What is your definition of GLOBAL WARMING?

Question

Please dont copy n paste from the net, i want to know what you think. also, is this the same as climate change? how? and if you feel passionately about this environmental issue, tell me your thoughts. any science bods out there, tell me your scientific views....lol i hope to hear from you.

Answer 1

Hi, I am an atmospheric scientist and have also studied many environmental subjects including geology, oceanography, astronomy, and past climates (and of course chemistry and physics). First off I assume you are familiar with the 'greenhouse effect', e.g. CO2, water vapour, methane, and other gases absorb heat energy and warm the atmosphere.
To me global warming (GW) means the rise of global temperatures compared to an average of the recent past. GW combines the effects of natural global warming and anthropogenic global warming (AGW). Climate change can be used to describe periods when the earth was cooling (e.g. when ice ages started) and regional effects of a warming world (changing weather can mean some places cool, but on average the earth still warms).
Natural climate change occurs very slowly with slight changes in carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse gases, GG) each year altering the temperature of the atmosphere. These changes are driven by a slight change in warming from the sun due to the Earth's orbit and 'wobble' as it spins moving us slightly closer or further away from the sun. After this initial change mechanisms on earth control the amount of GGs sending us into a warming or cooling period.
Anthropogentic climate change is mainly caused by much larger inputs of CO2 into the atmosphere from burning of fossil fuels. This increases the ability of the atmosphere to absorb heat, and it warms.
The main difference between natural and anthropogenic climate change is speed. for the pat 400,000 years (possibly more) the transition from ice ages to warm 'interglacials' has occurred with CO2 levels rising from150 to 270 parts per million (concentration units). This rise takes thousands of years. In two hundred years since the start of the industrial revolution mankind has increased the CO2 concentration from 270-380 ppm. Two hundred years is barely a heartbeat on the timescale of 400,000 years but that amount of extra CO2 means we are essentially performing an experiment on the planet to see if it will still manage to regulate our climate. There is no doubt in my mind that anthropogenic global warming is a serious threat to our society, the greatest uncertainty lies in predicting the outcomes as the CO2 concentrations are a huge change from the past 400,000 years. My feeling is that we are under-estimating the climate effects as indicated by recent surprises like the increased Greenland and north and south polar melting.
The issue is political because it affects our dependence on oil/gas which at first glance appears to affect our quality of life which has so dramatically improved in the west because of it. Not to mention the huge amounts of wealth in the oil industry. The conflict of interest between governments, oil companies, our economy as it stands now, and global warming makes me think that it is up to individuals to seek out the alternatives and press for change. But in order to do this the public needs to understand the facts and separate them from the fiction touted by individuals who are not climate scientists - not because the scientists are involved in any self-preserving conspiracy, but are simply aware of the facts.

A good place to start is:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/05/start-here/

p.s. apologies for this being so long, thanks for listening!

Answer 2

Good question. According to Roger Pielke, probably the most prolific and respected climate scientist on the planet, global warming and climate change are two different things even though the terms are often used interchangably.

Global warming is about temperature change. Climate change is more inclusive and includes changes to wind, precipitation and storm patterns.

The media often treats the two terms as interchangable. For example, they will say "global warming will cause more hurricanes." (In my opinion this is completely untrue, by the way, and Christopher Landsea resigned from the IPCC because of this bogus claim).

The theory of climate change (in its present form) is that manmade greenhouse gases (mainly CO2) will warm the Earth's atmosphere causing catastrophic polar ice melt, sea level rise and extreme weather events.

Many scientists can agree with parts of the theory without agreeing with the whole. Atmospheric CO2 does have a warming effect but it is logarithmic, meaning that the rate of warming is going down all the time.

My own view is that internal climate variability has far more impact on the climate than manmade greenhouse gases. Atmospheric CO2 occurs naturally and is part of the carbon cycle. It is just ridiculous, in my view, to think nature would not process manmade CO2 and regulate it in the same way it regulates natural CO2.

Answer 3

You seem genuinely interested in this important subject and will no doubt get a load of stupid answers like the first one.
I'm not a scientist so these are just my opinions.
I think it is happening - the earth is heating up - because human activity is changing the balance of gasses in the atmosphere to such a degree that it is starting an irreversible chain of events.
I believe these changes will include the melting of the polar ice caps which in turn will mess up the currents in the sea which control our climate and will lead to climate change.
I think these changes are not just part of the earth's natural climate cycles.
The consequences will be loss of vast areas of low lying land e.g. the Maldives and the Netherlands. There will be economic chaos on a global scale.
Many eco systems and species will be destroyed. The extinction of species is natural and normal - usually, but this is not. The imbalance will cause further imbalance and the situation will get more extreme.
So, all in all, not good.
Anyone who thinks that nothing is really happening is delusional. Anyone who thinks we will not pay a huge price in the future for out lifestyles now is also delusional. Anyone who thinks there is anything we can do about it joins the other two above.

Answer 4

Global Warming is the political Leftist term for Climate Change. GW raises hysterical panic among the less educated and less logical population while Algore and his ilk feed the hysteria with lies and overstatements. A slow rise in sea levels will not drown anyone. People who paid a lot of money for beachfront property will lose and people who paid a lot less will find their property going up in value as it becomes beachfront. Cities that cannot be protected with dikes will be lost, but other cities will grow or be built.

Northern Canada and Siberia will become farmland and North Africa will too. You may even have orange groves in Cornwall. Some other areas may get drier. Storms will actually decrease as the temperature differential between the poles and the tropics decreases.

The main difference is that GW blames evil Mankind and Climate Change is actually natural, having occurred many times before Man was even a factor.

Rickolis is only one point of view and he may or may not have the qualifications he claims. Be sure to check out the reasoning of the opposing views before you decide how much either side has their facts and solutions correct.

Answer 5

Im a realist so wont be able to answer scientifically but will share some views
- Millions of people lighting cigarettes everyday, isn't that smoke responsible?
- All these wars all around the world. You won't beleive the temp change when I was in Pak and Afghanistan was being bombed, average temp in Karachi is 30-32C but after war it went as high as 43C. Isnt this a cause?
- All the nuclear / atomic / power reactors responsible?
- Trillions of dollars spent on rockets to discover God knows what, those engines and fuel burned, isn't that the cause?#

I beleive GLOBAL WARMING is due to the fact that we people have become more and more mean for our own needs to overcome others and even science and hence have become absolutely careless about the environment in which we live.

Answer 6

Global warming is exactly what it says it is the warming of the earth. This can be either naturally occuring like it has throughout the last several million years or human induced like it is at the moment, this is called anthropogenic global warming which is a result of the release of Greenhouse Gases such as CO2.

Climate change however is simply the change in climate, both increases and decreases in the climate, both global warming and global cooling, both of which may occur at the same time across different parts of the planet

Answer 7

global warming is just how it sounds. It is a trend in which the average temperature of the earth is increasing slightly every year (very minutely though...I believe the last time I read about this is was less than a degree a year with a margin of error of over one degree....in other words there is a chance that it might not increase one year but probably does the next).

Anyway, I would recommend not to be too concerned about it because the earth has gone through cycle of heating and cooling. In the 1960s-70s there was great concern about global cooling as the earth was cooling down each year...now everyone is worried about global warming for the same reasons.

There are reasons to be concerned about it, but in all honesty this is what the earth does and nature will balance itself out over the next few years.

Answer 8

global warming is a political thing, a way to control the population the way the fuel crisis in the 70's was a way to force people to buy smaller cars.

the geologic, archelogical record, extant records in many written forms, as well as evidence found in trees preserved in graves, in building structures, and deep cold water, all clearly demonstrate that the earth goes through cyclic temperature variations.

in 1848 I think it was, England still ruling the seas, sent three ships, to find the northwest passage above canada. It did not end well for them. But about 2 years or so later, another ship coming in from the bering strait looking to find them, found an ice free artic ocean and sailed the route in a few weeks to a month or so and came out in the North Atlantic no worse for wear or tear.

In 1969, Prince Philip sponsored a dog sled expedition to leave from point Barrow Alaska, (the only place where ice ever connects the ice cap to the land mass to step foot in/on the atlantic side as close to greenland as possible. They made it to spitzenburg if I remember correctly and measured the ice flow out of the artic at 40 cubic miles per season.

In the 1940's, there was concern about global heating, in the 1970's or 1980's it was global cooling. Now it is global heating.

For all the internet available searches, for the supposed better educated people now walking the earth, I find most are more stupid than sheep.

the earth has had cycles of heating and cooling forever. Can we affect the earth, yes, I think we can. I think we can poison the air to a large degree, and polute the sea, but I don't think we can control the heating and cooling of the earth.

the largest part of greenhouse gases is water vapor. How do you stop the hydrolodic cycle?

my thoughts

Answer 9

To start with, the phrase "global warming" itself is just wrong. Its "climate change". You may think me picky by saying this, but its true. Some places will get warmer, and others colder, although i'm not certain which. I think that Britain will get colder, as the gulf of mexico will recede, leaving us with a very cold, almost arctic like climate.

But in all honesty, i think its a load of rubbish that human beings are to blame for it. Yes, the climate is changing but that is nothing to fear as it always changes, ice ages come and go, so there's no point trying to stop them, nature cant be beaten.

Thats my opinion, like it or hate it.

Answer 10

I think global warming is the phrase which is used to make money , get a job or keep a job. The planet has been much wamer in the past ...much much warmer. CO2 levels thousand times more than now. But if you notice when pro warmer (end of the world) speakers proclaim historic graph charts of temperature rises...they fail to go back when the earth was much warmer and co2 levels were through the roof by todays standards(the dinosaurs were walking around and they didnt mind)...how convenient. Perhaps they can sweep the ice ages under the carpet too. Global warming is a fact... the problem is its happened loads of times before....but now they can make money out of it !!!

Answer 11

well there is a very thin layer on the stratosphere which deflects the suns burning rays if this goes then the earth will absorb all the suns rays the earth will heat up to such a degree that human or all life will die,the waters in the earth will evaporate and we will have the runaway green house effect the planet will eventually dry out.mars was once a planet with water at one point but its ozone was so thin that the planet heated up and all its life giving water evaporated into space forever.and the earth will end up the same way