Global Warming?

Question

Is this something that is a natural occurrence, over 100,000 years that we cannot track, or is it something we cause? Many claims have been struck out over and over again saying something else is causing it. Everyday I hear something different is causing it. Is the earth tilting getting ready to flip the magnetic poles causing this? What are your thoughts?

Answer 1

I believe that it's part of the earth's cycle, and man has insignificant effect on it.

It is true that the earth has been warming. Some scientist believe, It is coming out of the "Little Ice Age".

However, there is no credible evidence that it is due to mankind and carbon dioxide. We've been coming out of a "Little Ice Age" for 300 years. We have not been making very much carbon dioxide for 300 years. It's been warming up for a long time.

Though, humans are polluting the air and adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, but the effect is tiny.

Answer 2

Historically global warming and cooling has been caused by natural events. These are the solar and terrestrial cycles, they vary in length from 11 years to 400,000 years. They interact with each other and lead to either warming or cooling.

They're predictable and historical warming and cooling fits the pattern of these cycles. There are anomalous events outside the normal cycles and these too impact on our climate to a small extent or over long periods of time.

Fortunately we have at our disposal a range of scientific and technological tools that enable us to measure with incredible accuracy the amount of heat being received from the sun, the planet's behavior in space etc.

We can accurately map what should be happening if the climate were left to it's own devices. The reality is that what's happening and what should be happening are two different things.

The current cyclical alignment means the planet is experiencing very slow natural warming, what we're seeing is the fastest warming in known history with temperatures increasing many times faster than is naturally possible.

It's no mystery as to what the missing component is that's causing this accelerated warming. It's been known since the Swedish Chemist Svante Arrhenious 'discovered' it way back in 1896. It's the greenhouse gases.

Their role is maintaining our planet at a habitable temperature is essential, without them Earth would be a ball of ice devoid of all lifeforms. Problems occur when the atmopsheric concentrations of these gases is disrupted and there are no other compensatory factors involved.

To illustrate this - for all the time that humans have been on the planet levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have varied between 190 and 280 parts per million by volume. In just a few decades levels have increased to 387 ppmv - a greater change than nature alone achieved in the last 3 million years. Inevitably this is going to lead to increased warming, quite simply there is no other possible outcome. The greenhouse gases are Earth's insulation. As with any insulation, the more you apply the greater the insulative effect and the more heat is retained.

You mentioned the magnetic poles flipping. There's a lot of confusion surrounding this issue with some people believing that this will have a sudden and dramatic impact on our climate - it won't, it never has. The poles flip periodically (we're long overdue) but climate isn't suddenly affected. There's no reason for it to be, the atmopshere isn't magnetic and the mechanisms that cause global warming and cooling are affected to such a small extent that the impacts are very small and only apparent due to the progressive impact over long periods of time.

Answer 3

Actually, it can be tracked, for the last 400,00 years anyway. Look up data from the Vostok ice core sample. This is one of the, if not the, longest ice core samples taken and provides temperature data as well as CO2 data for the last 400k years. A graph of this data very clearly shows a pattern of ups and downs that we seem to be right in line with at this time. Although the levels of CO2 are higher now, that doesn't seem to be making any difference in what appears to be a regular cycle.

Answer 4

Yes, climate has changed in the past.

Two things:
1) Species died out when that happened.
2) It was gradual; it did NOT happen over the course of 50 or 100 years. This is FAST. There is no time to adapt. Once crops start dying it's too late to start searching for drought-resistant plants and roll them out world wide. When fish stocks are gone you can't replace them in two weeks.

Magnetic poles, solar activity: all clasping at straws, frantically trying to hold on to the denying side.
There are farmers all over the world, people of 70 years and older, who look at weather patters because their lifelyhood depends on it. They say they've never seen anything like it.
There are scientific reports, based on the collaborative and peer-reviewed work of ten thousand scientists, which say that men is the cause.
Now, you can stick your fingers in your ears and sing 'magnetic poles' all you like; you are clasping at straws and the train rushed past your station two years ago.

Answer 5

Here is what we know: Blacktop (roads and parking lots) and buildings heat cities; Air pollution causes lung (And other) diseases, deforestation (causing more destruction -duststorms, hurricanes/cyclones all increasing deforestation) and destroys the ozone layer while heating earth surface; fires cause mud slides, deforestation and pollution-more heating surface temperatures; CFC's destroy the ozone layer raising skin cancer rates and killing off endanger species and increased surface temperatures; lighting produces ozone near the surface and raises air pollution levels-more heating, the suns increased magnetic field are causing increases in earthquakes (more destruction), volcanoes (wow), sun spots and more heating. Cars, airplanes, ships and most electricity production causes pollution, warmer temperatures and destruction...But most of this is in our control outside of the sun (Volcanoes and earthquakes are part of the sun magnetic strength): We need to fix it! That is why I founded CoolingEarth.org an geoengineering web sight.The Mayor's are on the right track, we can have control and economic growth. The fed gov is way out of step. We also need a pollution surcharge to balance the field and advance new technologies. Where we are with global warming has never happened before. CO2 has never lead to temperature change, but temperature change has led to increases in CO2. so the models are having to be made without any evidence!

Answer 6

It's mostly not natural.

There are a few "skeptics" with theories.

But the global warming scientists have the data, and, in science the data wins.

Here's a short snapshot of the data:

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

Which is why EVERY major scientific organization says it's real and mostly caused by us.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change

Good websites for more info:

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

Answer 7

is futile. pack you MRE's and all your canned foods for the end on the world in 2012!!