Is global warming a real issue?

Question

After watching an inconvenient truth, I thought I had it all down pat. My Earth System's teacher, who is in my opinion, the smartest man I have ever met, is on Al Gore's side with this stuff, and has my mind situated on global warming being a bad thing, and that we'll notice really devastation effects in 40-60 years time.

Then there are people who post on here who would actually cut off their arm instead of listen to people actually root for stopping global warming, as if it's not even happening, based on one or two articles... I don't know what to believe, to be honest. I don't even watch all that much TV, so I'm not brainwashed by that. If anything, I hardly see anything about global warming on TV.

I don't believe that this has happened before with the earth. They measured the layers of antartica's sheets, and since when has antarctica come close to breaking into pieces?

So what's the real deal?

Is this actually something we should strive to change, or is it a sham?

Answer 1

It's good to see that you didn't get brainwashed by Al Gore or even your teacher. Thinking for yourself is good.

I was skeptical too and when I started checking the real science it exposed the lies in Gore's movie and with others who support the myth. There's a lot of money involved, so it's important that they get uneducated people to believe them.

Check the links below. Some are videos, most are science articles. Search on google and youtube for videos on the subject if you're curious. Sometimes those videos mysteriously disappear, so search for them.

The "global warming" advocates like to say the "debate is over," or "only Exxon supporters don't believe it," but that's a way to stop the debate because they know the science is against them.

They like to use terms like "scientific consensus," but the last "scientific consensus" was when they were convinced that the sun revolved around the earth. If you disagreed you were vilified as they do now to anyone not believing the junk science.

Think about it logically after you read both sides and you may want to bring up the scientific facts that refute global warming to your teacher. Maybe you can educate him.

It's good to conserve energy and not to pollute, but if we give in to this myth they'll impose so much taxation on everything we do that it will cost 10 times as much for everything we buy. So there's incredible danger in just accepting this unproven theory.

Besides, how can anyone predict what will happen 40-60 years from now? My weatherman can't even get it right looking ahead 3 days.

Answer 2

Sounds like your teacher knows his stuff. Indeed if we don't sufficiently reduce our greenhouse gas emissions soon, in about 40 years we'll start seeing some very devastating effects. Even in 20 years we'll really be noticing more heat waves, droughts, water shortages, food shortages, etc. The World Health Organiziation estimates that global warming is already responsible for 150,000 human deaths worldwide annually, and that this number will double by 2030.

If you just take the time to research the issue, you'll likely come to the same conclusions as your teacher. This is because all the science points to humans as the primary cause of the current global warming, and that the consequences will be very bad very soon if we don't take action. There is a scientific consensus about this because there's simply no plausible alternative scientific explanation for why global warming has increased so much over the past 40 years, as you can see here:

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

People who deny anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming like 'hello' above always cite the same poor sources. The film 'The Great Global Warming Swindle' is full of bad science and bad conclusions and has been widely criticized by scientific experts. JunkScience.com was started by Phillip Morris tobacco company to depict peer-reviewed studies connecting secondhand smoke to lung cancer as "junk science" and corporate sponsored "research" that found no connection as "sound science". Now it's funded by Exxon-Mobile to do the same for global warming science.

These are the same sources that global warming deniers always use, while those of us who acknowledge the science behind anthropogenic global warming cite peer-reviewed scientific studies, and the authority on the subject, the IPCC report. In fact, if you want to learn more about the issue, I recommend the IPCC report Summary for Policymakers. It's just 18 pages long and has lots of nice charts and graphs, and summarizes the best science on global warming.

http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1-report.html

The bottom line is that it would be great if global warming were a sham. That's why some people believe it's true - because they want it to be a sham so they latch onto some misinformation that tells them it's all a big hoax. That's just not how science works though.

Answer 3

Let's look at both sides. Say it is true, you believe it and do something about it in your personal life. This means you do your part by buying smart; you recycle, you vote for candidates who support your views (when you are old enough), and, at a minimum, the degradation of the environment slows down. Perhaps you live longer.
Now what if it isn't true and there is nothing you can do about what happens in the world. So you don't even try to change anything. In the end you'll die never knowing if something you might have done would have helped make things better. Just because global warming may not be true doesn't mean you can't be the best steward of the earth in your actions and make it an even better place. It doesn't look like we'll be colonizing other planets soon so let's try to live with the one we have.

Answer 4

It is great to keep thinking of ways to solve this problem.. but to ignore the problem suggestign it is a hoax is an emu response. From my perspective there are 4 billion of us that are not doing enough about global warming. If we each did a little thing.. imagine the nett impact on the reduction to global warming.

Does it exist? Of course.. .it is simple environmental science.... I wote this statement minutes ago for another quesiton but it seems to fit in here ....

Have you ever been inside a greenhouse? It is warm right?
Why is it warm?

Well high frequency radiation hits the glass.. some is reflected, some is absorbed but a lot is transmitted straight through.

The reduction in intensity as it travels through the glass changes the frequency of the radiation. The wave lengths get longer. This makes it harder to transmit through glass... so when it tries to get back out.. less of the heat can pass.. therefore the greenhouse warms up.

Now.. you can see that the earth's atmosphere works in much the same way... if you start putting lots more carbon gas up there.. the heat can't escape as easily as it used to ... so the temperature of the air around the earth rises.

Even if global warming is cyclical, it is irresponsible to deny the simple fact that we can reduce carbon gas emmissions to reduce the impact of the greenhouse effect.

Answer 5

Although we have to acknowledge that this is part of nature, global warming, it has been increased by human activities such as pollution

how it basically works is that rays from the sun go through the earth while some bounce back into space

those that do go through the earth go to the ground and bounce back up

the problem is that there are greenhouse gases, AKA pollution, that keeps the heat from the sun trapped

this leads to an increase in temperature

and an increase in temperature overtime (and that time is now) allows for the polar ice caps to melt

when the ice caps melt and sea levels rise

global warming creates several issues
now lets not be naive to think that global warming makes the WHOLE world warm at the same time, global warming leads to climate change because of sea levels rising and because of warmer waters which create a number of problems

but anyways back to the other issues i was mentioning
with temperatures rising, there have been several reports of animals from the mountains going into people's homes, including suburban areas, what the animals such as wolves, and snakes seek is either food, water, shelter, or a cool place to stay in.

global warming also creates other problems, like droughts and with droughts, that makes food scarce therefore more expensive

an increase in temperatures also creates really hot whether and some people get heat strokes or dehydrate

there are many issues that come with global warming, and global warming is very real

the thing to be worried about now is not neccesarily hell freezing over, but the consequences and steps towards very drastic climate change as the things i mentioned above

not only does it affect us but several animals are dying like the penguins who are falling into the cracks when the ice breaks

so do your part to help the environment, little things count like shopping locally, reusing bags, carrying your bag to the supermarket, etc

hope it helps :)

check out these sites
http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/whatyoucando/
http://www.climatehotmap.org/namerica.html
http://www.oar.noaa.gov/k12/html/greenhouse2.html
http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/index.html
http://epa.gov/climatechange/index.html

Answer 6

Global warming is a real concern. Here is one way of helping to deal with it that most people are not even aware of.
The raising of cattle for beef consumption causes more global warming than all of the cars exhaust on this planet. It starts with thousands of sq. miles being cut down of tropical rainforest to raise much of the cattle. Then the amount of methane gas(a global warming gas) that is expelled by cattle. 100 million tons of methane gas a year just in the U.S. alone. The amount of water to raise these cattle is beyond belief also. It takes about 20 acres of land a year to supply the protein a person needs by eating beef and over 2500 gallons of water. For a vegetarian it takes 1 acre of land to supply the protein they need for one year and about 40 gallons of water. Stop eating beef and you will be doing more to stop global warming than many other opitions.

Answer 7

To answer your question, it's about economics. Cheap energy is the best energy. Oil is cheap right now, and more politically correct (in the US) than nuclear. It CAN be utilized in a clean manner, but that takes more money. Nuclear energy is cheaper and "greener." The truth is wind and solar are unreliable (the wind doesn't always blow, and the sun goes down every night) and expensive and expansive (they take up a lot of space.) Logic would dictate the world go nuclear and implement energy savings and reductions to curb the damage of fossil fuels.

Answer 8

Hello got it right. Don't let anyone decide for you what YOU think. The fact that you've asked this question at all is very thoughtful on your part. Keep on questioning, and keep it from getting too serious, like you said there are people "who would actually cut off their arm instead of listen", to either side of this or any other debate.

Answer 9

Since we are all dependant upon the environment, it is not a sham.

Ask a preacher about not being sure if God exists or not. You know what he will tell you?
He will tell you that not believing in God is all fine and well, if you are correct, but what happens if you should find out you are wrong? Do you want to take that chance?
Now it is ironic, that the same type who would tell you something like that will deny the effects of global warming tooth-and-nail, without any consideration of what happens if they are wrong.

Answer 10

I have talked to over 500 climatologists, and they agree that global warming is a problem that is human caused

Whats happening is global warming has become a debatable subject, as if it has not scientfic background. It is not a sham, people just like to avoid anything that would make them have to step away from the TV for more than 5 minutes