If its not Global Warming then what?

Question

Personally I think the earth has been around so long we couldn’t possibly know the reasons its doing what its doing. Years ago we thought the earth was flat and were pretty convinced there was no other explanation! Heck they even closed the US patent office for a while in the early 1800's because they thought everything that could be invented was already thought of. So we can’t be that naive to think we have the answers now do we? What’s your thoughts, what do you think it could be since we sure don’t hear any of the other points often?

I do want to add that we couldn’t possibly be helping mother earth they way we are now & we need to cut down on carbon dioxide & pollution no matter the immediate danger or not!

Answer 1

First off, let me say that I agree that we should all do our part to conserve the environment and decrease the negative impact on it. We will always have a negative impact until we cease to exist, but that shouldn't stop us from acting with responsible care of our ecosystems.

I also agree that we don't have all the information needed to assess climate change. We can't account for all the carbon in the carbon cycle. We don't know how much heat is generated by the Greenhouse effect. The contributions of the ozone layer and interaction between troposphere and stratosphere are not well understood. Clouds? Water vapor? Thermohaline conveyor? What "triggers" glaciation? The more we learn, the more we realize how much we don't know.

Personally, I am intrigued by the Thermohaline conveyor, its temperature "memory" that can remain submerged for as much as 1600 years. The fact that along with that temperature memory comes a CO2 memory which may explain that 800 year CO2 lag seen in ice core samples. The possibility of interacting with the vast carbon sink of the deep ocean - 8 times greater than terrestrial and atmospheric sinks combined; also, the possible interaction between volcanic vents in both CO2 AND heat.

Knowing how much the conveyor affects our climate today warrants further exploration.

Answer 2

There's a great many unanswered questions regarding the Earth and as you say, we don't always know the reason why it's doing what it's doing. We often know how and when things will happen and what the consequences will be but don't aways know whay they're happening.

These unknowns aren't related to global warming. The causes and effects of GW are well documented and in terms of the Earth the primary causes are the cycles that the Earth goes through. There's several cycles, they interact with each other, the consequence of which is a primary contribution to the causes of global warming or cooling (the sun being the other primary contributor).

In science we can identify where the blanks are, they're like the missing parts of a jigsaw. In respect of global warming the pieces of the jigsaw are more or less all there, some still need fitting in place, some may be in the wrong place but the overall picture is clearly emerging. Any factors which have yet to be identified can only be minor ones or ones that have an effect over many millions or even billions of years.

As for the world being flat... People thought the world was flat because preachers told them it was. Until comparatively recently all Bibles were in Latin and the only people who spoke Latin were clerics and medics. The Bible makes references to the ends of the earth and the four corners of the earth thus implying that it's flat. This is what the preachers taught, the people had no option but to accept it and it was the scientists who risked villification by standing up and claiming otherwise.

Answer 3

I would like to say, the Earth could be warming up, but to think that we, the puny little humans covering the face of this Earth, could change the temperature of the Earth is purely insane. They, as in scientists, governments, etc., tried to tell us the hairspray, was putting a hole in the Ozone layer, so the government funded a 10 year study on the matter of IS THE OZONE HOLE GETTING BIGGER!!!! Well they found out that the hole fluctuates, WOW REALLY, our Earth changes no way!!!! My point is why didn't the government allow us now to use Free-on? Did you know they had to change the whole cooling system on the space shuttle, because of the fact the we can no longer use Free-on. When we as a people impact the environment, then O.K., lets do something about it. We have given the stupid environmentalist TOOOOOO MUCH POWER!!!! Like I say, trying to have a clean environment is good, but anytime you have a freak of nature, government agency, control anything, it will be to the extreme. Have you ever seen any, government, or any of the governments agencies, not have to much power. Any kind of regulatory agency will be, give it time, to controlling. We The People, yes, WE THE PEOPLE, need to do this ourselves, not the government.

Answer 4

Climatologists have figured a few things out. And our input of greenhouse gases is such a powerful factor that it undeniably shows up in the data, even if our models aren't perfect. It's like a nearby Supernova, you don't need a telescope to see it.

The data clearly shows that about 40 years ago, Man took over control of the climate from nature. From the Source below:

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

No other answer works. Leave out greenhouse gases and you simply can't get even close to the observed data.

The key word in the following quote is "quantitative".

"There's a better scientific consensus on this [climate change] than on any issue I know... Global warming is almost a no-brainer at this point. You really can't find intelligent, quantitative arguments to make it go away."

Dr. Jerry Mahlman, NOAA

Note the handwaving and magic in this thread. Scientists simply don't accept that stuff if they have good data that explains things from known causes. It's exactly like explaining things by saying "God did it." For the creation of the Big Bang, that's an acceptable theory, for the Grand Canyon it isn't.

Good websites for more info:

http://profend.com/global-warming/
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/

Answer 5

Global warming is one-half of the climatic cycle of warming and cooling.
The earth's mean temperature cycles around the freezing point of water.
This is a completely natural phenomenon which has been going on since there has been water on this planet. It is driven by the sun.
Our planet is currently emerging from a 'mini ice age', so is becoming warmer and may return to the point at which Greenland is again usable as farmland (as it has been in recorded history).
As the polar ice caps decrease, the amount of fresh water mixing with oceanic water will slow and perhaps stop the thermohaline cycle (the oceanic heat 'conveyor' which, among other things, keeps the U.S. east coast warm).
When this cycle slows/stops, the planet will cool again and begin to enter another ice age.
It's been happening for millions of years.
Humans did not cause it.
Humans cannot stop it.

Answer 6

No one claims to know all factors in these complex systems. But some major factors are known and the models based on them can pretty accurately recreate known climatic changes. A lot is still to be learned about those factors and how they effect each other though.
Regarding th natural cycles: We can very accuratly measure the amount of solar radiation, the source of energy, thast enters the Earth. These variations alone are not enough to account for the seen effects.

Gnarlyswine: You say that we are overdue a climate change? Where did you get this information? The next ice age is predicted to occur in 30.000 years.

Answer 7

You just contradicted your own logic. At one point we thought the Earth was flat, but now we know it's round!

Science is always evolving as we learn new things. Climatology has been around for decades, and now climatologists have learned about the causes of global climate change.

There are simply no viable scientific explanations left. Humans are the primary cause of the current global warming:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgS2qOApqjAAlFJiUIa8Hyfty6IX?qid=20070711133901AAvvAXX
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnxRBU2RzMydTSiCK08JtVDty6IX?qid=20070711123338AAawIgY

Answer 8

I don't buy the doom and gloom attitude. Scientist don't have a great record on a lot of issues. Science is in a constant state of learning. Many theories have been proven wrong. Many studies conflict one another. I don't think any scientist with a conscience can say the THEORY of man-made global warming is an absolute truth.

There is conflict amongst scientist on the causes of global warming. Here are some more positive points of view:

Answer 9

The earth's weather runs in cycles period.

Answer 10

the wheather man is right 33% of the time.

and i should just start goose-stepping to the global warming march?

rfk jr went off the left deep end on nbc in front of 2.5 million viewers (is that all that care?)

it's arrogant of anyone to claim thay KNOW anything about-global climate change. pose a theory, that's o.k.--not the same as i KNOW....

when i was growing up, it was another ice age, that every one was worried about. not even thirty years later, and the cycle is going the other way. why is Greenland called Greenland?

i advocate personal responsibility, but it takes too much thinking for most people to intelligently engage in.

boil it down to the REAL important issue---

DIRTY-BAD

CLEAN-GOOD.

i do admire the idea of trying to unite the entire globe on one issue, we are stuck here together, aren't we? fear and loathing is a bad tactic.