Is global warming natural (a patern leading to an ice age then starting over) or mainly caused by people??

Question

Some people say it's natural and we shouldn't worry. Like it happens over 3 million or billion years like a pattern of earth's weather. A lot of people think it's too much carbon and this is all man's fault and the earth will never be the same. I need more people's answers.

Answer 1

That's the big debate right now. I tend to think it's the combination of the two. Humans are making the natural cycles worse.

Answer 2

The scientific community more or less unanimously agrees that humans are contributing to global warming but there is some discord as to just how much. Some scientists would say the human contribution is as little as 80%, others would put the figure in excess of 90%.

Historically global warming and cooling have been entirely natural phenomena and have been occasioned by the numerous and complicated cycles that the sun and Earth go through. At certain points whith these cycles a trigger mechanism can be activated which results in runaway warming and cooling, this has happened many times before.

If there were no humans on the planet then it would still be warming caused by the net effect of the various warming and cooling cycles.

But humans are on the planet and not only that, it's warming many times faster than can possibly be attributed to any natural cycles or other causes. What we don't know for certain is just how much of the current warming trend is due to natural causes and how much is down to humans.

We can look back at over half a billion years worth of climate data and see what the planet has done in the past, we can also use much more accurate data stretching back nearly ¾ million years and we can make computer models showing how the different natural cycles affect our climate. This can be acheived with great accuracy as it's not based on variables or possible fluctuations but on known cycles. Taking all this and many other things into account we can accurately state that the world is warming 177 times faster than it did in the 10,000 years prior to the onset of the industrial revolution and 17 times faster then the runaway warming witnessed during the most recent glacial retreat ('end of the last ice age').

Further, we know why the planet is at the habitable temperature it is and why it doesn't have a climate similar to that of the moon (if the atmosphere didn't have a role to play in affecting climate we would experience conditions similar to those of the moon, too hot to exist by day and too cold to exist by night).

It's because we have an atmosphere and greenhouse gases that our planet is habitable but we're upsetting the natural balance by adding excessive greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and when we do this the planet can't do anything other than to warm up.

You pointed out that some people say it's natural and we shouldn't worry. Amongst these people you'll find individuals, laypeople, journalists and those with a vested interest in questioning global warming. Perhaps more importantly, how many scientists and other experts claim it's natural and we shouldn't worry? Almost none.

Answer 3

All life is Carbon-based on this planet, so Carbon isn't bad, it's natural. Carbon dioxide is what the plants live on, and when the planet warms, more CO2 is formed. It's a normal cycle.

One theory is that CO2 contributes to the greenhouse effect and causes the earth to retain too much heat. Actually, the greenhouse effect is perfectly natural and is meant to keep the planet from freezing each night when the sun goes down. Also, humans contribute less than 0.009% of the CO2 in the greenhouse layer, so it's hard to believe we have any effect at all on any type of warming, let alone climate change.

Besides, if you look at history, the planet supports more life when it gets warmer. We were in a cooling spell from 1940 to 1980 and it's been warming since then. They say it's gone up almost one degree over the last 100 years and that sounds extremely stable to me.

Actually most scientists don't see anything abnormal about our climate. There's more money in creating a crisis, so that might explain why it's so popular these days to cause hysteria and place blame on humans. Also it's a great way to get people to agree to heavy tax increases. Don't fall for it.

Answer 4

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 5

Every climate pattern we know of is natural. Many scientists believe we are affecting this latest natural cycle. And truly, we have measurable minor effects on weather. The big question is just how much man is able to affect the long term climate. One side will tell you for sure that man is responsible for almost all of the current climate. The other side will say for sure man has no significant effect on the climate. Honestly, we just don't have enough information to be that certain one way or another.

Personally, I don't believe that we are the primary cause of our current climate conditions. Definitely not to the extent that we should have trillion dollar programs to "fight" global warming. I believe that there is enough information to warrant further investigation. We have major global problems that we can't afford to put on the backburner to pursue an unknown solution to an uncertain problem.

However, this shouldn't stop us from pursuing alternate/renewable energy sources, conserving energy and resources, and limiting damage to the environment. This will definitely benefit all of us sharing the planet, and will - if global warming is real - solve that problem too.

Answer 6

The greatest extinction of species in history (95%) was caused by global warming. No people were around. Earth has been through many cycles of warming and cooling entirely without the help of humans. It's anthromorphic at least and perhaps egocentric to believe that our meager infestation of the planet has such dramatic effect.

Answer 7

Scientists have proven that this is mostly man made.

If a theory says it's natural, the numbers simply don't work. They don't match the observed data.

But, theories which say it's mostly man made greenhouse gases do work. The numbers match the data. Here's one example, from the Source below:

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

Global warming deniers give "logical" arguments. But science is about numbers. The key word in the quote below is "quantitative" (meaning numerical):

"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

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 8

It's changed many times in the past and has never stayed 100% constant.
About a thousand years ago ( give or take ) Grapes were groing in northern Europe because of a long warming trend.
We have had big and lesser ice ages without human influence at all.

Answer 9

Geologically we are headed into another ice age! Yes, there are natural warming and cooling trends in the history of the earth. It is completely ignorant to say that humans are not having a negative effect on this process!

Answer 10

Global warming is just a chain reaction of multiple causes however if you visit: www.santanaeffect.com you can learn a lot about the horror truth.