not been able to account for all natural parameters."

For example, here is a portion of an interview that Dana posted: "There are two ways you can go with that. One way is...my challenge to him would be quantify that effect. Exactly how much radiatively active gases are being released into the atmosphere? And if you can quantify that then sure, we'll put it in, we'll test it, that's not problem. But the flip side, the way you can come at that the other way is that the models as we have them set up at the moment with all of those forcings, the natural ones and the human ones, give a really good representation of what's happened in the 20th century, where we have our best data." http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2007/1966003.htm


In other words, until they can quantify evidence, they don't even consider it.

Imagine that you dropped a diamond off of a ring in your living room and employed a team to help you find it. They can't find it and claim that the diamond can't possibly be in the living room anymore. Then, after a little prying, they admit that they haven't looked under or moved any of the furniture because it's too heavy. Or looked within the pile of the carpet because there's simply too much to look through. Instead they "sampled" parts of the carpet and made a computer modeled trajectory to determine where the diamond must have fallen.

Have they "proven" it enough for you?

Answer 2

Science has proven global warming is real, and mostly caused by us, as much as anything in science is proven.

This is a nice picture, includes the effect of the Sun, and there are many more scientific studies showing the same thing.

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

None of the other explanations works nearly as well. The scientific equations don't work for them. The numbers come out wrong. Most questions are answered here:

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn11462

Good general information on global warming. with data and pictures:

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

Answer 3

If you want global warming to be proved, get off of Yahoo and do some research instead of asking people to do the research for you.

Answer 4

The scientists have proved it, go on sites, read about in book you get the information there. But there is going to be a new movie called Global Cool with Tony Blair, Sienna Miller, Amitabh Bachan and someone else, basically its set in the future and people are dieing, because of the harsh weathers, Ozone layer, Practically because of the global warming. So they record a video tape and send it into the past (Unbeliveable huh?)! The record stuff like the future is in danger, thell the people of the of the past whats happening and the people from the past try to stop it happening.

Answer 5

I've done a lot of reading about global warming. I'm no expert, but I do have my opinions. Basically, if you look at it, global warming is a hotly (pun intended) debated topic amongst researchers and scientists. If they can't agree on it, what are we supposed to think?

What I think is that a few high profile people have taken it upon themselves to make this more of a political issue than an environmental one. It's sad that instead of informing us about the fact, they use these doomsday "facts" to scare us into believing something.

I firmly believe we should all do our best to become informed individuals. Do your own research. Read articles, books, even talk to experts if you can find them. But don't let politicians and the media think for you.

Answer 6

I haven't researched.
I am still learning about the subject and don't take just one source as truth on anything. I like to get a lot of input from various sources.

It is funny to think someone would be anti-global warming...have they researched what fat does to their arteries? Yet the proof is there. Have they done any research about anything they commonly believe? How can they believe what they see on telelvision news channels? Did they invent it and know it transmits correctly and its not a scam?

Answer 7

It's not actually all that difficult to show how global warming happens by creating a simulation of the Earth's atmosphere, it's an experiment that can be performed in any reasonably well equipped science lab.

The science behing global warming is quite simple and is something that has been understood for over 100 years - it was in 1896 that Svante Arrhenius established the links between greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.

In a nutshell, short wavelength solar radiation (sun rays) easily pass through our atmosphere where they are absorbed by Earth and everything on it. When the ambient temperature falls the stored heat energy is released as longer wavelength thermal radiation. These longer waves have difficulty escaping Earth's atmosphere because the comparatively large molecular gases impede their progress, it's these gases that are termed 'greenhouse gases'.

As for what I've researched - lots of things, I graduated from University College London with a degree in climatology. That in itself required much research, since then I've been involved with, and have established and overseen, numerous research projects. At the moment most of my research is based on carbon sequestration and data validation.

Answer 8

Ice core samples, CO2 levels, average global temperatures, and receding ice sheets all point towards a warming trend for the Earth. So yes, it is easy to prove that the Earth is getting warmer... what is hard to prove is WHY? That is where the theories come in.. is it our fault? is it the Sun? is it just part of the natural cycle?

Every action has a reaction.. so pumping Carbon dioxide and methane into our atmosphere will have a reaction.. and we know these gases to retain heat in what is known as the green house effect (which we can say with some certainty is real since we would be a frozen ice block at night and a frying pan during the day without it) so there is no doubt that we are having at least SOME effect... now how much is MUCH harder to understand.. .. we may be 1% of the problem.. we may be 50%.. who knows.. but to me it seems irresponsible to not take care of our part.. however much that may be.. and prepare as quickly as possible for the rest.

Answer 9

Well I can give you a quick summary of the scientific research. Personally I'm an environmental scientist with degrees in physics. I've read some of the IPCC report, including the Summary for Policymakers, scientific papers and articles, and some books about global warming. I consider myself pretty well-informed.

Basically the planet has been warming since we came out of the last ice age. Since the Industrial Revolution and particularly since 1960, global warming has been accelerating:

http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/info/warming/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:2000_Year_Temperature_Comparison.png

Over this time period, human greenhouse gas emissions have also increased steadily and dramatically:

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

By itself this doesn't prove that greenhouse gases are the cause of global warming, but it's a strong correlation. Additionally, in the past when global warming was due to natural causes (such as variations in the sun), atmospheric CO2 concentrations matched the changes in average global temperature, but lagged about 800 years behind:

http://www.daviesand.com/Choices/Precautionary_Planning/New_Data/

That raises the question if greenhouse gases aren't causing global warming, why are they increasing at the same time instead of CO2 levels increasing 800 years later? The final nail in the coffin is that climate models can account for most of the warming prior to 1960 with natural causes, but from 1960-present, natural causes simply can't account for nearly enough warming to match the average global temperature increases. When they model greenhouse gas contributions, they find that greenhouse gases have accounted for 70-95% of the warming over the past few decades, and the models fit the data fairly accurately:

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

Thus they conclude that humans are the primary cause of the current global warming.

Answer 10

Yes, look at the global temperature recored for the last century, as you will see, it is increasing, not necessarily in every region, but total global temperature combined. You can find these stats at wikipedia. If you do not like this source, look at the U.N. reports available online. These stats came from the Government and private companies.