Climate change cause?

Question

I know that some people say that its completely natural, and some people say that its all our fault, and i see both sides of the argument, anyone got any strong arguments for their view?

My personal opinion is that the Earths atmospheric temperature has fluctuated naturally in years when no human activity was around, so therefore any warming is natural, however we are not helping it, and we are accelerating the natural fluctuation.

Answer 1

It's a very good point you make and there are people other than yourself who correctly point out that our climate has changed without any human intervention. It seems logical therefore that the changes we're witnessing now are also the result of natural variations.

This overlooks one essential fact - the rate of change. What we're witnessing now are changes far quicker than anything that's ever before been known and to the scientists and experts this comes as no surprise.

We have an amazing amount of climate data and can look back at what's been happening for more than half a billion years. True, the information this far back is somewhat sketchy but using other techniques we can create an accurate climate record going back nearly ¾ million years.

This information shows us when and how the planet has warmed and cooled in the past, we can compare this to what's happening now. This reveals some alarming and worrying trends.

The planet operates within the tolerances of many natural cycles and fluctuations. In recent years we've overloaded these cycles or have pushed the rate of change way beyond the natural boundaries. In short, we've made the planet behave in a way that it's not meant to.

Answer 2

It is not natural -- what we're seeing today is different from anything the planet has seen before. We just did a five-part series that goes into detail about how scientists have reached this conclusion:

1 -- Scientists have been looking at this for 175 years. That's when they first started to understand HOW people could warm up the earth. http://environmentaldefenseblogs.org/climate411/2007/06/14/human_cause-1/

2 -- Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are going up. By analyzing the chemistry of the CO2, they can tell that it comes from people burning fossil fuels. http://environmentaldefenseblogs.org/climate411/2007/06/21/human_cause-2/

3 -- They looked at what caused the climate to vary naturally in the past, before human activity was part of the picture. None of those natural causes are happening today. http://environmentaldefenseblogs.org/climate411/2007/06/29/human_cause-3/

4 -- The Medieval Warming period can look like a recent, natural time of warming. That's a misconception. http://environmentaldefenseblogs.org/climate411/2007/07/05/human_cause-4/

5 -- Scientists have looked at everything anyone can think of -- solar variation, the earth's reflection, variations from one part of the system to another. None of them match up to the data. http://environmentaldefenseblogs.org/climate411/2007/07/12/human_cause-5/

So as Sherlock Holmes said, once you've elimated all the other possibilites, whatever is left is the answer. And in this case, the answer is that human activity is causing global warming.

Answer 3

Ahhh ... the arrogance of man to think that he can alter the course of nature! I'd sure like to know what caused the warming periods between all the previous ice ages if it wasn't nature? Mammoth flatulation on a MAMMOTH scale?

Also, no one seems to want to account for the effects of volcanic eruptions. One eruption the size of Mt. Penitubo in the Philippines in the '90s put out more greenhouse and toxic gases than the entire output of mankind's industrial revolution from when the revolution started in the mid-1800s to the present day. And there are on average 60 volcanic eruptions each year around the world.

The sun also goes through cycles. Some lasting decades, some lasting hundreds and even thousands of years. Without the sun, the earth would be a ball of ice. So it seems to me, that as the sun's output varies, so do the temperatures of the earth. And, according to astronomers, the temps. of the other planets of the solar system have also been rising, an excellent indication that the sun is also affecting the earth's temps. and climate.

So if all of these NATURAL causes are having an effect on the earth's climate, just what does mankind think it can to do alter that effect? Plug the volcanoes? Put up a sunscreen between the earth and sun?

Get real, people ... stop acting like a bunch of "chicken littles" and accept the fact that this is something even bigger than Al Gore and all of his disciples putting out their hysterical rantings, which I'm sure contribute to the hot air in the world. Although, Al Gore IS getting pretty big lately - if you haven't noticed ...

You can buy all the "carbon credits" you like. Sort of reminds me of the Church in medieval times, selling "forgivenesses" because they, too, were sure that the earth was coming to an end.

And remember ... it's not nice to fool with Mother Nature!

Answer 4

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 5

This is really really simple.

If the theory says the present warming is natural, the results don't match the data. The numbers don't work.

If the theory says the present warming is mostly caused by man made green house gases, it does match the measured data pretty closely. The numbers work.

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

Which is the reason why the vast majority of scientists agree global warming is mostly man made. They go by the numbers. The key word in this 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

and this:

"I wasn’t convinced by a person or any interest group—it was the data that got me. I was utterly convinced of this connection between the burning of fossil fuels and climate change. And I was convinced that if we didn’t do something about this, we would be in deep trouble.”

Vice Admiral Richard H. Truly, USN (Ret.)
Former NASA Administrator, Shuttle Astronaut and the first Commander of the Naval Space Command

Deniers can flap their gums about this or that, but their numbers don't work. And the behavior of some celebrities does absolutely nothing to change the scientific facts.

Good websites for more info:

http://profend.com/global-warming/
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/
http://www.realclimate.org
"climate science from climate scientists"

Answer 6

I very much agree with you, but I think the main cause is us. We are putting these pollutants in the air, but that's not the only cause. There are plenty of natural things going on. For one, the reason for the drastic weather changes is the way of Mother Nature taking it's course. The Earth is repairing and riding itself of these pollutants. Also, I think God is playing part in this also. These changes are all in God's plan. He knows how the human race is. We're not perfect, so therefore we make mistakes. We are potentially destroying ourselves, and this is our destiny. All good things must come to an end, and that includes humans. Even though, we are dieing, it doesn't mean we won't ever be again. We'll still exist in heaven with our father, and maybe he'll re-incarnate us into this life once again. Then life will repeat itself. Anything is possible if you just believe.

Best of luck to us all.

Answer 7

The sun is a little hotter now than it was 30 years ago. Volcanoes put out more CO2 than people, and there has never been a studt that concluded that volcanoes cause global warming, but there is evidence that volcanoes have caused cooling of the planet.
Mars has warmed in the last few years also.

Answer 8

The primary reason is people leaving their windows open in their homes when the heater is on---close the damn windows, people!

So I agree with you that people are accelerating the process.

Answer 9

HA! sure earth has gone through its natural ice ages, but earth has also never had billions of cars and other greenhouse gasses going out the roof. Please, watch "An Inconvienient Truth." You'll learn something.

Answer 10

I agree.
We might be the only to people that see it this way.
I'm glad I'm not as nuts as people think.
The average temp. has risen by 7 degrees in the last 100 years
And it is not unusually for that to happen or the temp dropping by several degrees over a hindered year period.