Doesn't the Earth change climates periodically throughout its years?

Question

And if so, are humans to blame for the climate change? Or is it really just a natural evolution of Earth?

Answer 1

Yes, and yes. If you remember from history and science they told us that billions of years ago dinosaurs roamed the planted. Well, it also says that the "Ice Age" wiped most of them out (Lizards lived). I think that that's what's happenig now. But Global Warming is just making go faster. Mother Nature is fixing the planet. We all won't die! Just some of us will.

Answer 2

Do you know which is the timescale of natural occuring climate shifts?

Do you know what is the timescale of the present climate change?

I do not given any opinion but this is KEY TO UNDERSTANDING.

I encourage you to research it.

Answer 3

The earths temp is very constant from day to day, month to month, year to year, century to century.  That is why this climate change is so shocking.

Answer 4

EXACTLY!

The population of Earth contributes a meager 4% to so called Global Warming

BTW... The Globe has not warmed even a fraction of a degree in the past 10 years.

Answer 5

well there is many view points to this.

climates do change and poles do shift and oceans rise and lands flood, it gets hotter it gets colder, there is nothing new about that so yes nature does change the cycles of the earth.

now to think that all the pollutants humans put on this earth has no affect on our planet, well that is ridiculous.

Humans do cause change on earth. Now there were studies done and this one particular study found that humans produce about half of the pollution that one mid size volcano  eruption causes.

so our affects are very minimal in comparison to what mother nature already causes. but we do add to it.

so i would that it is natural evolution of the earth and nature especially when you consider that humans and all of our creations are part of nature and this planet as a whole.

Answer 6

Yes it does...and it coincides perfectly with solar activity cycles.  It just so happens this warming trend mirrors the "Modern Maximum", an unusually high level of solar activity unseen in over a thousand years.

Answer 7

It is a natural process for Earth to go through, but it shouldn't be happening this quickly.

The Earth naturally goes through cycles of Global Warming, Global Flooding, and Global Cooling (ice ages).

Answer 8

Sure.  But the data clearly proves that THIS PARTICULAR WARMING is mostly caused by us.

"I wasn’t convinced by a person or any interest group—it was the data that got me. I was utterly convinced of this connection between the burning of fossil fuels and climate change. And I was convinced that if we didn’t do something about this, we would be in deep trouble.”

Vice Admiral Richard H. Truly, USN (Ret.)

Former NASA Administrator, Shuttle Astronaut

Here are two summaries of the mountain of peer reviewed data that convinced Admiral Truly and the vast majority of the scientific community, short and long.

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

http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1-report....

summarized at:

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

There's a lot less controversy about this is the real world than there is on Yahoo answers:

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/a...

And vastly less controversy in the scientific community than you might guess from the few skeptics talked about here:

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

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

EVERY major scientific organization has issued an official statement that this is real, and mostly caused by us.  The National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute of Physics, the American Chemical Society, the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Association, etc.

Good websites for more info:

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

http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/sci...

http://www.realclimate.org

"climate science from climate scientists"

http://environment.newscientist.com/chan...

Answer 9

It doesn't matter whether global warming is man made or just a cycle in the earth's history .... it is happening. Between solar processes or natural earth processes such as volcanoes and the ever present forest fires which will be argued to have occurances whether or not mankind were present. It still just doesn't matter how it is happening, it is.

FACT: "Atmospheric levels of CO2 are determined by how much coal, natural gas and oil we burn and how many trees we cut down, as well as by natural processes like plant growth. Atmospheric levels of water vapor, on the other hand, cannot be directly controlled by people; rather, they are determined by temperatures. The warmer the atmosphere, the more water vapor it can hold. As a result, water vapor is part of an amplifying effect. Greenhouse gases like CO2 warm the air, which in turn adds to the stock of water vapor, which in turn traps more heat and accelerates warming."

http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=1011

We have gone past the point of no return unless we can build improvements to assist in reflecting light away from the earth.

First you have to understand how long the earth has been storing up the fossil fuels. The coal, oil and natural gas that we are using now are products of the earth converting plants and animals into their present forms over (often) millions of years. They have been stored now for millions of years without being used until now. By being used now, we are converting these fuels from stored carbon, into released carbon. Thus allowing this released carbon to act as a greenhouse effect gas again.

Since we are talking about a situation where the Earth once had a lot of stored carbon and now that stored carbon is disappearing at a tremendous rate (and will continue into the future) We can be truthful in saying that there is a definite trend, and relationship in the increase of greenhouse gasses. We can also say that these greenhouse gasses would not have been released without the intervention of man. Logically therefore we can say that global warming gasses have been released and any global warming increases are directly attributed to mankind’s releasing them.

The damage done by increased greenhouse emissions has already taken its toll. This is evident by the melting of polar ice and glaciers across the globe. Some will say that there is no such thing as global warming, because there is in their opinion very little change in the average global temperature. However when you take into account the fact that there is less ice, and snow, because of the melting of polar ice and glaciers across the globe. That melted ice, snow and glaciers across the globe will in themselves temporarily lower the overall ocean temperatures untill they all melt. Thereby lowering the average temperatures on the earth. So if you account for that, the temperature can be proven to be increasing.

We cannot get the world back the way it was, even as of fifty years ago, much less stop the damage that will still occur in the future. Sure we could try to stop all industry that will cause pollution, but at what cost. Without industry we could not sustain the present world population. Giving up industry and sacrificing billions of people on this planet in the process, is not a viable solution (even trying to merely lower greenhouse emissions is at best a temporary solution).

The biggest problem we have now is not just the fact that we have more greenhouse gasses trapping heat in, but we are getting less and less sunlight being reflected out from the planet. As the snow cover melts from more and more of the planets surface, the sunlight heats up more parts of the earth that once reflected light back out. It is like a dog chasing its tail (until it gets dizzy and falls from exhaustion). As global warming just keeps building on itself till the ecological balance fails, and this planet will no longer sustain the teeming human populations.

Greenhouse effect cure (there are no real cures but this may help till we can find one). First I want to point out that there are no real, viable short term, or easy methods of curing our Global warming woes. The damage to the environment has already been done and is, for all intent and purposes, basically irreversible. It is likely, however, that any type of plan to get rid of Global warming, will require some type of dramatic ecological compromises.

Some will say that all we need to do is give up industry on the planet and the world will eventually go back to the way it was. I say it is too late for that solution (as a short term solution anyway).

My plan, however, will require the use of old tires and recycled plastics. Of course it will require some engineering feats also, and a few ecological compromises. The benefits of using these wasted products will far outweigh the compromises required.

My idea is to build large floating islands (white on top, to reflect sunlight back out of our planet) made from used tires (filled with co2) and recycled plastics. Yes there are engineering and ecological problems, but everyone has to admit there are worse problems in our current situation. So the only feasible solution is to build a bunch of artificial reflection "islands" across the planet.

We can also try to get more people to use reflecting surfaces on buildings (which will be as difficult to do, as no one likes to have to do things exactly the same as everyone else).

There will be other benefits realized, once we build enough of these islands. One of the problems associated with the increased temperatures we are experiencing is the possibility of increased hurricane intensity and frequency. Having enough of these floating islands in strategic points in the oceans will help to alleviate this problem also. It is a well known fact that hurricanes form in areas of the ocean where the temperature rises above approximately 80 degrees Fahrenheit. If we can keep those areas below that temperature (by reflecting sunlight away), we can prevent the formation of hurricanes. Without these floating islands, hurricanes will probably continue to increase in intensity and frequency…

We need a solution to deal with our Global warming woes, and we need it now. Even if this is a difficult path to follow, it will pay off in the future. The overall problems I see for Greenhouse effect is that we can go green all we want, but Global warming and our constant desire to be comfortable, will eventually undermine any efforts we may do. Unless we can get rid of some of the excess heat in this world, we will always be under the eventual threat of a thermal overheating demise.

Answer 10

yes periodic changes in tempature and climate occur naturally

Answer 11

Humans are in no way responsible for climate changes.  They are 100% natural occurences.

Answer 12

YES! Iti s a natural occurance.

Answer 13

It is a mixture of both forces in my opinion.

Answer 14

Yes the sun has a cycle of 22 years.

Answer 15

Yes, the main causes of natural climate change are variations in the Sun's output and changes in the Earth's orbital cycles around the Sun.

However, scientists have studied these natural causes and ruled them out as potential causes for the current global warming.  Solar output has remained essentially unchanged on average over the past 30 years, and we're in a stable (and slightly cooling) portion of the Earth's orbital cycles.

Please see the link below for further details.