Global Warming Believers WHERE IS YOUR EVIDENCE?

Question

I see Global Warming believers asking the 'Challengers' for their evidence so I am turning the tables on Global Warming Believers Show me your evidence that Global Warming is happening.

Are we to blame? Show me your evidence.

Wow AMAZING, just as I suppected 11 answers and not a single research title, nor a SINGLE valid source offered.

WHERE IS YOUR EVIDENCE?

Make that 12, as I suspected Still NO EVIDENCE. Don't give me opinions show me your source documents, your research, your book quotes

EVIDENCE EVIDENCE EVIDENCE where are the sources for your arguments? I don't want your opinion I want to know what you are basing you opinion on? A SINGLE RESEARCH PAPER WOULD BE NICE. Please just a reference anything, any link any source JUST ONE?????????

Bob well done thank you for the first research links. Great. BUT WIKIPEDIA? That is not a VALID source. We will dismiss that one shall we?

Now other GLOBAL WARMING BELIEVERS follow Bob's lead, show me what you are basing your evidence on. NOT YOUR OPINION.

GNCP58 Link to IPPC Report? I will happily read Keith Ps answer if he pastes it here. I want those whose opinion is based on research to give me their sources, links, titles, book quotes. I do not want your opinion, or links to other people's opinions. I WANT YOUR SOURCES SO I CAN READ THEM MYSELF.

Thank you to those who have provided references to back up their opinions.

Can any body else see the problem with this? By offering me YOUR Opinion you are expecting me to agree with you in blind faith. To be convinced I need to read the source documents myself; informed faith.

I am asking for your EVIDENCE, so I can look at it. I want sources, references, papers, reports, quotes, book titles. Or do you think I should just believe an unqualified person, the average Joe/Jane on the street?

Answer 1

Scientists don't like to use the word "proof" because everything in science is subject to revision as new data comes in. But the case for human-caused global warming is about as strong as it gets.

1. World surface temperatures are getting warmer, and this trend has accelerated since the mid 1970's. Almost no scientist in the 21st century has disputed this basic fact, even among the most diehard GW skeptics. Here is the data from NASA / GISS:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata/GLB.Ts+dSST.txt
... and from the UK's Hadley Centre:
http://hadobs.metoffice.com/hadcrut3/

As I said, even GW skeptics accept that it's getting warmer; the major dispute is what's causing it: human beings, through increased greenhouse gases in the air? Or natural causes, like the Sun? The dispute is more political than scientific, though, because the scientific case for increased greenhouse effect is rock solid.

If the Sun is causing the current warmth, then we're getting more energy, and the whole atmosphere should be getting warmer. But if it's greenhouse, then we're getting the same amount of energy, but it's being distributed differently: more heat is trapped at the surface, and less heat is escaping to the stratosphere. So if it's the Sun, the stratosphere should be warming, but if it's greenhouse, the stratosphere should be cooling.

In fact, the stratosphere has been on a long-term cooling trend ever since we've been keeping radiosonde balloon records in the 1950's. Here's the data:
http://hadobs.metoffice.com/hadat/images/update_images/global_upper_air.png
http://hadobs.metoffice.com/hadat/hadat2/hadat2_monthly_global_mean.txt
http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/temp/sterin/sterin.html

2. If it's the Sun, we're getting more energy during the day, and daytime temperatures should be rising fastest. But if it's greenhouse, we're losing less heat at night, and nighttime temperatures should be rising fastest. So if it's the sun, the difference between day and night temperatures should be increasing, but if it's greenhouse, the day-night difference should be decreasing.

In fact, the daily temperature range has been decreasing throughout the 20th century. Here's the science:
http://ams.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1175%2F1520-0450(1984)023%3C1489:DDTRIT%3E2.0.CO%3B2
http://ams.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1175%2F1520-0477(1993)074%3C1007%3AANPORG%3E2.0.CO%3B2
http://www.bom.gov.au/bmrc/clfor/cfstaff/jma/2004GL019998.pdf

3. Total solar irradiance has been measured by satellite since 1978, and during that time it has shown the normal 11-year cycle, but no long-term trend. Here's the data:
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/SOLAR/solarda3.html

4. Scientists have looked closely at the solar hypothesis and have strongly refuted it. Here's the peer-reviewed science:
http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/media/proceedings_a/rspa20071880.pdf
http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/mpa/publications/preprints/pp2006/MPA2001.pdf

5. CO2 levels in the air were stable for 10,000 years prior to the industrial revolution, at about 280 parts per million by volume (ppmv). Since 1800, CO2 levels have risen 38%, to 384 ppmv, with no end in sight. Here's the modern data...
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/
... and the ice core data ...
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/icecore/antarctica/law/law.html
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/icecore/antarctica/vostok/vostok_data.html
... and a graph showing how it fits together:
http://www.columbusnavigation.com/co2.html

6. We know that the excess CO2 in the air is caused by burning of fossil fuels, for two reasons. First, because the sharp rise in atmospheric CO2 started exactly when humans began burning coal in large quantities (see the graph linked above); and second, because when we do isotopic analysis of the CO2 we find increasing amounts of "old" carbon combined with "young" oxygen. Here are the peer-reviewed papers:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1984JGR....8911731S
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mksg/teb/1999/00000051/00000002/art00005
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/256/5053/74

So what's left to prove?

Answer 2

Global warming is actually happening. but of course what I think you are digging at here is are we the cause. that would be a no at least in terms of being a major cause. The earth has cycled through many ice ages and warming periods of which none we were responsible for. and not to leave out the fact that our solar system is also experiencing this same phenomenon. So i guess the pollution that we cause here must be making it throughout the solar system if this was the case made by these wackos. The real cause has not been determined yet but theories have been made that are fundamentally sound but not proved. Now I am not discounting the fact we may be helping in a very very Small way. Everything is a cycle and long after we are all dead and gone these cycles will continue here on earth well at least until the sun become a red giant then of course there will no longer be a earth as it will be swallowed up.

Answer 3

I love the news from the UK. They have no reason not to tell the truth unlike American Media! It was disproved about global warming a year ago but the politicians have hushed it up. To promote their expensive programs like going green LOL The world is currently cooling; electorates are increasingly reluctant to support eco-policies leading to more oppressive regulation, higher taxes and higher utility bills; the tide is turning against Al Gore’s Anthropogenic Global Warming theory. The so-called “sceptical” view is now also the majority view. Unfortunately, we’ve a long, long way to go before the public mood (and scientific truth) is reflected by our policy makers. There are too many vested interests in AGW, with far too much to lose either in terms of reputation or money, for this to end without a bitter fight.

Answer 4

Disappearing Glaciers Ice is melting all over the planet. Glaciers are melting on six continents.

If present warming trends continue, all glaciers in Glacier National Park could be gone by 2030. [54] The park's Grinnell Glacier is already 90% gone. Pictured here is the glacier prior to its meltdown. [120]

Because of global warming, the glaciers of the Ruwenzori range in Uganda are in massive retreat.

The Bering Glacier, North America's largest glacier, has lost 7 miles of its length, while losing 20-25% of parts of the glacier.

Ice cores taken from the Dunde Ice Cap in the Qilian Mountains on the northeastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau indicate that the years since 1938 have been the warmest in the last 12,000 years.

The melting is accelerating. The Lewis Glacier on Mt. Kenya (In Kenya) has lost 40% of its mass during the period 1963-1987 or at a much faster clip than during 1899-1963.

Melting Arctic Sea Ice -Haven't you seen drowning polar bears?-The Arctic, with an area about the size of the United States, is seeing average temperatures similar to the Antarctic, almost 5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the planet as a whole


Melting Antarctic Sea Ice-The Antarctic Peninsula has seen an increase in average temperatures of almost 5 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 50 years.
Tropical Diseases Spreading
Greenland's Ice Sheet Melting
Oceans Warming With Coral Bleaching & Disintegration

and much much more...skin cancers, rise in temperature, those unevenseasons around the world and tsunamis?
and you still can't believe it?
what is your proof?

Answer 5

It is not a question any more. It is a fact that anyone that has the ability to think knows very well.

The cause is not so difficult to figure out. Few will admit the real reason and keep looking for the scape goat answer.

Too many people on ehis little planet is the direct cause. With the popultion growing at a very fast rate there is no way to prevent more polution and more global wrming.

The only answer is to decrease the popultion by at least sixty percent.

It will happen and not very long in the future. If you are young you may be one of the victoms. It will happen.

Answer 6

From the sound of your question, it seems you've made up your mind, but there is a ton of evidence. One thing I liked about Al Gores movie was he said basically that if you didn't believe him, do research yourself. If you look through scholarly journals (which I have), you will find a ton of research about the effects of global warming, but you won't find anyone that found it to be a myth. The evidence on the HUGE exponential growth in CO2 emissions is frightening. (If you are a college student, do a search on your university's online subscription databases like Lexis Nexis (sp?) or ERIC and see for yourself.

Even if I wasn't totally convinced, even if I was a little unsure, I just wouldn't want to risk leaving the planet a mess for future generations. If we are wrong, they can't go back and fix things. I'd rather be cautious. I know that at the very least, the pollution in the air makes it hard and unleasant to breath and elevates cancer rates.

I don't know. I guess people can be skeptics, but this is one issue that I don't think we can toss aside. I also think it's funny when I've seen naysayers on programs' like Tucker Carlson's. They don't provide any evidence to counter the mountain of evidence that scientists have provided. They just start in on a bunch of insults that have nothing to do with the issue. I wish they would have some valid counterpoints. I'd sure sleep better at night, but they don't and they're still selfish enough to try to stop progress that could solve the problem. Their argument is usually along the lines of "Well we all know Al Gore is a big whiney liberal." Our kids and or kids' kids deserve better, and politics shouldn't have ANYTHING to do with it. This isn't a democrat or republican issue.

Answer 7

Read Keith P's answer to this question. If there were going to be a FAQ for Y/A, his should be top of the list for global warming. The links he provides in his answer are all from respected sources with high scientific credentials.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgVFisW_zLjm_QIUyfUcIgrty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20070927090505AA2POs5&show=7#profile-info-wUAvNcDnaa

The case Keith lays out is also in provided in much greater detail in the IPCC's AR4, which contains many many references to the literature where the evidence resides. Sadly, you can't link to most of the underlying science studies since most professional journals are not open access.

edit:

You didn't look at Keith's answer and the links he provides. They are really good. The IPCC reports provide the best compendium of climate science with all of it referenced thoroughly. Your scoffing at this suggestion suggests to me that you really aren't serious about your question. The truth is there isn't one graph you can look at and see "aha, it is true." It's a bunch of different inter-related effects, of which Keith lists and references 5 or so. Maybe it's too much for you, I don't know. It's a complicated subject and doesn't digest well for the masses, which is why the arguments of the skeptics gain so much traction.

You could try to educate yourself by reading the IPCC report, or going through Keith's list, or going to a local university and paging through Journal of Climate or Biogeochemical Cycles or Journal of Geophysics to find relevant research articles, but really, what would be the point? You clearly aren't going to like what you find out, even if you were willing to invest the effort. Honestly, if you aren't even going to read the IPCC report, why even ask the stupid question?

Answer 8

Good place to start - http://www.climateark.org/ as it's a Climate Change Portal from where you can find just about everything you could wish to know about global warming.

Wikipedia is also a good starting point as it explains the basics without getting too technical and includes citations to many scientific reports. Try these pages to start with...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

A couple of other useful sites...
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/hadleycentre/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/portal/climate_change/default.stm

By following the above links you'll be able to access many thousands of scientific reports, the main ones to look out for are the IPCC reports and the Stern Report.

If you'd like to see some evidence for yourself then a trip to Glacier National Park is worthwhile. Don't wait too long as there's only 4 of the original 150 glaciers remaining.

Answer 9

Abrupt climate change is the subject of a recent National Research Council report that says the likelihood of sudden climate shifts needs to be studied more
closely, especially given the current global warming trend.

Scientists don't know enough to predict when abrupt changes will occur, but they know from the Earth's history that periods of gradual change, like now, were punctuated by episodes of severe floods and droughts and sudden changes in average temperatures –

18 degrees Fahrenheit in 10 years in some places.

The committee that wrote the report was chaired by Pennsylvania State University's Richard B. Alley, who has made several trips to Greenland and Antarctica, where he and his colleagues have drilled almost two miles deep into the ice to discover what the climate was like thousands of years ago.

EDIT: Sea level is projected to rise between the present (1980–1999) and the end of this century (2090–2099) under the SRES B1 scenario by 18 centimeters.
(IPCC report, global climate changes, chp 10)
18 centimeters. BIG HAIRY DEAL!

Answer 10

They hide it in libraries and in the headlines. If you don't believe it there must be better uses of your time than coming into this section and spamming away with this kind of stuff to prevent discussion by the people who see it as a legitimate concern.

It is beyond hubris to expect other people to waste their time trying to "convince" people who have no interest in being convinced. Why should I use my time that way? They are here to flood the group with their spam and prevent discussion of the issue. There are no proponents or alarmists here, there is no debate, and for the benefit of the mentally challenged this is not Global Warming Central Command!

Answer 11

Global warming and global cooling have been occuring since the beginning of time. You can check any book on geology, climatology and you will find plenty of evidence. Many, many factors contribute to these events which happen in a cycle. The end of the last glacial age ended about 10,000 years ago, and the earth has gradually been warming since them. If you can find a diagram of how the sun warms the earth and how some of the heat is radiated back into the atmosphere, a lot of your questions will be answered. The problem now is that greenhouse gases are somewhat trapped in the atmosphere and are then radiated back to the earth again. This is just one of the factors that causes global warming. There are many others like the differing tilt of the earth as it orbits the sun, also the ocean currents that flow like rivers in the oceans bringing warm water to cold, or vs. vs. Read up on it.