the earth has warmed up (and cooled down) in the past... what's so bad about it this time? how do they know it won't cool down again?
2007-09-27 02:43:55 · 11 answers · asked by Gruntled Employee 6 in Environment ➔ Global Warming
It's not how bad it is, as it's no worse then in the past, it's who much money you can get by playing to people's fears.
For some, "global warming" is very, very profitable.
2007-09-27 02:57:53 · answer #1 · answered by Dr Jello 7 · 3⤊ 4⤋
On the contrary.. they know it WILL cool down again.. we undoubtedly have another ice age coming... but it may not be for another 15000 years (of course it could start in 100 years.. but that is unlikely they feel). The problem isn't that the Earth will never cool down.. it's that the current GW will kill off a lot of life (and quite possibly through weather changes, climate changes, disease and starvation many humans as well). Given time.. most life can adapt... but the current change is happening so fast that species aren't adapting... and instead are just becoming extinct.
2007-09-27 10:30:28 · answer #2 · answered by pip 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The climate in the past has always been about equilibrium. The question isn't about if climate change is happening, because it is (like you said, it always has). The question is "have humans contributed to it too fast, and the planet won't be able to counter it?" Think about what negative feedbacks (reverse a process, see link)are in terms of climate change...
http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange1/current/lectures/samson/feedback_mechanisms/index.html
If the climate changes too fast for the negative feedbacks to bear any effect, then it becomes a problem.
Forgot to mention: Ice ages and warming periods happen in cycles, and cycles within cycles, and within more cycles, and so on... We are coming out of 2 cooling periods which makes the rate of warming seem relatively fast (geologically) anyway. Augment this with anthropogenic (human) forces, and it is a very fast rate.
2007-09-27 09:49:23 · answer #3 · answered by Master C 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The problem is that we are causing it to warm up a lot faster than it has ever done in the past and that kind of quick change is what going to cause problems (because there isn't as much time for ecosystems to adapt).
Natural changes are slow, human caused changes are fast.
2007-09-27 10:29:19 · answer #4 · answered by bestonnet_00 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The main difference is that this time, there are humans on the earth who are hoping to stay alive, and for their children to have some level of comfort and happiness.
At least, that's true of most humans. It's a relatively small percentage who don't care about our future, as long as they have profitable lives now.
But you're probably right about it cooling down, in a few hundred years.
2007-09-27 09:53:33 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
What is happeneing now is well outside the boundaries of the natural cycles. It has happened once before, and killed everything except single-celled green plants. It coold down that time, as soon as live was able to re-evolve, so it's possible it will this time. It won't do us much good at that point.
2007-09-27 10:48:40 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
THANK YOU!!!!
Finally...
Some with a brain in their melon.
Science has uncovered new evidence that the last ice age came on in a matter of three or four decades. That's pretty fast. What do the libs think caused that one? Republican mammoths farting too much?
Everyone running around screaming, "Save the planet!"
Save the planet? Like it was ever in danger...
Of course if we continue to pollute and use up natural resources, the Earth will shrug us off and be set up for the next cycle of evolution and life, but we will never "destroy" the planet.
2007-09-27 09:50:52 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 3⤋
according to some bogus pundits at climate change there will be no winter anymore ( with all ice gone to the seas).And they want us to believe all that.Why don't they refer to Europe and the Sahara desert which are said to be once under the sea? In science all has to be proved with history as a base ( if you want)!
2007-09-27 09:51:27 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
Because now it is a political football for the elite Democrats.
2007-09-27 15:55:54 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
they don't know. they don't know if it will continue to heat up either.
they "predict" it will.
it's funny climatologists can't predict weather with precision more than 10 days in advance, but they can be be "accurate" 10-100 years in advance.
2007-09-28 10:09:07 · answer #10 · answered by afratta437 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋