what does the climate change mean to in laymans terms?

Question

what will happen in 5, 10, 20 and 50 years time?

God Trevor that was consise!

Answer 1

Nothing will happen in any amount of time. Look back 25 years. There no difference in the climate today than in 1982.

What does climate change mean? It means someone is giving you a con-job to separate you from your money. It's nothing more than that.

No one will ever accuse global warming of being an objective science.

Answer 2

I tend to agree with afratta437, above. There is a *huge* amount of scare-mongering going on about global warming and it’s difficult to know what the truth is.

I can’t help but think that if we were to ignore the propaganda we see and hear, would we have actually noticed anything happening? It’s a hugely subjective question, of course. All the Global Warming Alarmists will say “Yes!” while all the sceptics will say the opposite.

Personally, I’m a sceptic, so, predictably, I haven’t noticed that the temperature has changed at all. The hottest summer that I remember was 1976 – 30 years ago. But the temperature record, if we are to believe it, says that 1976 was at the coldest point of a 30 year cooling period and we’ve had three decades of warming since then.

As I said above, there’s just *so much* scare-mongering going on. Take Trevor, above. He comes across as a pretty level headed, authoritative commentator, but even he has quoted a figure for sea level rise of 30 inches in the next 100 years. But hang on, the IPCC- usually the worst scare-mongers around – are only predicting around 13.5 inches (That’s averaging all their six estimates). Even the *top* of their *worst* case scenario is only 23 inches. So where the heck is Trevor getting 30 inches from?

Many of my sources below are from Christopher Monkton. He’s not a scientist, but he used to advise the UK government on science scams. His general method was to look at the actual scientific data itself and compare it to what was being said about it. If what was being said was a fair reflection of the science then it was reasonable. If, however, what was being said was only quoting the extremes of the science – or even beyond what the science says, as with Trevor, above – then we were “being had”.

With global warming, he concludes that we are indeed “being had”.

In conclusion, I suspect that the whole Global Warming scare will go the same way as the cooling scare of the 70s. In fact, satellite data shows that we’ve had no warming for the last five years, so we might just be about to start cooling again. No doubt the Alarmists will have a perfectly rational explanation for why cooling is still consistent with global warming.

As ever with global warming - don't believe the hype.

Answer 3

There are bits of truth in all the answers so far. I would like to add what I have observed and what I therefore think will happen.
I do think climate is changing, and yes there are a lot of scare tactics being used by the governments of the industrialized world. Storms do seem to be stronger and more often.Flood and drought seem to be worse and a lot of extreme weather is occuring. Global warming is being blamed, but actual ave. temp. of the earth is not showing enough of a rise to cause this.
What does seem to be happening is climate shift. When I was a child we sang a Thanksgiving song that mentioned a sleigh ride to grandmas' house (Boston area).That is not about to happen now.,Even on the Can. Am. border where I now live. Seasons are running 2 to 4 weeks later than they used to and due to the suns' position, the weather is quite different than what it was 50 /75 yrs. ago.
Ocean currents have shifted some,according to recent studies and this also affects the weather. Things are happening all around the world changing the climate in many places and disasters are happening on a scale not unseen in history, but effecting more people, because of increased population
I could write a lot more,but you get the idea.The gov. uses these facts to back up conjecture.to add fear to our lives and control our thinking, by reporting this as fact also. Get all the info. you can and decide if global warming is happening for yourself.I think it is, but I also think some good and some bad will come of it. By the way animal waste and vegetation composting is causing more warming than cars and industry!!!CHECK THE FACTS AND ONLY THE FACTS.

Answer 4

The Earth's climate has changed many times over the history of the planet. Some changes were gradual and some were relatively sudden, but none were caused by Man. Look up the average temperatures for the modern epoch, the Holocene, the last 10,000 to 11,000 years. The Ice Age ended and the climate warmed to temperatures higher than now and stayed warm for 7,500 years. Then there was a cold period with an onset so sudden it froze Siberian mammoths where they stood. Then when the Vikings settled in Greenland it was warmer than now and they could grow wheat there. Still can't grow wheat in Greenland. Then came the Little Ice Age in medieval times, when the Baltic Sea froze over in winter and it lasted until about 1815, when average temperatures began to rise steadily.

Some think we are merely warming naturally, which is probably mostly true. Others want to blame Man alone for causing the warming. Man contributes about 4% of the world's CO2, less of the methane and some share of the nitric oxide. Farts from animal life are methane, but more is produced by rotting vegetation. Nitric oxide is mainly a byproduct of incomplete combustion and internal combustion engines and some other chemical processes.

The main target of the Leftist Global Warming crowd is CO2. They want to eliminate or tax CO2 emissions. You emit CO2 when you breathe, when will they enact a breathing tax and what will happen to those who can't pay it? Look at the people who associate with the Left, the people who are in PETA who oppose pets and work animals, eating meat, dairy, eggs or using any part of an animal in any way, the tree huggers who oppose using trees, the wildlife activists who want fewer people and those to be banned from wilderness areas, the eco-terrorists, the peace-at-any-price supporters who would disarm us so that we could be slaughtered and enslaved by our enemies. Yes, look hard at the fellow-travellers and ask if you want them running your life.

Since domestic animals produce methane, they would be banned. Fire would be banned for making CO2. And where would our energy come from? Not nuclear, too much radiation. Not water power, dams spoil the natural environment. Not wind power, they windmills are unsightly and kill birds. Tidal power might endanger a rare fish. The huge solar collectors needed for solar power would change the desert environment. Definitely not fossil fuels, because of CO2. The answer is muscle power, you will have to do it. Farm with hand tools, ride bicycles, but wait, those require industry to make the refined metals. That leaves stone and wood tools. Man would revert to being a hunter-gatherer, which would make the lunatic Left very happy. The Left that uses the kooks would not let it get that far, they just want money and power, they would tax and control for themselves, but energy costs would skyrocket and everyones standard of living would go down so the elite Leftists could live in luxury.

The effects of climate change would make Canada and Siberia warmer so they could grow more food there. Equatorial areas would become more empty hot jungle as people moved north and south. Some dry areas would get more rain while other areas might become dryer. The change would be gradual enough that people would have time to move or build dikes to protect coastal cities as the seas rise a few feet. Even if all the ice on Earth melted it would not be major flooding such as Gore lied about.

There were polar bears over 7,500 years ago when the climate was very warm, other populations of animals and plants gradually moved with the changes in the past and will do so again. In 50 years you might be able to grow oranges in south Cornwall, near the sea. Changes would be minimal.

We would be better served by government preparing for the problems which might be caused by CC, rather than wasting tax money, our money, fighting nature. This is not to say we should not become more energy efficient or stop trying to reduce pollution, but CO2 is used by plants in order to grow food or produce biofuels. We emit CO2 when we breathe and we also inhale it without harm, so it is not toxic. Methane is found in nature, so why fight nature, use what methane you can as fuel and don't worry about herds of cattle. Nitric oxide is not produced by an open flame or a fire with a forced draft, so convert to steam or steam-electric hybrids for power and eliminate most internal combustion engines, Steam is more efficient, cleaner and less complex and can use anything that burns as fuel, especially the biofuels that are not suitable for IC engines. E-mail [e-mail] and ask about steam-electric hybrids.

Answer 5

There can be confusion between global warming and climate change, they're two different things. Climate Change refers to the way in which the climate has changed, is changing and will change in the future whereas Global Warming refers to the overall trend of rising temperatures across the planet. GW is essentially the cause and CC is the effect.

There are two parts to global warming, the natural part and the manmade part. Manmade global warming is sometimes referred to as anthropogenic global warming and it's this part that is causing both concern and controversy.

The key aspect is the 'greenhouse gases'. This is the term used to describe the different gases that contribute to global warming. There's lots of them but really only four important ones - water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

Water vapour is, for all intents and purposes, entirely natural. Because of the physical properties of the atmosphere it's impossible to have too much water vapour, once the maximum limit is reached it simply falls back to earth as rain or snow. Because there's many, many times the amount of water vapour than all the other greenhouse gases combined this is the one that contributes most to global warming.

Unlike water vapour, the other greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere, in time they will dissipate but this can be a long wait, 115 years in the case of carbon dioxide. There are natural cycles that remove some greenhouse gases but the amount they are able to recycle is much less than the amount we're adding to the atmosphere - in effect we've managed to overload nature.

What makes the greenhouse gases different from the other gases in the atmosphere (such as nitrogen and oxygen) is that they have a physical property that enables them to trap heat within our atmosphere.

The heat our planet receives comes from the sun in the form of solar radiation; this warms the earth and everything on it. When night falls or the temperatures drop the heat that has been absorbed from the sun is radiated back out towards space but it's radiated out as a different type of heat - thermal radiation. This has a longer wavelength than solar radiation and has difficulty getting past the molecules of greenhouse gases.

Effectively the greenhouse gases are insulating the planet and the more there are the greater the insulative effect. It's essential that they do this, if they didn't and all heat was lost into space the planet would be so cold that life would never have evolved.

The problem we're facing at the moment is that we've put massive amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, far more than any natural cycles can handle and the effect is that the insulating layer is getting thicker. The bottom line really is very simple - the more greenhouse gases there are the warmer the planet is.

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The effects of climate change are diverse and for some people they're beneficial, especially those living in cold climates and those who are cashing in on what's happening.

However, there are far more negatives than there are positives and some of the effects include flooding, droughts, wildfires, desertification, rising sea levels, loss of agricultural land, threat to many species, population migration, spread of disease and disease vectors, insect infestation and more.

These aren't dramatic changes and from year to year things will appear almost unchanged but over periods of decades and centuries the effects are dramatic. Sea levels for example are rising by an average of 3mm (⅛ inch) a year, not a lot but they are rising faster and in 100 years time they're expected to have risen by 750mm (30 inches) - enough to cause devastating flooding and the loss of much low lying land.

Global warming is a big concern and at the moment we don't have a cure. We can treat some of the symptoms through a variety of simple measures but it will take some dramatic changes to significantly slow down or even stop manmade global warming.

Answer 6

yes trevor and others are pretty convincing.

just like they were in the 70's. with "over 30 years of data" there was "proof" we were heading into an "ice age" by the year 2000.

areas of earth uninhabitable, famines, death.

all caused by man's excessive use of fossil fuels.

since it didn't happen, and can't possibly fit into the current theory, we are now told "it wasn't mainstream".

even though the global cooling theory was in newspapers, magazines and tv. it was also taught in schools.

now we have global warming. caused by the exact same thing, man's excessive use of fossil fuels.

the exact same outcome. parts of earth uninhabitable, famine, death.

yet has the climate REALLY changed? or are we hypersensitive to it and it "appears" to be worse than we can remember since we are watching it so carefully now?

ALL predictions on climate change have been incorrect. why should we start believing these "experts" now?

Answer 7

It means the prophecies of global warming have not been coming true, so the AGW believers are morphing their theory slowly into ACC (Anthropogenic Climate Change), so the research dollars will keep flowing as the earth cools over the next couple of decades.

Answer 8

It means more hotter periods, and more rain at other times. Additional water put in the seas from melting ice sheets(topped up by snow fall rate, and not freexing water!) will see sea levels rise and so engulf at least some of the good beaches - if not whole cities.
Debate rages concerning the level of damage, but CO2 reductions will have limited effect...melting is due to limited ozone in the upper airs, which can be put back by laser on oxygen from space or by discharge via airship.
Most governments are talking rubbish, and have no real concern

Answer 9

Because of my experience,I could possibly write what would amount to a treatise on the changes going on today. However, to keep it simple.
It just means that over the years everyone will have to buy lots more suncream.
I thank you.

Answer 10

The idea is that politicians need fear to keep you in line. THey use fear to get your money. The environmentalists do not care about the 'layman' nor poor people. They just want control.
Mankind is not causing global warming.. but they will try to convince us for another year or so.. then move to some OTHER fear when that doesnt work.
Until there is one world government expect Al Gore and his ilk to keep bringing out a new fear to see what will make us all lemings.