Do you think the global average temperature is really warming?

Question

How much stake do you put in the statement that global temperatures are climbing? I think it's an extremely complicated goal and that, generally, deciding that the average global temperature has changed a fraction of a degree is VERY difficult and I don't believe anyone can make that assertion with any confidence.

Answer 1

is the earth warming?  yes.  are there signs that this is so?  yes again.  want some examples?

<<Greenland lost roughly 164 cubic miles of ice from April 2004 to April 2006 (more than the volume of water in Lake Erie), while the loss between 2002 to 2004 was of 57 cubic miles.>>

Lake Erie volume: 116 cubic miles

the energy that caused that ice melt is enough to raise the temperature of lake Erie from freezing, to boiling.

AND IN ADDITION, COMPLETELY BOIL AWAY ABOUT 9 CUBIC MILES OF IT.

That's warming, on a global scale.

when that much ice melts, the temperature doesn't change.

0 degree ice, and 0 degree water, are the same temperature.

but what too many people don't realize is the implication of all the energy that the earth is absorbing, and storing.

which will, in the fairly near future, become far more obvious, when there is insufficient ice remaining to absorb all that energy.

then you'll see heating.

http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/I...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4783...

http://www.livescience.com/environment/a...

http://www.physorg.com/news77978603.html

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Greenland...

but wait, not done yet.

<<A state of Alaska rule says heavy exploration equipment can be used on fragile tundra only when the ground is frozen to 12 inches deep and covered by at least 6 inches of snow.

However, because winters in the Arctic are becoming shorter, the number of days the tundra meets those conditions has shrunk from more than 200 in 1970 to only 103 (in 2003),>>

yep warming.  keep in mind, this involves the oil companies.  you know, the ones that want you to think that global warming is not happening, or that if it is, it's not a problem.  seems it's a problem for them.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1...

here's an article about eskimos experience of warming.  there are many such, but this one contains some history in it.

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/a...

you might keep in mind that we didn't even get to what used to be Glacier National Park.

i remember someone claiming, if it's getting warmer, why are glaciers growing on Mt St Helens?

some things are just to unbeliveable for words.

Answer 2

it has barely started and the changes are very slow ,for example 1 degree rise in global temperature means 10% crop loss .

1 centimeter of rise in the global water levels means thousands hectares on coastal lands can be flooded

now many animals in the jungles are dying because of minute temperature changes ,and links in the food chain are disapearing with drastic effects on the links that follow

we are witness to the first mass exstinction since the dinosaur

it is not the same as looking at you own back yard and thinking a difference of 10 degrees does not effect the animals and plants you see ,

this is much more subtle

it is hard to imagine these small numbers having  these big effects

a few years ago many people died in France and India because of heat waves

this year many died in Mexico because of extreme cold

Global warming or what i prefer is Climate change .has hardly started

Answer 3

Thirty years ago, scientists said we were in a global cooling.

I must say that global warming is a bit overrated.  When you look at temperature patterns since the Ice Age, we are just following in an endless tempurature cycle.  May also say that to think that "because of cars and pollution, our global tempuratures are rising" is a hoax.  There is more H20 and Methane greenhouse gases in the air than CO2 and they have a greater, more profound effect.  So, If you want to kill every cow on the earth and get rid of water into space, be my guest.

Answer 4

theres no proof humans are the cause of global warming. plus, there is little that can be done. a couple trillion dollars world wide yearly wont do jack. we cant just stop using our cars.

Answer 5

It all depends on how far back your averaging. If you go back a million years, I bet it's pretty stable. If you're looking at the last 100 years, possibly a different result. I've read the difference between the average of the last 80 years vs the last 150 years is substantially different.

Answer 6

I sure do and there is proof!!

Answer 7

If your living in the U.S.,  No,,,Canada ,,No,,,It's getting colder..

Once it get hot for summer,, you may not think about it.

The winters will get colder though.

Answer 8

Sure it's warming.  Temperature data is measured all around the world and the database is very extensive.  Here's the result, peer reviewed and accepted by most all scientists, with references:

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Ima...

Answer 9

it is warming up for sure

Answer 10

The earth is always on warming and cooling trends.  It is directly related to solar activity of the sun.

Answer 11

i think that it is warming especially since some birds are no longer migrating and fish are heading north to colder climates

Answer 12

I'm going to start worrying about global warming after they fix the global cooling but I'm not addressing that until after the hole in the ozone is repaired...one thing at a time you know

Answer 13

The data to support it is overwhelming.

Answer 14

"Unfortunately I have yet to see an answer I like."

"I don't believe anyone can make that assertion with any confidence"

You seem to be opposed to any answer as a matter of faith.

Perhaps if you were to start from a viewpoint of having an open mind and a willingness to examine the scientific basis for global temperature measurement, you might get better answers? Or perhaps if you asked someone who already agrees with you to write an answer you can fall in love with, you'd be happier?

The first thing you need to understand is that statistical analysis of temperature measurements is a highly refined science with plenty of people willing and eager to pounce on any silly little mistake you might make, so all published papers on the subject tend to be written very carefully and gone over with a fine-toothed comb by eminent statisticians.

So the confidence they have in whatever statements they make is, in the end, very high. They don't make wild statements full of hyperbole like normal people with limited understanding of science. Every word is measured and supported by billions of measurements and millions of calculations.

'if you scroll down to "Temperature Record Series", then click on the "500MYr" temperature chart, we're at some of the lowest global temperatures on record!"'

If you look at the 450 thousand year record, you will see that the past that is relevant to us as a species, since it is when we evolved, has been, for the most part, very cold. Up to 6 degrees colder than it has been for the current interglacial warm period.

If, therefore, you reduce the resolution of your graph down to 500 million years - a whopping three orders of magnitude - any warm periods within the last 450,000 years will be drowned out by the strong cold period signal. The mean value for the last half million years shows up as a trough in the low resolution graph.

6 degrees is roughly equivalent to 3 parts per thousand of O18. (Veizer et al. 2000) On the scale of the 500 million year chart, that puts the current interglacial mean temperature at around the hash mark for '-2' - or approximately as hot as it has ever been over the past 500 million years.

You can see a similar effect in the 12Ky graph compared with the 2Ky graph. 12 thousand years ago the last ice age ended and the world warmed up rapidly. For most of the time since then the world has been slowly cooling. However, if you look at the last two thousand years the cooling trend is flatter, with less sign of a cooling signal, and a whopping great leap at the end representing the past 150 years.

Now, if you want to cast doubt on the science of paleoclimatology, please feel free - it's a free internet. Short of sitting down with you and thrashing through every calculation and every statistical method, I doubt that you'd ever see it as I see it.

But if we completely ignore temperature reconstructions and only look at the global temperature instrumental record, we have 100, maybe 150 years of reliable data. You can fantasise about a global conspiracy involving every meteorologist there has ever been in some code of silence, but assuming you are not that stupid, the measurements are unequivocal.

Global mean temperatures have been rising over the past century.

Answer 15

I personally think global average temerature is warming, but that is my opinion.  Everybody has a different opinion, but the people who disagree with it are on.. a drug or something.  There is proof that the temeratures are warming (not very fast, about almost 1 degree each year).  I think that personally, the polar ice caps will melt in about a billion years from now.  =]

Answer 16

Yes, I do...just look at Alaska for instance, their temperature has raise like two degrees in the past few years and their ice is getting thinner each year and taking longer to turn to ice after spring and summer.  It has been said that by one glacier melting, it could cause terrible consequences for the planet and the people and animals that live on it.  Watch the movie "The Day After Tomorrow"....that is what will happen to us if we don't start changing soon!!!!

Answer 17

Yes, the amount is small, but we can already see the effects of the higher temperatures. We've had some crazy weather patterns that are causing crops to fail and weird climate shifts all over. It's also supposed to be causing all the stronger storms.

Answer 18

yes it is. is it our fault. no, it isnt. the globe and its climate are a highly complex and dynamic system which we have barely any understanding of. little people realize how quickly global changes occur NATURALLY. 6000 years ago a glacier covered all of california.... and 6000 yrs is a rather short time in the earth's life. the negligible alteration by 60 ppm of C)2 levels could hardly have caused such increases in temperature. considering venus is 97% CO2 and has a temperature of 864 degrees F,  would mean an increase of 8 degrees for every percent of CO2 in the atmosphere (not exactly true, because there are many factors we dont understand, but based on pure assumption) we have not altered our C02 concentration much. if our atmospheric composition was a football field, a pencil laying sideways represents C02 levels.

essentially, GLOBAL CLIMATE CRISIS is a scam, a hoax, set up by the government and the media to retain its control over its viewers and keep us in a state of fearing. from the cold war, to terrorism (including the color coded TERROR ALERT) to Y2K and ebola scares, even eugenics (the elimination of those with unfit genes in the human gene pool.. thats right, n**i... aryan race... and we supported german scientists until 3 months into WW2), all of these factors play ito our psyche and help to control our mindsets. there is no threat, only fear, which helps our leaders rule.