Global Warming Opinions?

Question

I'm just looking for opinions on Global Warming, do you think it's really happening? a myth? etc.

Personally I think Global Warming is just a way of the government scaring us into paying them more money. The Earth is just going through it's cyclical course of life...I used this example once: Did the Ice Age happen because the mammoths weren't producing enough fur? No. So does that mean that carbon emissions are the reason for the Earth rising in temperature?

Anyways I'm doing a research paper on this so any in depth thought out answers are appreciated.

Answer 1

First of all, the current warming is blamed on CO2, which has only a tenuous link to warming. It comprises a miniscule fraction of our atmosphere and a tiny amount of the Earth's temp is from CO2 trapping infrared radiation inside the atmosphere. The IPCC bases all it's claims on CO2 so it's important to understand it's impact. It's .04% of our atmosphere, it's got the weakest global warming potential of all the greenhouse gases, and it's been far higher than current levels in the past without any catastrophic results. It was 10 times higher than now during an ice age in the past, shown by the first link below.

In a laboratory you can demonstrate many things that just don't work the same in the outside world. Add CO2 to a chamber and irradiate it, measure the result. But in the real world, that CO2 may be absorbed or used in the ocean, by plant cycles, by many things. And each additional CO2 molecule has less impact than the one before it, it's not a linear relationship even in a lab setting. Nearly all of the warming is from water vapor in the atmosphere trapping radiation from our sun. So claiming solar output isn't an important factor is very curious to me and we can't measure it's impact nearly as well as Bob claims. It's not just a matter of how much light or radiation it emits, it's solar wind and sunspots that can impact us, too, the gravitational effect of Jupiter is important but we're not sure exactly how.

The simple fact is that if the debate is about CO2 then there is no consensus that we're heading for disaster. The only consensus, even in the IPCC reports, is that human activity creates greenhouse gases that are very likely to raise the temperature, but we're not sure by how much or even how much they've actually risen in the past. They began the count from the end of the Little Ice Age, so most of the warming is almost certainly nothing but a natural recovery from that period.

I could list a lot of names and organizations like Bob did, but scientists have been wrong many times in the past and now it appears that many have been co-opted by the research grants and study subsidies that only seem to go to those who produce the desired results. Often, the report says something quite different from what makes it into the summary and conclusions, as if to ensure future funding. Is it suspicious to wonder why there is so much desperation over a period of minor warming that seems to have stopped in 1998? I think so.

You could also argue that we don't know how much warming we've experienced since many of the US surface stations have been placed in a manner that violates NOAA guidelines and presumably that problem extends beyond the US. Curiously, all of the violations appear to err on the side of exaggerating the warming by placing the thermometer over a parking lot or by the outlet for an AC unit. Also downplayed is the fact that in the US the warmest years were in the 1930s, tying or exceeding the 1990s, which was only discovered when an "error" was found in data from the NASA GISS, run by James Hansen, the founder of the current global warming concerns. See Steve McIntyre's site, climateaudit for info on that.

Answer 2

Dan, in doing research it's best to start with an open mind. It you are predisposed toward one conclusion, your paper will suffer for it.  Play Devil's Advocate, if you will, but do make an attempt to be balanced and your grade will reflect that.

I've been researching too, and have found dozens upon dozens of solid sites with information that helps those doing papers and could contribute to solutions on this impending crisis.

Your government may be dragging its feet and slowing down international efforts, but many agencies have well-funded programs, and the work our universities are doing is nothing to be ashamed of, either.

Good luck with your paper, and have fun with the sites.

Answer 3

Global warming and global cooling have been gathering scientific research grants, selling newspapers, and promoting political agendas since 1898.  Yes, over 110 years and going strong.  The only difference this time is the large amount of media coverage available to the average person.

Instead of 3 channels that we watched maybe 5 hours a week, we now have 400 channels of 'round-the-clock' news lemmings that are afraid that if they don't cover what everyone else covers they may loose their remaining 5% of the audience to the internet, which also carries the same stuff.

Global warming to me is simply the boy who cried "Wolf" one too many times.

Answer 4

The stock broker that makes a few lucky calls is famous for a few weeks, then his luck runs out.  We never hear from him again (except for his weekly newsletters), and he is rich.  Not that climate change is the same (however, "global warming" is used much the same to scam people for ill-gotten profits), but the principals will prove similar.  The earth (like the stock market) has experienced much wider swings in temperature than what we are seeing.  We've no reason to think it would stay the same forever.  Nevertheless, we shouldn't abuse our home.  It would be great if we could affect the climate for the benefit of civilization.  We should do what we can (within reason) to preserve resources and improve our home for generations to come!

Answer 5

Real, mostly caused by us.  The proof is in the links below.  First, let me answer you about the previous changes.  

They were caused by increases in solar radiation.  We know that's not happening now because we measure the Sun.

"Recent oppositely directed trends in solar

climate forcings and the global mean surface

air temperature", Lockwood and Frolich (2007), Proc. R. Soc. A

doi:10.1098/rspa.2007.1880

http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/media/pro...

News article at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6290228.st...

On to the present warming.

This is science and what counts is the data, not rhetoric.

"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 6

In my opinion i think its real. Ive seen so many people disrespect the earth in horrible way by wasting water, electricity, & making so much garbage instead of recycling some. At least you do have to admit it is our fault there is alot of garbage on earth. Good luck with your paper! :D

Answer 7

it is real. it is not caused by us. it is a part of the earths natural cycles. the idea that it is caused by us is just a way of scamming us and getting our money.