Global Warming? Is it really a big issue? I watched this video on youtube and it really hit home.?

Question

Can someone tell me the effect global warming will have on the world. When will these changes take place? Have we got enough time to change it? I'm really considering not having children purely based on the fact i dont want them to enter into such a hostile world where things like hurricane catriona become the norm!

Help someone! Should i be panicking like this, i'm seriously going out of my mind here....

(This is the direct link for the video btw http://youtube.com/watch?v=bDsIFspVzfI )

Answer 1

What needs to be understood is that the guy on the camera is trying to be seen by the world.  He's come out with a well executed tape with a strong request for some action.  This is a very good persuasive video.

However, I doubt if he really even cares about the issue.  Technology has allowed everyday people to become celebrities.

No need to panic at all.

Answer 2

MKA:

You have heard of Al Gore getting the Nobel Prize , right? And the group he shared it with, the IPCC, the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change?

the IPCC report to the UN and the whole palnet was:

The WORST sceanario, the WORST case:

in one hundred years:

one foot rise in the ocean

one degree rise in temperature.

Does that sound bad to you?

Answer 3

Go ahead and have children.

Yes, it's a big issue. Yes, if we don't begin to take action soon, it will have long-term catastrophic effects. But it will take many, many decades before the worst happens. So the good news is, YES WE CAN mitigate climate change, if we act now to reduce our carbon emissions.

We've done similar things in the past, when nations acted together to reduce sulfur emissions worldwide, and that worked. And nations have banded together to reduce the CFC emissions that cause the ozone hole, and that worked too. So yes, it's possible. What we need is a large-scale R&D program to find ways to live on non-fossil fuels. That starts at the bottom with grassroots support, and at the top with leaders who recognize the seriousness of the issue and are willing to act on it.

Answer 4

I agree...you shouldn't have children.

Answer 5

Lock your doors, the aliens are coming to get you.

Answer 6

This is very good. We have to have a grass roots movement: But we must be educated!

We have the technology to move past the carbon debate. We do not have time to go through the government red tape. With oil on the decline, we have to make massive changes, swiftly. But we have to take the time to get it right. We can not do this twice, or three times - like in the past; we have to put our money in the best return on investments and where we get multiple benefits. We have had most of this technology for 20 years but have not implemented it. We know what is cost effective; we know where we need better technology. Without governments mandating renewable resources that do not harm the environment, we are doomed. The fossil fuel depression with global warming will be the worst economic downturn in world history. But this is not doom and gloom; we have the ability to fix our mess and enough time. Solar Concentrating Electric Power Plants, wind, wave, small hydro-electric, geothermal, and nuclear energy are what we need. We must have a pollution surcharge where we pay the real price (health effects, global warming and cleanup) for oil, natural gas, coal, cigarettes, cooling towers, cars, trains and airplanes. Raising the price of fossil fuel today gives us more time to solve these problems and helps pay for the 20 Trillion Dollars worth of renewable energy over the next 10 years. 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.

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 global warming. Oil is a nonrenewable resource and we are running out-but not soon – anyone now want to pay $30 per gallon for gas. The problem is the oil will be gone in less than 30 years at present rates of consumption without projected increases and shortages (gone at least to run cars, heat homes, power electric plants or air travel). The 2% Solution is ok for the USA for a 10 year plan to cut 20%, but I would prefer a 5% Solution over the next 10 years for a 50% reduction. At the same time, we have to be building renewable energy so at the end of 10 years we can cut an additional 20%. 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. Over the next 90 years carbon dioxide is projected to skyrocket as human’s burn more fossil fuels, but we have to come up with what will take its place and 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.

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 food from out side the USA to send to starving people since our grain is not available. Now what USA Presidential candidate is giving you the facts so you can make an educated decision of which one to vote for?

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 we are far behind).

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. Watch for changes in the sight coming soon.

Answer 7

Please don't panic!  Did you watch the entire video?  Our future will lie somewhere within those four boxes, depending on the realities of climate change and human's decisions to take action.  Only half of the outcome of the future lies in the control of humans to take action according to this diagram(the part about how the world works, about the realities of climate change).   This half is beyond human control, as we never know what effect our actions can have and can never have complete control over all the forces of nature.  

But the other half is in our control.  We CAN make changes to alter this course that we are on and create a more wonderful world for future generations to live.  And it isn't as hard and baffling as some might have us believe.  We can start making change today by doing all the little things we don't think about: driving less than we need to, buying flourescent bulbs, taking our own sacks to the supermarket, halving our intake of meat for other sources of protein that are more healthy anyway.  In the near future, we can change our ways of life in larger ways, driving cars that burn a third as much fossil fuels, developing economies and technologies that are environmentally friendly, and maybe even producing technology that alters damages already done( those damages that can be altered).

We've already altered the environment in tumultous ways, leading to increasing natural disasters, increased droughts, problems for many species.  But it is also true we can change our ways to prevent even worse changes to take place.

Even if humanity were to continue on this present course(God forbid!!!)--tripling the amount of C02 in the atomsphere this century, doubling our current population once more to 14 billion when only a century ago it was at 2 billion, there would still be hope for future generations.  Worldwide catastrophes may be likely to reset the fragile balance of nature we've disrupted.  But it is also likely that technology might help us to create levels of beauty and health for ourselves and other life we have not known before.  Today scientists are starting to uncover the most fundamental parts of the human genome, and technology has advanced four-fold.  I may be saying this prematurely, but it also seems likely we will not be staying on this planet long.  Within the next century we may be taking life to other worlds never inhabited before.  Soon we might be colonizing the moon or Mars.

Don't give your hopes up!  Certainly don't panic.  Future generations will remember us for how we approached this time of doom.  It'd be tragic and saddening to continue with "business as usual" like there are no real threats, but to give up on having any life at all would be just as foolish.  Past generations also faced times of pain and doom similar to ours(World wars, threats of nuclear war and even annihlation to name a few in our past century), but fought to live life as fully as possible so that future generations( us) could have the opportunities and freedoms we do now.

The trick is to live life based on your greatest dreams.  What do you want the future to look like?  Imagine, then find out what you can do to make that future a reality for your children and grandchildren.

A few good sources to help you start are Al Gore's An Inconvient Truth(tells all about the reality of climate change but also what you can do to make a difference) .   Also, a realistic guide on effects and paths to change is Global Warming a Brief Introduction.  These are a few of many others.

Answer 8

Gobal Warning saved our lives this winter. It is freezing here and you supposed to cover your face if you go outside. It's so cold the weather channel is all red. Snow after snow, bitter Artic like windchills , the invasion of our homes by nasty little critters that resemble fieldmice, is the legacy of this year's terrible cold. And deaths on the icy highways with little or no visibility, the NORMAL SPIKE IN WINTERTIME VS OTHERTIME DEATHS times two, and broken bones and missed work and school, dog walks that could turn dangerous and dogs that refuse to walk. But if it wasn't for global warming we'd all be dead.

Let's celebrate this phenomena and maybe it will come back before the new ice age comes.

Answer 9

The changes are taking place now and the rate of change is  faster than was earlier forecast causing increasing concern among the scientific community. It is serious but there it is better to be well informed and keep abreast of the science and the reporting than to panic and avoid leading a normal life.  Here in Canada there have been good documentaries on the topic on CBC, home produced, from the BBC and just yesterday evening there was an excellent Australian one , 'Crude', ostensibly about oil and linking the expected downturn in oil supplies with global warming ,now and in pre-history, and an impending world energy shortage.

Go to the BBC website where use of the links will provide you with basic current & past reporting on the topic, and the initial measures being taken in Europe to alleviate it

Answer 10

no, everything is fine, get some more koolaid.