what is the big deal with global warming? iam 15 and i have no idea?

Answer 1

Excerpts reprinted with permission from Tom Gremillion
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Global warming is a hoax, invented in 1988, that combines old myths including limits to growth, sustainability, the population growth time bomb, the depletion of resources, pollution, anti-Americanism and anti-corporate sentiment and, of all things, fear of an ice age. Those that espoused and supported the old myths have joined forced into a new group called “Environmentalists.”
Most environmentalists have no technical or scientific credentials whatsoever. What they have are major news outlets ready and willing to publicize their every utterance regardless of whether or not they are backed up by scientific proof. Atmospheric science requires highly technical knowledge and skills, not possessed by the vast majority of the so-called environmentalists, who yet feel qualified to demand that human activity subjugate itself to the whims of their new deity, Mother Nature.
Environmentalists claim that the Earth’s atmosphere is getting hotter. They claim that the polar icecaps and glaciers will melt and sea levels will rise over two hundred feet, flooding most coastal cities. They claim that many areas of the Earth will turn into deserts. They make all these claims but cannot substantiate them with real scientific evidence. Parts of the polar icecap and glaciers are melting but other areas of the polar icecaps and glaciers are thickening. The environmentalists base their “proof” of the existence of global warming on the melting areas but are strangely silent, even militant to the point of violence, if anyone mentions the areas that are thickening, and those thickening areas are many.
In the past, there have been many times when the global mean temperatures were warmer, sometimes much warmer and colder, much colder than they are now. Global mean temperatures are cyclical with the seasons but also with other normal cycles, as they have been for the entire history of the Earth. Scientific data from ice cores, tree rings and other indicators of global mean temperatures prove this. Human activity has never been the cause of these global temperature swings as the “global warming” advocates claim. If human activity was the cause, where were the SUVs, the power plants and industries in our historical past? They did not exist. If human activity was not the cause of these global temperature swings, what was?
The energy output of the Sun is far greater in one second than human activity could produce in a million years. The Earth rotates around the Sun. Its orbit is slightly elliptical. The energy reaching the Earth from the Sun varies slightly as the distance from the Sun to the Earth varies due to its elliptical orbit. The Sun activity increases and decreases with fluctuations in the solar flares emitted by the Sun. Differences in these fluctuation rates cause increases and decreases of solar energy hitting the Earth. This causes fluctuations in the global mean temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere.
In 2004, the energy from massive solar flares bombarded the Earth with solar energy. This solar energy caused heating of the Earth’s surface and atmosphere. Most of the energy of the solar flare eruptions dissipated into space. The amounts of energy ejected were massive, much greater than normal. Had the Earth received a full blast of the solar energy from one of the numerous flare eruptions in 2004, the consequences to life on Earth could have been disastrous. The higher than usual amounts of energy that struck the Earth’s atmosphere did have their effects, however, including some heating of the atmosphere.
Then there is the eruption of volcanoes, such as Mt. St. Helens, ejecting dust and ash into the Earth’s atmosphere. The amount of dust and ash in the atmosphere varies the amount of energy that can cause heating or cooling of the Earth’s atmosphere. Volcanoes also eject the kind of compounds that environmentalists call greenhouse gases. A single eruption the size of the Mt. St. Helens eruption released more of these gases, dust and ash into the atmosphere than all such emissions by human activity since the beginning of recorded human history. And there are numerous volcanic eruptions yearly.
The oceans are also a major source of greenhouse gases, as are trees. Trees and other vegetation take in carbon dioxide and give off other gases such as methane, a major greenhouse gas, and a host of other compounds, many of which are also greenhouse gases. Decaying vegetation also gives off methane gas. Studies of smog in the Los Angeles basin indicate that over 90% of the smog is generated by the vegetation in the area. To aid in perpetuating the hoax, however, environmentalists, aided by major news media outlets, censored and suppressed this study.
Studies have shown that greenhouse gases produced by human activity accounts for around 1 percent of the gases in the atmosphere. The total elimination of human generated greenhouse gases would have a negligible effect on Earth’s global mean atmospheric temperatures. The elimination of all U.S. gasoline powered vehicles would reduce worldwide “greenhouse” emissions by less than 0.2%.” What would be the effect on global mean temperatures? None. Doubling of manmade greenhouse emissions above current levels would increase the global mean temperature by one degree Centigrade, which is within the normal range of temperature swings.
It is the fluctuations of the Earth’s orbit around the sun, volcanic eruptions, the emission of gases by oceans and trees, all natural occurrences, that cause rises and declines in global mean temperatures, i.e., “global warming” and “global cooling,” not human activity.
Satellite data taken over the past 25 years indicate no surface or atmospheric warming. If anything there has been a very slight cooling, on the order of 0.01 degree Centigrade.
Recently, astronomers have noticed a thinning of the polar icecaps on Mars.
Is this “global warming, Mars style” and do Martian SUVs, power plants, and industries cause it? Hardly, but the “environmentalists” think so. Some even blame it on us here on Earth.
Global warming IS a hoax. Those claiming that “global warming” is real have an agenda other than saving the planet from human activity.

Answer 2

So sad some have done a lot of reading but unfortunately, it's biased. Environmental scientists work together in groups, as a general rule, and most have come to the conclusion that GW exists. Yes, we have had warming and cooling trends in the past but we should not be experiencing a warming trend right now.
1934 being the hottest year is based on a lie of ommision. That survey was only conducted on southern countries and still, there is barely a difference in the heat that was experienced on average in 1999 (based on a test of ALL countries, including Antarctica).
Global cooling in the 70's? Again, misleading info based on half facts/stories. In the 70's, scientists were starting to develop these climate testing machines and some suspected there might be a cooling trend b/c the winter was harsh, but it turns out, no real test was ever done. It was all a media scare.
There's also the financial gain argument. This is tired and stupid-some are gaining from environmental-related products and others are trying to fight any GW argument b/c the scared little dogs are afraid their income will be effected.
As far as political...England is very wrapped up in it-in fact, Tony Blair split from Dubya about that very subject before he resigned. Australia warned their athletes about going to Beijing too early (for the Olympics) b/c of the air quality and they were one of the first countries to do anything about GW. Many of the Eastern European countries are involved while India and China are trying to decide if they should tacle poverty first. The impression (that so many obviously have) that this is just some US political thing, is obviously flawed.
I've seen many websites mentioned listing the effects and scientific test results for GW. And, every time I hear the anti-GW side make a claim, there always seems to be a scientist with a very reliable counter.
The big deal is, GW may not end the world but the concern is that it will end the climate we can adjust to.

Answer 3

Global warming and global cooling, are both sides of the natural trend of climate change.
We may have some effect upon things, but this is by no means conclusive.
As far as the "big deal", goes, it becomes a political argument which has very little to do with the reality of hard facts.
It becomes a question of money, justification and ultimately a development of limitations of everyone's personal liberties,
(at our financial cost, I might add...)

Answer 4

Okay so now that you've read everyone else's ten page report on Global warming, let me break it down. The earth is hot because of what we stupid humans have done, the more it heats up, the more the glaciers melt, the more the glaciers melt the more gas goes into the ozone layer causing the hole to open more and letting more sunlight in heating up the earth even more. The Earth is trying to purge itself of all of this crap the same way our bodies do when we're sick, except the earth uses natural disasters (which are stronger because of the heat) and eventually the earth will enter an ice age to cool itself down again, but inevitably killing every human on it. We can't stop it from happening (I don't believe anyway) we can only slow it down.

Answer 5

First off, many of the answers here have been full of misinformation. I would ignore Danny K and louy lefty. It would take me the rest of the day to explain how much is wrong with their reasoning.

Here's the basic picture. The atmosphere has a certain amount of gases in it that trap heat, keeping the planet warm. One of these gases is carbon dioxide, which is increasing primarily because we take fossil fuels out of the ground (coal, oil, natural gas, etc.) and burn it for energy.

Because there is more CO2 in the atmosphere, more heat gets trapped, and the temperature rises. This causes other effects, many of which could make it more difficult for mankind to thrive. A few examples:

* rising ocean temperatures make hurricanes stronger and more destructive.

* melting ice caps (Greenland, Antarctica) are raising sea levels, eventually by hundreds of feet. At the moment, scientists are assuming that will take centuries. But there is some evidence that it could happen far faster.

* CO2 dissolves in water, and greater amounts dissolve when the water is warmer. When CO2 gets into the water, it makes it more acidic. This kills coral reefs, and makes things more difficult on sea animals.

* Changing climate makes some places wetter, some places drier, some places warmer (and possibly make some places cooler). That's going to cause merry havoc among the plants and animals of the Earth, including ones that we depend on to survive.

Not every effect will be bad, but on the balance the new climate is going to be worse for us and worse for most species on the planet. We need to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we produce, which mostly means burning less coal and oil. A lot of people have trouble accepting that, because in the last century, fossil fuels have helped make our society wealthier than it would have been, and the renewable alternatives seem more expensive and less convenient.

Global warming is especially relevant to young people like yourself. You'll be here long after my generation is gone, paying for our selfish, short-sighted choices. You also have the power to influence the choices your elders are making today, and a lifetime of your own decisions just waiting to be made. Those decisions are going to impact climate change, one way or the other.

So, what can you do? I tried typing "what can i do about global warming" into Google, and it came up with a lot of helpful links. Give it a try.

Answer 6

hey! sure global warming is absolutely true as well as global cooling! Global warming refers to the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation.The term "global warming" is a specific example of the broader term climate change, which can also refer to global cooling. In common usage the term refers to recent warming and implies a human influence. We have these so called green house gases which we produced everyday of our lives! Carbon gases which is only one of the GHG was the most dominant of all. most of our technologies of today release and emits carbon. and according to the scientist carbon emission increases that is why the hole in the ozone increases every seconds! And if these continue to happen our temperature will increase vividly all the ice on the poles will melt down and unconventional weather will be then experience worldwide.
and if we won't be able to stop the increase of it we might all end dying...
and one more thing...
try to watch 'the inconvenient truth' it could give you more facts.

Answer 7

There are a number of concerns--a primary one being flooding. We pump billions of barrels of oil out of the ground every year. Essentially all of this oil gets burned (some is used for plastics or pharmaceuticals--but most of it is burned). The oxidation of these hydrocarbons release CO2 and water vapor. The water vapor is a greenhouse gas, but we discount its effects, because water vapor also occurs naturally, and reflects some solar radiation back into space.

The CO2 is a different story. Now, animals exhale CO2 also, but that CO2 came from plant material. We tend to regrow all the plants we eat, so the CO2 we exhale remains relatively constant. The other carbon, however, comes from deposits much of which was laid down during the Permian, 300 million years ago.

A billion years before that small marine organisms pulled CO2 out of the atmosphere, creating limestone (calcium carbonate). So there are natural processes for removing CO2, but these operate over very long spans of time.

So, what about the trapped heat? As the fellow right above me mentioned, changes in weather patterns, desertification, floods--all the things one expects with climate change. If the arctic ice cap melts, no big deal. The oceans would rise only slightly (because warm water occupies slightly greater volume than cold water). However, there is a lot of ice piled up on Greenland. Over the next 40 or 50 years this ice may raise sea levels as much as 20 feet.

The continent with the highest average elevation is Antarctica. If the arctic ice cap melts, there is no reason the Antarctic ice cap wouldn't also. And that would raise sea levels about 200 feet. At the present time, half earth's population lives less than 100 feet above sea level.

Answer 8

Some gases ("greenhouse gases") let sunlight in, which warms the Earth, and then block that heat from leaving. That's the "greenhouse effect", and it's a natural thing, mostly caused by water vapor.

Man is making excessive amounts of greenhouse gases, mostly by burning fossil fuels. That causes the delicate natural balance to go out of whack and the Earth warms. That's global warming.

It won't be a Hollywood style disaster. Gradually coastal areas will flood and agriculture will be damaged. But it will be very bad. Rich countries will cope, but it will take huge amounts of money. In poor countries many people will die of starvation, but not all of them.

Most scientists say, in 20-50 years. But we need to start right now to fix it, fixing it will take even longer than that.

More information here:

http://profend.com/global-warming/

There are a few skeptics with crazy theories, like people who think the world is 6000 years old. But the vast majority of scientists think this is real, because of the data. Lots of numerical scientific data proving it real here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.png
http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf

Answer 9

It alters the climate. New weather patterns emerge. There is an increased risk of flooding, droughts, etc. This can be so serious that crops are reduced with famine as a consequence. In some parts of the world there will be a shortage of drinking water.

Answer 10

According to the new data published by NASA, 1998 is no longer the hottest year ever. 1934 is.

Four of the top 10 years of US CONUS high temperature deviations are now from the 1930s: 1934, 1931, 1938 and 1939, while only 3 of the top 10 are from the last 10 years (1998, 2006, 1999). Several years (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004) fell well down the leaderboard, behind even 1900. (World rankings of temperature are calculated separately.)

Thursday, April 19, 2007
By WENDY REEVES
Times Staff Writer [e-mail]

Roy Spencer says we don't know yet how changes are happening

MADISON - Roy Spencer is speaking up about his belief that Earth is not headed toward a global warming disaster.

Spencer, a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and former NASA scientist, said he knows he's in the minority with his opinions, but he doesn't believe manmade influences are causing catastrophic climate changes.

see datesThis cooling has already killed hundreds of thousands of people. If it continues and no strong action is taken, it will cause world famine, world chaos and world war, and this could all come about before the year 2000. -- Lowell Ponte "The Cooling", 1976

If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder by the year 2000...This is about twice what it would take to put us in an ice age. -- Kenneth E.F. Watt on air pollution and global cooling, Earth Day (1970)

What we've got to do in energy conservation is try to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, to have approached global warming as if it is real means energy conservation, so we will be doing the right thing anyway in terms of economic policy and environmental policy. -- Timothy Wirth, former U.S. Senator (D-Colorado)

If radical environmentalists were to invent a disease to bring human populations back to sanity, it would probably be something like AIDS -- Earth First! Newsletter

Human happiness, and certainly human fecundity, is not as important as a wild and healthy planets...Some of us can only hope for the right virus to come along. -- David Graber, biologist, National Park Service

The collective needs of non-human species must take precedence over the needs and desires of humans. -- Dr. Reed F. Noss, The Wildlands Project

If I were reincarnated, I would wish to be returned to Earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels. -- Prince Phillip, World Wildlife Fund

Cannibalism is a "radical but realistic solution to the problem of overpopulation." -- Lyall Watson, The Financial Times, 15 July 1995

ALL USEFUL IDIOTS of GREEN PARTY

SO the ANSWER to YOUR QUESTION IS THEY WANT a CARBON TAX to tax evil OIL Corporations DEM Senator DODD. that means trickle down to you $8.00 a gallon Gas Higher food prices TRUCKS deliver food run on FUEL,higher electric they will build NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS its a low carbon foot print .
90% of France runs on Nuclear .SO the ANSWER to YOUR QUESTION IS THEY WANT a DODD. that means trickle down to you $8.00 a gallon Gas Higher food prices TRUCKS deliver food run on FUEL,higher electric they will build NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS its a low carbon foot print .Carbon Tax will go to build these also if you donate to Blue Sky thru power company the $ goes to build new nuclear plants they say its clean low carbon foot print,Be careful what we wish for

ANSWER: ask teachers What happen to the polar bears during the last 5 ICE AGES?.
Al Gore JET do you agree Al needs to drive a bicycle instead of a Jet his power bill is $3,000 a month for 1 of his houses

Answer 11

Basically global warming is the result of pollution created by modern technology and it is effecting the natural function of the environment and as a result the weather changes, therefore plants and animals are effected by these changes. In the future there may not be a planet to call home, that is why global warming is such a big deal.