Anthropogenic Global Warming skeptics - how do you explain the warming?

Question

Here is what the current global warming looks like:

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/2005/ann/global-blended-temp-pg.gif

Clearly it's not due to solar irradiance:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/images/content/93617main_sun4m.jpg

sunspots:

http://solar-center.stanford.edu/sun-on-earth/600px-Temp-sunspot-co2.svg.png

volcanoes:

http://www.gaspig.com/volcano.htm

water vapor:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas#The_role_of_water_vapor

or natural cycles:

"An often-cited 1980 study by Imbrie and Imbrie determined that 'Ignoring anthropogenic and other possible sources of variation acting at frequencies higher than one cycle per 19,000 years, this model predicts that the long-term cooling trend which began some 6,000 years ago will continue for the next 23,000 years.'"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycle

If human factors aren't causing it, what is?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.pn

Whoops, here was that last link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.png

Oh, and it's not cosmic rays, either

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6290228.stm

Wow, I can't believe how many people brought up Mars. That's like throwing your hands up and saying "I can't answer your question, but maybe this will distract you". Here:

Mars is warming for entirely different reasons than the Earth - namely dust storms darkening its surface:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070404-mars-warming.html

A couple of people have mentioned (without naming it) the Midieval Warm Period. Though just another excuse not to answer my question, it wasn't as warm as today:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:2000_Year_Temperature_Comparison.png

Are any skeptics/deniers going to even try to answer the question?

Well to be fair, Locutus brought up "the weakening of the Allen Belt" as a possible alternative. That's something I'd never heard before. Probably because it's a bit ridiculous:

http://www.phy6.org/earthmag/magnQ&A5.htm#q77
http://www.phy6.org/earthmag/magnQ&A3.htm#q29

Answer 1

I'm not gonna disagree with you: I've been fighting with the "earth is Flat" proponents on here that deny global warming for a while now and just liked a good post. Congratulations. The best link though is:

www.ipcc.ch

That's 3,000 of the world's top scientists that find incontrovertible evidence of anthropogenic warming. It convinced Bush (softof), but not the Yahoo!Answers scientific geniuses.

Answer 2

Climatology has become far too politicized in the last 20 years. The end result is that NO "scientific" study can be believed because the results are usually skewed to further the cause of the organization funding the study, whether the findings prove or disprove Global Warming.

People always ask the wrong questions in regards to Global Warming. Instead of asking "is it happening?" (which can be answered equally correctly either "yes" or "no"), the questions should be:

1) What may be done to alleviate the stated effects of Global Warming?

2) Why is Global Warming always believed to be The End of The World As We Know It? Won't people adapt, even in a worst-case scenario?

Answer 3

I am a civil engineer and I have taken a lot of geology and other sciences. I don't think anyone disputes that the earth is slightly warming. However to say that it is man made is an absolute crock. The earth is 5.4 billion years old and has gone through severe periods of warming and cooling. How can you explain the fact, that during the time of Eric the Red and Leiff Erickson, that the Vikings grew grapes in Greenland and today it's way too cold to grow grapes there? What caused the planet to warm itself to break out of three count them three ice ages? Do you remember there were Wooly Mammoths uncovered from the ice in Northern Greenland? When these Mammoths were uncovered and later autopsied fresh vegetation was found in their stomachs. Northern Greenland has not grown vegetation in our lifetime! The fact is that "Global Warming" is presented to us by liberaly biased politicians for one reason and that is to take more of our freedom. Al Gore the global warming poster child doesn't change his lifestyle at all. Instead Gore purchases carbon credits. Now where can you or I purchase carbon credits? The truth is you nor I can purchase carbon credits. Oh and another interesting fact is the corporation Al Gore buys these credits from, he owns it!

Answer 4

Could it just possibly be that the total amount of carbon dumped into the atmosphere turns out to be less then 1% and a hundred billion tons is going to effect the mix by about .005%

If we took out all the excess carbon man has added in the last 2000 years burning wood coal and oil for survival it would change the composition by less then .007% .

SO the change is coming about from other sources . .

A cumulative build up over centuries and our little addition to this accumulation is only a fraction of the total amount in our atmosphere .

Answer 5

And yet Mars is experiencing the same warming trend we are... must be the alien SUVs.

And let's just point out something from one of your graphs:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/2005/ann/global-blended-temp-pg.gif

Notice the cooling trend in the 40s and 50s? You know what was happening then? The most rapid industrialization in human history. And it was industrialization with little regulation. Yes, that's right... during the most rapid increase of pollution in human history the temperature went DOWN, not up.

So clearly it can't be human activity...

Answer 6

Well all the planets are doing it.
http://www.livescience.com/environment/070312_solarsys_warming.html

http://hecubus.wordpress.com/2007/06/18/could-this-be-the-deathnell-for-man-made-global-warming-alarmism/

http://www.sitewave.net/news/s49p1323.htm

Here is something to think about they are talking about the shrinking ice pack but we have at best what 30 years of data and the world has been around for how many million years is not trend.

Answer 7

It is solar radiation. The weakening of the Van Allen belt due to polar weakening in preparation for a polar flip. You look it up no one ever talks about it.

Solar radiation is deflected by the magnetic field of the earth . The area at the poles has a hole. That hole is getting larger because of the weakening of the poles,as it grows it lets in a larger amount of radiation.

Answer 8

I agree that a global warming trend exists. I do not agree as to its cause. I believe it is a naturally occurring event. The sun is simply in the midst of a hotter phase. We humans cannot control the sun, but it is entertaining to watch you all try.

Answer 9

Your charts don't make a case for human causation of glbal warming particularly. They only show that some warming is occurring. In fact the one with sunspots appears to correlate suspots more closely with global warming than CO2.

Answer 10

Explain Mars. Explain the Ice Age before humans. Then prove it is caused by man. No doubt it exists, just doubt man is the sole cause.