Global warming or nature at work?

Question

I have been reading up on the issue of global warming and this is what I have found: two issues which seem to be confused or overlapped.

Global warming like global cooling is part of nature and has occurred throughout the history of the planet. The last time was the global cooling that included the glaciers of 15,000 years ago.

Pollution, caused by humans affects the atmosphere, but is not the cause of global warming. Pollution needs to be stopped also for the sake of the planet, but it will not stop global warming.

Global warming and global cooling are part of nature and are cyclical.

What do you think?

Answer 1

Global warming and cooling are cyclical but exist within the constraints of those cycles. The current warming trend far exceeds anything that could possibly be attributed to natural cycles.

This is no surprise or mystery, scientists have been warming about this since the end of the 19th century but it's only recently that anyone has paid them any heed. If the likes of Svante Arrhenius were alive today they'd be able to stick their tongues out and say 'see, told you so', unfortunately we chose to ignore them and are now having to deal with the consequences.

There are many natural cycles which affect Earth's climate (look up Solar Variation and Milankovitch Cycles for more details) and just like the positions of the planets in the solar system we can predict their position now, in the past and in the future. We know at any given time where we are within these cycles and what likely influence they will have on our climate. In this respect we can confidently say that the world is currently warming up seventeen times as fast as could be attributed to natural events.

Pollution does indeed affect the atmosphere and certain types of pollution are the causes of the greenhouse effect. Again, it's no great mystery as we know how and why this happens. Put simply, the more greenhouse gases there are in the atmosphere the warmer it becomes; this is due to a simple physical interaction between the molecules of the greenhouse gases and the heat radiated from the sun and our planet.

Without any human involvement the planet would be in a warming cycle just as it has been for the last 18,000 years but iun the last 60 years alone the world has warmed by the same amount as it did in the 10,000 years preceding the Industrial Revolution.

Answer 2

You are only partially correct. Humans are only one contributor to global climate change. Other contributors include variations in the sun and volcanic activity. Evidence that humans are the primary cause of the current global warming:

We know from ice core samples that historically when global warming occurred, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations also increased, but not until about 800 years later.

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

Many global warming deniers think this is evidence that CO2 can’t cause global warming. In fact, that’s the very first argument in the terrible Great Global Warming Swindle. On the contrary, this is actually evidence that human greenhouse gas emissions are currently causing global warming. Compare the following global temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentration plots from 1960-Present:

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

As you can see they’re both rising – not with an 800 year delay, but at the same time. If CO2 wasn’t causing global warming as was the case in the past, then why is there no 800 year delay?

This only proves a correlation between CO2 and global warming and not a causality. The reason we’ve concluded that greenhouse gas emissions are causing global warming (or more accurately, accelerating it) is because natural causes can’t account for the increase in global warming over the past 40-50 years. They account for most of the warming prior to that, but climate models have determined that greenhouse gases are responsible for about 80-90% of the recent global warming:

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

The very first inputs into climate models were solar, volcanic, and sunspot contributions, but they simply couldn’t account for the recent acceleration in global warming. Thus climate scientists have concluded that humans are the primary cause.

Answer 3

Human activity may affect natural warming. Another thing to consider is the cost of a 50% reduction in emissions.

There is a simple solution that both sides should be able to agree on but the greenies will never accept. Go to all nuclear power. It would eliminate co2 emissions - good for the global warming crowd, and it would eliminate our dependence on foreign oil - good for everyone else. Win-win. Will you support it?

Answer 4

Good Question.

The earth itself goes through cycles. G.W (global warming, not Geroge W bush) could be a consequence of pollution and unwanted gases in the atmosphere. But it could also be as you stated, a cycle.

Here's a question.

Since global warming is in affect..shouldn't each consecutive year keep getting hotter as the years pass?

Answer 5

Thetruthisback --- the record has only been around for ~100 years, so the fact 1998 is the hottest doesn't mean anything. And ten years is too small of a sample period to assume the pattern is stopped. Not to say that you are not right.

Check out what this climatologist has to say
http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaruherald/4064691a6571.html

Answer 6

what share cases? human beings pollute and harm and yet you think of which will have not any effect on the ecosystem we are a factor of. we are actually not above the device we live in. each and every thing we do impression it, and our ecosystem impacts us. it somewhat is a incredibly straightforward concept to attraction to close!

Answer 7

Ther have been natural changes in the past.

But, the scientific data clearly shows that, starting about 40 years ago, Man took control of climate away from nature.

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

We need to give it back.

Answer 8

CO2 is a greenhouse gas (IR active bent molecule like water) , and increasing it's concentration in the atmosphere increases temperature.....period

How much? i don't know, but scientists say enough to cause dramatic change.

a non-biased (or maybe right wing executive branch biased site) :

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/index.html

Answer 9

Global warmth - - - the hottest year on record was 1998. It's not warming anymore. It's not cooling but it stopped warming.

Answer 10

Right on.