Climate change occurred many times in the past, but does that mean it must change in the same manner now?

Question

Skeptics are correct about one thing, the earth is a complicated system. Knowing that more can go wrong with complicated systems, why limit the possibility of a forcing to just nature?

Answer 1

This seems more like a statement and not a question...

Yes, the climate has oscillated back and forth between warmer and colder periods and many times these oscillations have been associated with vast changes in species diversity, mostly the initial loss of diversity.  The question that most people seem to want to address with talk about 'global warming' in regular conversation, is to address that portion of the problem that we may be causing.  It's also a recognition that the earth is a closed system, and there are only a finite amount of resources available.

Answer 2

Earth has been a snow all and plants are found in the ice sheets, but if you read what is known and study you will find we can make life better. but it will take grass root movement because governments will not move till crises

I attended the Focus the Nation at Sierra College on 1-31-08. The event was the 2% Solution, a 2% reduction over 40 years to solve GW. Oil is a nonrenewable resource and we are running out-but not soon - $30 Gal for gas. The 2% Solution is ok for the USA for a 10 year plan to cut 20%. But over those 10 years, we have to be building renewable energy and about that time, we can cut an additional 20%. This should get us from importing any oil. We must have a pollution surcharge where we pay the real price (health effects, GW and cleanup) for oil, NG, coal, cigarettes, Cooling Towers, Cars, trains and airplanes. Humans have to put some of this nonrenewable into renewable energy like small hydro-electric dams, concentrating solar power plants, wind and wave machines, nuks, and geothermal. With the peak of oil in the 1970’s, peak NG in the 1990’s, having mined cheep coal, the peak of ocean fishing in the 1980’s, and the peak of uranium in the 1990’s, humans must stop procrastinating and make real changes to keep earth sustainable including in the energy debate, finance and regulation.

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 forest, and advance on the earths grasslands while advancing desertification which increases duststorms.

The result is:  change is on the way, we just do not know what changes (where and when). Look beyond the hype, beyond the weather, beyond a quarterly report and beyond today. President Bush has made a choice of energy (ethanol) over food and feeding the starving people around the world; this is a choice China has rejected. The fact is Bush wants to buy your food to send to starving people since our grain is not available. Now what USA Presidential candidate is give you the facts so you can make an educated decision?

Over the next 90 years carbon dioxide is projected to skyrocket as human’s burn more fossil fuels. The problem is, the oil will be gone in less than 30 years at present rates of consumption without projected increases and shortages. We have to come up with what will take its place. Again we have to cleanup our mess. One of the big problems we have is at some time Yellowstone will blow its top again, as the magma move closer to the surface, creating a nuk winter. After that we will not have to worry about the destruction of the ozone layer, global warming or pollution.

But with that we must understand we have never seen what is now happening before. CO2 has never lead to temperature change, but temperature change has led to increases in CO2. The models have to be made as we go along with current evidence! But again adding a small amount of CO2 to the atmosphere enlarges the earths sun collection causing warming; increase water in the atmosphere and it forms clouds cooling earth but sometimes causing flooding. Even natural events are warming earth and causing destruction. The sun has an increased magnetic field causing increases in earthquakes (more destruction), volcanoes (wow, great destruction), and sun spots. Lighting produces ozone near the surface (raising air pollution levels). The USA Mayor's have taken a stand and I believe are on the right track, we can have control and can have economic growth. The sun is available to produce energy, bring light to buildings and makes most of human’s fresh water. Composting is the answer to desertification. New dams are the answer to fresh water storage, energy and cooling earth by evaporation, we need many small ones all over (California needs 100 by 2012 and has not even started).

Remember knowledge is power and this information is very powerful. Humans have 50 trillion dollars worth of stuff that runs on cheep oil, natural gas, or coal. We need 20 Trillion Dollars worth of renewable energy over the next 10 years if we are to avoid a world wide depression (and right now ethanol does not count)!

That is why I founded CoolingEarth.org, a geoengineering web sight where you can learn more about earth, the atmosphere, and how to sustain life on earth’s surface.

Answer 3

There's more money in claiming that the changing climate is caused by man.

How could you guilt people out of their money if it were natural?

Answer 4

While it's not impossible for humans to contribute to climate forcing, the ability to measure how much is close to impossible. If you look at the estimates on how much warming is human caused you’ll see that the numbers vary wildly anywhere from <1% to >35% of the total greenhouse effect. The higher numbers obviously ignore the effect of water vapor – which is very misleading because water vapor drives well over 90% of the greenhouse effect. But ultimately the human contribution is likely quite small.

http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=30

The other significant error in AGW theory is the claim that CO2 is responsible for the majority of climate forcing, when CO2 is in fact a very small part of the total picture – around 3%. Further, CO2 levels (as a driver) do not correlate well with temperature, as has been seen in ice cores where the CO2 levels followed temperature increase by an average of 800 years. In more modern times, and with better data collection the “CO2 as driver of temperature” concept still fails, as we saw temperatures between 1940 and 1979 steadily decreasing amid warnings of an imminent ice age, while CO2 was increasing dramatically. Also bear in mind that correlation does necessarily indicate causation.

http://www.nov55.com/gbwm.html

From this it’s not unreasonable to conclude that the vast majority of climate change is the result of natural causes. Nor is it unreasonable to conclude that nature has some built-in mechanisms for correcting the system when it gets out of balance – which may be exactly what we have seen over the millennia as the warming and cooling cycles have taken place. In the past the earth has certainly seemed to handle any positive feedback situations (those where runaway warming or cooling could occur) without human intervention.

Answer 5

Nope.  In fact, it's probably not changing in the same manner now, because humans are creating a new forcing factor which didn't exist in the past.

This is one of the most frequent denier arguments (i.e. "did the dinosaurs drive SUVs?!"), but assuming that our greenhouse gas emissions are not effecting the climate is simply wrong.

Answer 6

Richard....Ice covered most of the United States.  Glaciers created the Great Plains...Woolly mammoths roamed Texas and Arkansas.

The earth is constantly creating itself.  Read about the tectonic plates and Pangaea?

Question....Did the Woolly Mammoth drive SUVs and create global warming?