Global warming- i dont really believe it... but?

Question

ookay so i am thirteen. ive heard alot about global warming. right now im kinda thinking it isnt real. it just doesnt add up! ive studied that if you condensed the history of all life up until now (from the first tiny life form to dinos, to cavemen, to humans) in to one hour, human life would only be in the last ten seconds! and more than half of that time we didnt even have the things that they say "cause global warming". it doesnt seem possible that we destroyed the world so quickly! second if you took all the cars. and factories and planes in the WORLD and put them all together in one place it would only fill the state of california! third all the carbon deoxcide thats "trapped in the atmosohere " plants use to make more oxygen! n fourth the sun goes through 12 year cycles of heat and in the ice age it got suddenly warm and there was nothing to polute the atmosphere then! but now im a little confused with all the stuff going on with global warming and adevertising? what's the truth

im really confused with all the al gore stuff, and that concert they had for global warming.... it seems to me that a lot of people believe it it their putting all this effort into it. but then again.... they could just be doing all this for money, i mean ive heard that al gore who is telling everyone about the dangers of global warming flys in private jets to all to his meetings when private jets cause more polution than my moms toyota does in 3 year (so i hear).... but it all just really confuses me! : / and with all this talk of global warming it makes me feel like no one else sees it the way i do besides some of my teachers, and my parents

BUUUUT.... i also think.... what could lessening up on all the polution wouldnt hurt....

Answer 1

The "truth" in science is a very relative term - that is, it all depends on what you are talking about and who is doing the talking. Beware of anyone who claims to know the truth or claims to have "proven" something. That is not how science works. In science, you support a hypothesis with verifiable and repeatable experimentation. This has not been done with the key portions of global warming which rely on computer models.

As I've said in other answers:
How real is something that exists only in computer models that cannot even agree with each other?

How real is something that only holds up in the computer models during the night, but is invalid during the day?

How real is something that only holds up in the computer models over land but is invalid over the majority of the Earth (oceans)?

How real is something that only holds up in the computer models for the Northern Hemisphere and not the Southern?

How real is something that acknowledges the principle Greenhouse gas (water vapor) but excludes it from computer models because they cannot quantify it?

How real is something that favors ground-based stations and all the individual biases which can quickly compound errors over state-of-the-art thermal sensing satellites?

We could go on, but I'm having trouble trying to find the "real" part of global warming. I'll leave deciding whether it is real or not up to you.

Answer 2

You are very intelligent for your age. Sure it's confusing, there are a lot of experts who make claims that are only partial truths. Generally, everyone seems to want to try to make things better and sometimes they want to prove what they say with small examples, like see the chart of the last hundred years. Unfortunately these kind of proofs are kind of like saying: your room at home is always dark. Then proving it by only having your friends come over every night for a week keeping the light off to prove that your room is always dark. Yet the real facts of how often you have the light on in your room, even sometimes during the day is not shown or observed by your friends, so what you told them sounds like the facts. You will find throughout your life people will try to keep you in the dark, just so that they "prove" that they are supposedly right!
Keep questioning what people tell you, keep an open mind on what you read, hear or see and you will be on the right track to the solution most of the time. Remember using your head is the key!

Answer 3

I don't think that it actually matters whether global warming is man made or not. The fact is that there has been a visible change in our climate in the last 100 years and that the shift has been even more drastic recently. Maybe this would have happened without all of our factories and cars and just general disregard of the earth, but maybe it wouldn't have. Personally, I think that we should try to cut back on our emissions and practice environmentally friendly ways of life. Maybe, it wouldn't help, but what could it hurt?

I don't think that global warming is made up. I think that it is happening and is at least accelerated by human activity. Maybe I'm wrong, but I would rather err on the side of caution and do everything possible to slow it.

P.S. The reason that people are concerned about the CO2 level in the atmosphere is that there is too much of it for trees to convert into oxygen. That probably is manmade, since we've deforested a large portion of the planet in the last 150 years and it's a proven fact that saplings (the little trees in subdivisions) don't convert as much CO2 as large trees.

Also you might want to check out weather.com or the discovery channel for some actual science

Answer 4

You asked more than just one question, but we are happy to see you question authority. Let me just point out that your mom's toyota™ doesn't ferry a Harvard graduate on a world wide mission of truth. I accept there are reasons for weighing and balancing efforts to help the people planet wide with some excess energy use.
Your diverse statements; on the time scale of human industrial activity, planetary climate patterns, and plants involvement in the CO2 cycle, indicate you are researching some of the factors relevant to the global warming events of the present.
At the end, you ask 'what's the truth?'
Well, the truth of global warming is that there are no doubts the air is over saturated with CO2, and increasing.
The Bell Jar: ring a bell inside a vacuum within the bell jar, we cannot hear it.
In my opinion, we must plan for the future using the best science can offer. The alternative and opposing opinion is to argue against that evidence, in a desperate attempt to profit from fears or policies.

Answer 5

Humankind is the only group in the history that has been able to purposely completely destroy whole continents which will change the weather patterns for that area.

Due to over farming in the mid-west of Canada and the U.S.A prior to the 1930's; large sections of that region was turned into a giant dust bowl (man made desert).

Another point to think about is up to 1000AD the Plains natives of North America had a large moderately advanced civilization which controlled most of the territory from the Rocky Mountains to past the Mississippi River and about half of Ontario. They deforrested most of the midwest to build towns and cities. As there civilization aged and weakened they defoliaged more of the mid-west to build walls around their cities. This has been discovered recently by Archeologist. It is one of the few moderately advanced civilzations that there is liitle trace of becaude they built with wood rather than stone. The relation of the above to Global Warming is the deforrestation of the mid-west. This changed the weather patterns for a large part of North America.

Whether or not it has actually attributed to Global Warming is questionable.

It is widely thought that the Mayan civilization which was quite advanced dissappeared do the the deforrestation of there regions.

The list goes on.

Mankind can completely destroy a whole Island or mountain in seconds. Blow it right out existance with one nuclear bomb.

About carbon dioxide: it is only one by-product of the internal combustion engine (which powers most transport vehicles).

There is Carbon Monoxide, Nitrous Oxide and many more.

Both Carbon Monoxide and Nitrous Oxide are extremely hazardous to all life and combine with sunlight + ozone to create smog. You do not require a large quantity to have this happen. It is a matter of balance.

Have you ever done any baking and used flavouring and colouring? if you have, it takes only one to three drops of falvouring or colouring to affect a whole large bowl of mix.

Carbon Monoxide and other oxides and ozone require even less to do their damage.

A small quantity of carbon monoxide in your house can lead to sickness, brain damage or even death.

Please do more research without any bias and with a completely open mind. You will learn a lot more.

Study hard and do not let others make up your mind.

Answer 6

global warming is a very serious climate issue, so I hope you read Nature, what all scientists in the world have published, and what the IPCC has projected. Watch an Inconvenient Truth.
The fact that 99% scientists agree on the issue suggests that you might be wrong and you should research the issue yourself. I could talk about how the atmosphere is very thin and sensitive; and mention how billions of humans, each annualy dumbing billions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, change things. But this is the kind of thing you need to convince yourself by doing research.
After science classes in high school, you will have a better understanding of how climate change works. And if you disagree, ask your teachers.

Answer 7

You are very perceptive.

Unfortunately most of the information that you receive on this topic is from the popular media.

Unfortunately this topic has been sensationalized and hyped beyond recognition in the media.

Al Gore's movie did not help. That movie sensationalizes the issue as well. It is not an accurate representation of the scientific literature on this topic.

Most of the information that you need on this topic is at a University library.

Ask your parents to take you to a local College or University library and get their permission to look up the material. Most colleges and Universities will permit you to do this for a fee. the fee helps support the library.

I recommend that you start with the reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.(IPCC)

These reports aer very good and will give you an accurate insight into the scientific literature on Global Warming and Climate Change.

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Answer 8

god has created a wondrous planet for us to outlive. he additionally gave us a ideas to think of with and the ability to envision information, and are available to our very own conclusions. listed here are a number of mine; does worldwide warming exist? sure does guy have an result on worldwide warming? possibly an infinitesimal at in basic terms right. why? there are soo many stuff that influence the climate, that guy has unquestionably no administration over. you already know the little issues like volcanic activity, image voltaic activity, earthquakes, and so on. one volcanic eruption places out greater greenhouses gases, than each and every thing guy does in one 3 hundred and sixty 5 days. there is yet another little piece of information the few human beings look to understand approximately, and that's that mars is likewise warming. could be all the marketplace us human beings have on that planet additionally eh? our sunlight is in a greater lively area than it incredibly is been in years previous, for that reason it incredibly is putting out greater warmth. as our sunlight a while, it gets warmer as properly. and remember approximately that the medical information exhibits that the earths climate has been warmer interior the previous, lots warmer in actuality. we as basically approximately 10,000 years out of the final significant ice age, and the climate replaced into warmer in the previous the ice age. this would properly be a organic cycle. to think of that guy can notably influence something as complicated as our climate, with well-known daily activity, is the top of arrogance. interior the previous due 60's many of the comparable scientists who're now ranting approximately worldwide warming and how we could do something right this moment or go through the implications, have been the comparable scientists that have been asserting the comparable issues approximately worldwide COOLING. fortuitously cooler heads prevailed. the replaced into an editorial written in ninety 5 approximately worldwide warming, and how something had to be finished or interior the subsequent 20 or so years we'd have a runaway greenhouse result. needless to say that by no ability handed off. the object replaced into written in 1895.

Answer 9

The part that I find hard to believe is the cause of Global Warming. Not that it is caused by people, I am convinced of that; rather the rate of growth of the human population. Global Warming is just one of many symptoms of over population causing stress on the environment. The rise in temperature, the amount of increased CO2 in the atmosphere, and population growth all follow the same logarithmic curve.

It is easier to understand when you realize there are more people alive today than all of history put together.

Answer 10

You are by far the smartest 13 year old I have encountered. I completely agree with every point you have made there. Don't let the alarmists brainwash you onto the global warming bandwagon. I promise you, in 20 years everyone will look back at them and laugh. And, you're also right that being environmentally conscious is a good thing. You don't have to buy a crackpot theory to believe in that.

Keep questioning and learning and you will go very far!

PS: Don't listen to Trevor. He's not all he thinks he is.