My Daily Debate - Tell Why You Believe/Disbelieve in Global Warming?

Question

If you believe in global warming, let the world know why and support it with facts/opinions.
If you do not believe in global warming, let the world know why and support it with facts/opinions.

Best answer will be judged by length, details, facts, and pride.

If you believe in global warming, let the world know why and support it with facts/opinions.
If you do not believe in global warming, let the world know why and support it with facts/opinions.

Best answer will be judged by length, details, facts, and pride.

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For all my debates, go to:
www.freewebs.com/dailydebatebygeorge

Answer 1

I believe that human caused global warming is a reality. Scientists have learned that the planet's temperature has risen by about .7 ºC over the past century [1]. This rise is believed to be due to emissions of man-made greenhouse gases.

Certain trace gases in Earth's atmosphere regulate the planet's temperature and warm the climate; without them, Earth would be a frozen wasteland [2]. Short wave radiation (mostly visible light) from the sun hits the surface of our planet and is subsequently reradiated back out as long wave (thermal) radiation [3]. The so called "greenhouse gases (so-named from an incorrect analogy with an actual greenhouse [4]) absorb some of this radiation, trapping it in Earth's atmosphere, and heating the planet. Adding more of these gases to the atmosphere will cause more radiation to be trapped, which in turn causes the atmosphere's temperature to rise.

We know these gases are increasing because of human activities. There are several ways scientists can determine this, one is by analyzing the geographic differences in the concentrations of these gases, the other is by analyzing isotopes, which can distinguish among sources of emissions. Scientists have found that these gases are most highly concentrated over land in the heavily populated northern hemisphere region [5], which indicates that the gases originated in that area. Analysis of isotope ratios reveals that the majority of the increase in CO2 is from combustion of fossil fuels [6]. Increases in Methane and Nitrous oxide can be similarly shown to derive mostly from agricultural practices and the burning of fossil fuels.

A third line of evidence for anthropogenic global warming comes from the science of climate modeling. Naturally we don't have another Earth we can run experiments on; climate models are the next best thing. Climate models are mathematical models based on physical laws which scientists can use to experiment with different scenarios (say, by examining the effect of a doubling of atmospheric CO2) [7]. Scientists can input the various factors affecting the climate into these models, and they have found that when only natural factors are included, the model projections do not match the observed data. But when they add both natural and anthropogenic factors into the models the projections match the observations almost perfectly [8]. This strongly indicates that natural forcing alone isn't enough to account for the warming seen over the past century.

In summary, the greenhouse effect is responsible for warming the planet, and evidence strongly suggests that humans have been increasing this effect through combustion of fossil fuels used for industry and transportation. Scientists are now more sure than ever that the future of the human species is in our hands. The question is now, can we handle this momentous responsibility?

Answer 2

It was hard to not believe in global warming when the temp was still increasing, but that did end in 1998 and that's still the record hottest year, despite our pumping more and more CO2 into the atmosphere. I don't argue with the science, CO2 will block some infrared radiation that comes in from the sun or is produced by the Earth, trapping it for a time in the atmosphere. But it's such a tiny portion of the atmosphere at .04% and there are many more potent and abundant greenhouse gases that it's odd they picked out CO2 as the boogeyman. It can't possibly reach the temps they predict unless you assume the Earth is a giant laboratory. It's not, it's huge and chaotic and very very resilient. CO2 levels were far higher than they are now during an ice age so it's not at all likely we'll suddenly reach 140F degrees. Global cooling doesn't require a snowball Earth, that only happens in very unique circumstances that are very unlikely today. We have a lot of liquid water on Earth now, and the CO2 will help prevent it from happening. Cooling in the form of an ice age is much more likely and in fact we're slightly overdue for the onset of the return of the ice age. If an ice age does begin again, we'd better hope that any reduction in CO2 we've made is reversible since we may want to use it to prevent the advance of glaciers throughout most of both hemispheres. Otherwise most of the world's population will die, a far worse result than would happen with any probably amount of warming. You can argue we should stop using oil and I'll agree. If you try to tell me that I should let the UN decide where to set my thermostat and whether I should drive or walk 10 miles to work, I'll question your sanity. We need to find a middle road that leads away from fossil fuels to renewable sources without bankrupting the Western economies and turning over sovereignty to the UN.

Answer 3

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 4

This is science and what counts is the data. It's way too much stuff for a simple answer, the detailed proof is in the links below.

"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

Here are two summaries of the mountain of peer reviewed data that convinced Admiral Truly and the vast majority of the scientific community, short and long.

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.png
http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf

It's (mostly) not the sun:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6290228.stm
http://solar-center.stanford.edu/sun-on-earth/FAQ2.html

Science is quite good about exposing bad science or hoaxes:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/ATG/polywater.html

There's a large number of people who agree that it is real and mostly caused by us, who are not liberals, environmentalists, stupid, or conceivably part of a "conspiracy". Just four examples of many:

"Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich challenged fellow conservatives to stop resisting scientific evidence of global warming"

"Global warming is real, now, and it must be addressed."

Lee Scott, CEO, Wal-Mart

"Our nation has both an obligation and self-interest in facing head-on the serious environmental, economic and national security threat posed by global warming."

Senator John McCain, Republican, Arizona

“DuPont believes that action is warranted, not further debate."

Charles O. Holliday, Jr., CEO, DuPont

There's a lot less controversy about this is the real world than there is on Yahoo answers:

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/329.php?nid=&id=&pnt=329&lb=hmpg1

Theories that it's a natural cycle don't work. The numbers come out wrong. Most all of the skeptics arguments are refuted here:

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn11462

And, because of the data, there is vastly less controversy in the scientific community than you might guess from the few skeptics talked about here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1686 and:

"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 5

I believe in global warming, because if its caused by cow fart I believe cows have been on Earth since it was created. If it's volcanic eruptions then I'm sure by now Earth would be Venus.

Carbon dioxide levels are higher than in 650 000 years and we are seeing even more and more extreme weather events. It's real. Face up to it.

Answer 6

I do believe in global warming in the sense that it's starting to take shape in our atmosphere and we able to experience its effects in our environment. Our atmosphere nowadays is much more different from before in the way that people make inventions (some) that might cause disaster or maybe great holocaust. Its a proven fact that we are one of the contributors of killing our planet by disposing chemicals or elements (man-made) that interupts the ecological instability of out planet. Lets help our planet preserve, conserve and give life to all living or non living things, we might not feel the total damage right now but our future children's children might...

Answer 7

Ok i believe that Man made global warming is a hoax. It is not real. It is something that the liberals made up to try and tax us to death. If Global warming is happening then it is a natural cycle and we cannot stop it. The earth has been around for billions of years and has gone through many warmings and coolings.

Answer 8

How can we determine that global warming is man made when we have incomplete temperature data? How can you compare with the few years of data that we have? How can you trust the data we have when early thermometers were so inaccurate?

Answer 9

Science is something proven, and can be explained and repeated by almost anyone.

Mysticism, religion, faith is believed or disbelieved, and is not science.

No one argues the distance the Earth is from the Sun.

Answer 10

Here's why:

http://boortz.com/nuze/200702/02022007.html