Is global warming a serious issue?

Question

Do you think the issue of global warming is as serious as governments are making it out to be? Or do you think it is just an excuse to tax us more?

Answer 1

This is a bit of a long answer, but this is the way I see it:

There was a time when doctors told women to start smoking in order to lose weight. Or, eggs are bad, no wait they are good, no really they are bad, wait, I think they are good, where are we right now on that one... and many many more I'm sure all of us can think of.

I have a boy, the love of my life, as most of us parents (I hope) feel, and I want what is best for him. I feed him organic, not because I KNOW it's better, but because I KNOW that he can do without pesticides, high fructose corn syrup and red 40 and be just fine.

I feel the same way about our planet. Is it true, is it not, who cares!!! The bigger question is why aren't we being kinder to nature and the future, whether it be for tomorrow or 100 years from now. My son may have kids and they may have kids. Just because we all don't want to pay higher taxes (which they will find a different reason if we don't like this one to raise them) are we going to keep trashing and polluting what right now we know as our only home?

3% of the world’s population has power over 97% of the worlds $. The rest of us, the 97% that is left over, only, all together, account for 3% of the world’s money. Thus, taking into consideration that the government and anyone who has power only does things for the $. The rest of us have a very big responsibility to make the decision not based on that $ and do what we feel is right thing to do. Like recycle and screw in that funny looking light bulb. Than just maybe, we will never have to find out the real answer to your question.

Answer 2

It is a serious issue - more serious than some make it out to be, less serious than others. It can be hard to put into perspective with so many conflicting ideas and opinions.

GW was first speculated about almost 200 years ago, it was scientifically established over 100 years ago so it's not a government invention. That said, there are some governments that are using GW as an excuse to impose taxes but interestingly, the overall rates of tax have risen consistently which can only lead one to conclude that if GW weren't around then taxes would have been imposed anyway but for some other reason.

Here's some of the effects of global warming, they're based on science not politics - http://profend.com/global-warming/pages/effects.html

Answer 3

Well Global Warming is already an issue, just not as major as it will be if we don't do anything about it. The government is telling us the wrong information and not making enough of a deal about it. George Bush just realized its real!!! And he's finally getting a meeting to help cut CO2 emissions in the USA. So no i don't think its a way to get more tax money out of us.

Answer 4

Write your own paper since you are clearly a brainiac, i.e. "I don't think that evolution is valid either". P.S. Here is an example of Evolution: THE EVOLUTION OF QUESTIONS YOU HAVE ASKED IN THE PAST FEW HOURS: I want reasons why global warming is NOT going to destroy the earth.? 2 hours ago Is global warming a serious issue? 2 hours ago Reasons why you believe global warming is not a concern to the earth? 3 hours ago Maybe next time you shouldn't procrastinate.

Answer 5

It is one of these crazes that appear from time to time. It is receiving a lot of publicity because it unites so many pseuds e.g. the Green Rabble, Defunct Pop Singers, Failed Politicians, the Chattering Classes, etc. The idea that climate change is driven by industrial carbon is simply too silly for words. The award of the Peace Prize to Forest Gore confirms its status as completely bogus: recall other 'peace' winners included Arafat and Kissinger. It is certainly an excuse for extra taxes.

Answer 6

Ask the people whose homes have been flooded, who are having to live in caravans because agencies couldn't be bothered to organise decent flood barriers.

That NO decent emergency shelters exist, is a very serious issue.

What if you need to be rescued from a flooded building but there aren't any helicopters cos they can't fly due to the weather?

What if a hurricane hits a nuclear power plant?

What if London floods? What if pylons freeze?

It is serious that we are totally unprepared!
And that politicians are still smiling like everything's OK, when they haven't a clue about what to do.

Answer 7

of course its a serious issue, wake up lady. i mean I'm 14 and it seems like i understand more about the subject than you. you should be panicking and doing your best to reuse and recycle. because if we don't all pull together and do something there is going to be another ice age or the complete opposite burning heat, where it will be so hostile for us to live in ( very bad conditions).
look below at some of the websites i have listed maybe these will sway your opinion

Answer 8

Global warming is a very serious issue.

Basically we know it's warming, and we've measured how much:

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

Scientists have a good idea how the Sun and the Earth's natural cycles and volcanoes and all those natural effects change the global climate, so they've gone back and checked to see if they could be responsible for the current global warming. What they found is:

Over the past 30 years, all solar effects on the global climate have been in the direction of (slight) cooling, not warming. This is during a very rapid period of global warming.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6290228.stm
http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/media/proceedings_a/rspa20071880.pdf

So the Sun certainly isn't a large factor in the current warming. They've also looked at natural cycles, and found that we should be in the middle of a cooling period right now.

"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/Milankovich_cycle

So it's definitely not the Earth's natural cycles. They looked at volcanoes, and found that

a) volcanoes cause more global cooling than warming, because the particles they emit block sunlight

b) humans emit over 100 times more CO2 than volcanoes annually

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

So it's certainly not due to volcanoes. Then they looked at human greenhouse gas emissions. We know how much atmospheric CO2 concentrations have increased over the past 50 years:

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

And we know from isotope ratios that this increase is due entirely to human emissions from burning fossil fuels. We know how much of a greenhouse effect these gases like carbon dioxide have, and the increase we've seen is enough to have caused almost all of the warming we've seen over the past 30 years (about 80-90%). You can see a model of the various factors over the past century here:

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

This is enough evidence to convince almost all climate scientists that humans are the primary cause of the current global warming.

Answer 9

No body has absolute solid evidence that global warming is really a serious issue, some so called experts say that at this rate the ice caps will melt in our life time, and other so called experts say that climate change has varied since this earth has been around and that the amount of pollution entering what is a vast vast space which is our atmosphere is not significant enough to effect the climate.

In my opinion it makes sense to recycle or reduce our carbon foot print for one good reason, and that is it is bad to let things go to waste. That does not mean the penny pinching government should increase our taxes though.

Answer 10

Do you have another planet to go to when this one is ruined? I don't. So, yes...environmental issues ARE serious. If you don't believe in global warming, do some research on the polar ice caps and how the polar bears are in danger, to name only a few. People need to wake up before it's too late.

And if you all don't care about what happens to the planet in the future, don't have kids. Their kids will have to live on a planet WE destroyed.

PS: this week it reached 85 degrees in NYC. It's OCTOBER. Think that's normal?