Is there anything or anybody else to blame for Global Warming?

Question

Is there anything or anybody else to blame for Global Warming?

Are we the ones to blame for global warming? Is there more than our harm that causes it or is it something else? Something natural?

Answer 1

Let's blame the Sun, as that is the source for all warmth on our planet.

Answer 2

Over the past 30 years or so, 80-90% of the warming has been due to human greenhouse gas emissions.

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 3

A number of things can and do change the climate.

But the data clearly shows that right now, our making greenhouse gases (mostly by burning fossil fuels) is the most important thing, 80-90% of it. This graph gives a good short picture:

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.png

The Sun is indeed the source of the heat. But greenhouse gases are holding it in and making things warmer. The Sun itself isn't getting any warmer, we measure it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6290228.stm

Ron C's answer is pretty good, but it's just a little misleading. "Solar amplification", cosmic rays, and the like are all theories that are based more on ideas rather than hard data. So only a very few scientists think they're correct. The second website below has more about them.

Good websites for more info:

http://profend.com/global-warming/
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn11462

Answer 4

The majority view is recent warming is mainly attributable to man-made atmospheric CO2.

Another view is that the warming is partially due to solar variation. The direct changes in solar variation are not great. The IPCC estimates direct contribution at 1.3 W/M2. But some scientists have hypothesized that mechanisms in the climate create "solar amplification" meaning there is both a direct and indirect contribution from solar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_variation
http://cc.oulu.fi/~usoskin/personal/Sola2-PRL_published.pdf
http://www.gsajournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-static&name=i1052-5173-14-3-e4&ct=1

Another view is that cosmic rays play a big role. This view is championed by Hendrik Svensmark of the Danish National Space Center and Nir Shaviv.
http://royalsociety.metapress.com/content/3163g817166673g7/
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006cosp...36.1103S

Others view the recent warming as mainly a result of internal climate variation due to oceanic oscillations being in the warm phase. This includes the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the North Atlantic Oscillation and the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The greatest impact happens when all three are in a warm phase at the same time, as in 1998 and 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_decadal_oscillation
http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2007/2007GL030288.shtml

Others see global warming as a combination of these factors.

Answer 5

There is no one else to blame in the global warming except to US! We all had contributed to it, admit it or not!

Answer 6

You notice no one is saying planes add to this? Know why?They consume tons of fossil fuel and not one of you are willing to give up your holiday flight but you want me to not drive my car? Get over it.If you want to live in a third world country well take your pick and move out of USA,because we can not just stop using fossil fuels no matter how you feel about it today it takes time,innovation and progress and we ain't there yet!Now lets heat those ideas that work for everybody not just those who can afford it.!!

Answer 7

The UN climate panel has issued its strongest warning yet that human activities are heating the planet, putting extra pressure on governments to do more to combat accelerating global warming.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the most authoritative group on warming which groups 2,500 scientists from more than 130 nations, predicted more severe rains, melting glaciers, droughts and heatwaves and a slow rise in sea levels.

The final text of the report, due out later, said it was "very likely" - meaning a probability of more than 90 per cent - that human activities led by burning fossil fuels explained most of the warming in the past 50 years.

That is a shift from the last report, in 2001, when the IPCC said the link was "likely", or at least 66 per cent probable.

"Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic (human) greenhouse gas concentrations," said the text, seen by Reuters.

The talks among government representatives and IPCC scientists, meeting in Paris since Monday, ended after midnight after a wrangle over rising ocean levels.

IPCC leaders will formally unveil the results of six years' work in Paris at 0830 GMT (1930 AEDT).

A 20-page summary for policy makers outlines threats such as a melting of Arctic sea ice in summers by 2100 and a slowing of the Gulf Stream.

UN officials hope the report will prompt governments and companies to do more to cut emissions of greenhouse gases, released mainly by burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars.

The report also predicted a "best estimate" that temperatures would rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 Celsius in the 21st century, with a likely range from 1.1 to 6.4 Celsius.

Temperatures rose 0.7 degrees in the 20th century and the 10 hottest years since records began in the 1850s have been since 1994. Many European countries have had their warmest January on record.

"The IPCC's latest report provides the most conclusive evidence to date that human activities are causing dangerous climate change," said Camilla Toulmin, head of the International Institute for Environment and Development, a London-based research group.

"Time is running out to cut greenhouse gas emissions," she said.

"For those who are still trying to determine responsibility for global warming, this new UN report on climate change is a scientific smoking gun," Democratic Congressman Edward Markey of Massachusetts said.

Answer 8

I blame the UK goverment for forcing all our clubs and public houses to provide outdoor HEATED shelters for our smokers.

Answer 9

Its completely our fault.We use cfc perfumes everyday which destroy the ozone lazer,we use cars everyday which destroy the ozone lazer.We are creating lot of pollution.