Can you sum up global warming for me?

Question

Can you sum up global warming for me?

I get more detailed about greenhouse gases in the next few slides. I need information that has nothing to do with that.

I'm not being very clear. I was originally going to put down, "Global warming is a controversial topic. Some people believe it is a hoax." But global warming is true, there's no denying that the earth's temperatures are going up. I can't say that some people believe that humans have had little effect, because that's the stand I take. (I can't say "some people believe" when I'm displaying it as a fact.)

I defined global warming, I need things like definitions, but I can't think of anything.

Also, I read somewhere that we are responsible for 0.28% of the greenhouse effect? Is this true?

Answer 1

You'll get lots of answers if you'll use the Search Questions button. AGW is BS. Even IF CO2 were a leading indicator [it isn't] its natural level is 3%, while human caused CO2 is closer to 0.0037%. Obviously, this isn't even enough to affect the margin of error!

Answer 2

Global warming ( and cooling ) are part of a natural climate cycle that has been going on for millions upon millions of years.  It has never required human "help" to warm in the past and it never required human intervention to inverse and become a cooling trend.

There are multiple other planets in our solar system undergoing very similar warming trends at the current time.  The logical conclusion must be that the cause of this warming must be some common amongst them.. which almost certainly means the sun.

Answer 3

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images...

Just skip to page Twelve and read the conclusion...  These scientists have done the work for you

Answer 4

You need the term "man-made" in there somewhere, because most people believe we're in a warming period in our climate history, so global warming may be happening.

There's actually concern now that we're already going into another cooling period, but since no one really knows for sure, it's easier to accept we're still warming.

The controversy is whether humans and animals cause it to warm or cool.  Most scientists don't really believe that we cause climate change but those scientists are silenced by a media that doesn't want any debate on the issue.

So add "man-made" or "anthropogenic" before "global warming" and you'll be fine.

And we contribute 0.028% of the CO2 in the greenhouse layer where CO2 is just a trace gas. The greenhouse layer is made up of 97% water vapor, so our contribution is so small as to be negligible.

Answer 5

Global warming is the increase of the average atmospheric temp over the last 10,000 years since the end of the last  extensive glaciation of the earth.

Technically, we are CURRENTLY in an ice age, where the extent of glaciation varies from a lot to what we have now, just antarctica and greenland.

Anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is the theory that avg atmospheric temp has risen significantly because of burning of fossil fuels by mankind over the last 150 years that has increased CO2 concentration in the atmosphere by 1/3.

I believe everyone in the climate field agrees with the above.

Beyond that, there is little agreement or solid data to say whether mankind's contribution to GLOBAL climate change is significant.  Local climate changes created by mankind, like in cities, are well documented.

Simply put, we cannot distinguish temperatures within our current warming cycle from past cycles because of the large natural variance in the data.  The data are very "noisy".  There is no need to invoke a contribution from mankind to "explain" the current temp changes, so by Occam's razor we are forced to delete mankind from the explanation.

It is fashionable nowadays to take a scientific paper and add a conclusion that everything goes to h**l in a handbasket in the future because of AGW.  Like hurricane predictions.

In addition, proponents on the edge of AGW attempt to explain away ALL anomalous data in favor of AGW, often proposing very convoluted explanations.

That is why AGW has become the laughing stock of science.

(No theory explains all the data all the time.)

Some events that can change climate literally overnight, like a large meteor strike or yellowstone nat'l park supervolcano eruption, total thermonuclear war, etc. are random and can never be accounted for in definite predictions 100 years in the future.

Science has a long history of theories that evolved over time as data got better.   But some phenomena, like the wave/particle nature of light, have never been "explained" to anyone's satisfaction.

This is normal for science, and it doesn't include the out and out scientific frauds perpertuated (the list is long).

Answer 6

Global warming refers to an average increase in the Earth's temperature, which in turn causes changes in climate. A warmer Earth may lead to changes in rainfall patterns, a rise in sea level, and a wide range of impacts on plants, wildlife, and humans. When scientists talk about the issue of climate change, their concern is about global warming caused by human activities.

Yes, I think that is true.

Answer 7

Many of mankind’s advancements cause earth surface to warm, destroy the ozone layer, kill off endanger species, heat cities, and in some way cause more dramatic destruction.  Blacktop and buildings (roads, roofs and parking lots-heat cities), deforestation (air pollution, soil erosion), duststorms (increase hurricanes and cyclones, cause lung diseases), fires (cause pollution, mud slides, and deforestation), refrigerants (like CFC's) and solvents (including benzene destroy the ozone layer raising skin cancer rates) and plastics; cars, airplanes, ships and most electricity production (causes pollution including raised CO2 levels and increased lung and other diseases); these human problems we must fix to keep life on earth sustainable! Humans have destroyed half of the wetlands, cut down nearly half of the rain and other forests, and advance on the earths grasslands while advancing desertification which increases duststorms.

Answer 8

There are no scientific studies which currently support man made global warming (AGW). The AGW loonies utilize models which can be tweaked to give the desired outcome. Here are some of the AGW fanatics lies.

1. Current temps are the highest ever-This is an outright lie. The 1930's were very similar in temp, if not warmer. Also, the medieval warming period, which lasted from around 820 – 1040 AD was warmer. This study used 18 different proxies from around the globe to establish the Medieval Warming period.

http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index....

Also, look at the 450,000 year temps. As can easily be seen, the temp as a definite repeating pattern. We are lucky to be in a significant warming period. Think about living in glacial times. Not good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ice_A...

2. Polar bears and other species are dying - Maybe one of the dumber statements ever. This all started when a photo of 2 polar bears on a iceberg was sent around the world. They claimed the bears were to far to swim to shore, etc. This is another outright lie. The picture was taken from a lady on a trip who stated the bears could easily swim to shore (they can swim up to 100 miles). Also, the bears lived the warmer Medieval Warm period with no adverse effects. Finally, the bear population has rebounded significantly since they were hunted heavily in the mid to late 1900's. In the 70's only about 5,000 bears remained. Today, there are over 20,000.

http://www.newsbusters.org/node/11879

3. A consensus of scientist say it is happening - Anyone who uses this as an arguement, has no idea about the scientific method. Theories are proven by scientific studies, not a consensus. Also, there is no consensus. Thousands of scientist refute man made global warming. The problem is they can not get funding and are shut out by the media.

read the different parts

http://billwangard.blogspot.com/2007/05/...  

http://nzclimatescience.net/index.php?op...

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/...

4. Icebergs are melting and will swamp the shores - This tidbit has many fallicies and mistruths. First of all, even the IPCC does not think we are going to be swamped because of melting icebergs. They say the sea levels will rise due to expanding oceans volume. However, they never bother to correct this statement when repeated over and over on the media outlets. Also, this has nothing to do with man made global warming. Yes the earth is warming, but through natural processes. So, of course the icebergs are melting. They have been for 15,000 years. What will really suck is when they start growing again.

http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/i...

5. Nothing else explains the warming so it must be us - This may be as bad as the polar bears dying statement. There are so many factors which control the climate that we know nothing about. There are some very good studies which correlate solar sunspots to the climate. The basic science says less sunspots, more cosmic rays. More cosmic rays, more clouds. More clouds, less temperature, and vice versa. The sun has been going through a very active period up until 2007 (and look a the temps go lower in 2007).

http://motls.blogspot.com/2004/09/sunspo...

Also the suns direct output has an effect (imagine that).

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:...

This site is an awesome reference.

http://www.warwickhughes.com/agri/Solar_...

6. CO2, a greenhouse gas, must drive the climate - The only truth here is that CO2 is a greenhouse gas, but minor. water vapor makes up between 65-95% of all the greenhouse gases. CO2, methane and some others makes up the difference. Here is a report on this. It shows how our emissions only contribute about .23% of all greenhouse gases. Note that most AGW loonies never mention water vapor. This is because it makes their numbers sound so meaningless.

http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenh...

Also, what is never mentioned about CO2 is that for every particle of CO2 added, its ability to warm is reduced. Imagine painting a red wall with white paint. The first coat covers a lot of the red, but still the red showws through. The second coat covers even more. The third coat covers all of it. Adding more CO2 to the air is the same. As you add more, its effects on temp is less and less. Look at the graph on page 22. It shows the diminishing effect of CO2 rather nicely.

http://www.warwickhughes.com/agri/Solar_...

There are many more half truths and lies coming out about man made global warming. Just know that most of their arguements do not prove or disprove man made global warming (polar bears, melting bergs, etc). They simply show the globe is warming naturally, which we know. Also realize that their only source of "data" is through inexact models which have been proven wrong time and time again.

Answer 9

it`s over

Answer 10

The true science says that it is the Sun that is causing most of the recent warming that we have been hearing about.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is only accountable for less than 5% of greenhouse gases and we only make about 5% of that. (About 90-95% of Greenhouse Gases is Water Vapor)

The reason for increased CO2 is because as the oceans become heated, they cannot hold as much as they could if they were cooler, so the oceans release the excess into the atmosphere. From what I hear, the oceans can hold many times more energy and heat then the air. This meaning that the atmosphere should have very little effect on the oceans and that the sun or perhaps the Earth itself is heating up the surface since those are two of the only things that could heat our vast oceans.

Also, the Earth hasn’t warmed in nearly a decade but has actually fallen and it has fallen greatly within the past 2 years. Many scientists believe we are about to go through another little ice age.

http://www.dailytech.com/Solar+Activity+...

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060825/531436...

Many scientists are skeptical about Anthropogenic Global Warming.

These are some resources:

http://sepp.org/policy%20declarations/he...

http://www.globalwarmingheartland.org/Ar...



Al Gore had a chart in his movie "An Inconvenient Truth" that showed the similarities of Carbon Dioxide and temperature. The thing that he doesn't tell you is that there is a gap in which the temperature rises before the CO2 which should be the exact opposite if his theory is correct. Watch “The Great Global Warming Swindle”

Polar bears are NOT being endangered but actually the exact opposite.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/200...

That is my point of view on the issue and I strongly encourage you to watch "The Great Global Warming Swindle" (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=... all the way through even if you don't want to. It is a great source of information and if you want to know the truth, you need to see both sides of the story.

Another great resource is http://z4.invisionfree.com/Popular_Techn...

Answer 11

We are responsible for 0.28% of the total carbon in the atmosphere.  We are, however, responsible for most of the CHANGE in carbon concentration in the atmosphere.

Answer 12

The basics.

Some gases ("greenhouse gases") let sunlight in, which warms the Earth, and then block that heat from leaving. That's the "greenhouse effect", and it's a natural thing, mostly caused by water vapor.

Man is making excessive amounts of greenhouse gases, mostly by burning fossil fuels. That causes the delicate natural balance to go out of whack and the Earth warms. That's global warming.

It won't be a Hollywood movie style disaster. Gradually coastal areas will flood and agriculture will be damaged. But it will be very bad. Rich countries will cope, but it will take huge amounts of money. In poor countries many people will die of starvation, but not all of them.

Most scientists say, in 20-50 years. But we need to start right now to fix it, fixing it will take even longer than that.

Really good website for more information here:

http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/f101.a...

Lots of numerical scientific data proving it real here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Clima...

http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report...

Proof that most scientists think it's real and mostly caused by us here:

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

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/fu...

We are responsible for only a small portion of the total greenhouse effect.  With no greenhouse effect at all, the world would freeze right to the equator.  But. it's our steadily increasing portion that's making the temperatures slowly climb.

Answer 13

This describes the topic in a concise and easily understandable way:

http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/

You may be able to adapt portions of the high level description and add more in-depth detail as appropriate.

This has a lot of detail at a deeper level:

The Discovery of Global Warming

http://www.aip.org/history/climate/index...

Answer 14

Global warming occurs when the average global surface temperature increases. Anthropogenic global warming happens when mankind's behaviors are responsible for the change.

Since the turn of the last century, the average global temperature has risen by about 0.8°C (about 1.4°F). Most of this increase has come within the last thirty years.[1]

The last part of you question really deals with climate sensitivity; if atmospheric CO2 concentrations are doubled, then by how much will the globe warm?

It is very difficult to determine how much of the greenhouse effect can be attributed to human activities. Such a calculation (1) assumes linearity and (2) ignores feedback.  The combined “greenhouse” effect of several different gases (such as water vapor and CO2) is much greater than the combination of their individual effect. Also working knowledge of positive and negative feedbacks is critical to understanding this issue. If one was able to remove all of the CO2 from the atmosphere, then the concentration of water vapor would not stay the same; a water vapor concentration also acts as a feedback mechanism. Removing all CO2 would reduce the atmospheric temperature, which would lead to lower the water vapor concentrations and a further decrease in temperature.

A better calculation is climate sensitivity, defined as the change in global mean surface temperature following a doubling of the atmospheric CO2 (equivalent) concentration.  Use the baseline atmospheric CO2 concentration of about 280ppm that existed during our current inter-glacial period up until the industrial revolution and existed as roughly the equilibrium level that existed during each interglacial period over at least the past 100,000 years.

Most sources[2] estimate climate sensitivity to be a number around 3ºC +/- 1 when the CO2 concentration is doubled. Anthropogenic (manmade) avidities have increased the CO2 concentration by over 35% so far.

Additional comments:

Please review your resolved question on a simple explanation of the “greenhouse effect” http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Most, if not all of the enhanced global warming that we have been experiencing over the past few decades is due to man kind: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Deniers like to blame global warming on some natural cycle, but they won’t be able to name AND source one such cycle: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...