Global Warming..really happening?

Question

Is global warming real? I usually don't trust politicians, the media and scientist as history thought us, many times they have failed in their predicitons(Y2K bug anyone?They scared us all into thing the world was going to collapse!)Plus the weather man can't do a 100% correct predicition of weather over a 3 day period...and we are talking about changes over a 30 year period.

Answer 1

OK, heres the low-down. Global warming is happening... it's always been around in a cycle of global cooling, and warming, the claims made by people who think this is a huge issue, refer to the fact that we contribute to it. Basically, the fact is that even IF we were to stop ALL production and consumption of fossil fuels, and everyone  used alternatives, we would have maybe a 7% impact.  (and none of their studies even consider the possible effects of clouds cooling and warming the earth)

Answer 2

Yes.  First, note that Y2K was a very real problem that took thousands of programmers and billions of dollars to fix.  The only thing was they weren't confident enough.  And that long term climate is easier to predict than short term weather, where the data is "noisy".  Situations like that occur very often in science.  Radioactivity is a good example.

This is science and what counts is the data.

"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...

"There's a better scientific consensus on this [climate change] than on any issue I know...  Global warming is almost a no-brainer at this point.  You really can't find intelligent, quantitative arguments to make it go away."

Dr. Jerry Mahlman, NOAA

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 3

Possibly, but there's no proof that humans affect it at all.

In fact, there's a company that will pay anyone a million dollars if they can prove humans cause climate change.

No one has won it so far.  I wonder why?

Answer 4

Yes.

Don't confuse weather (local, short term variations) with climate, the long term trends that determine what survives in local ecosystems (including the food that you eat).

The progression in scientific understanding is explained in detail on this site:

http://www.aip.org/history/climate/co2.h...

Impacts of Global Warming

http://www.aip.org/history/climate/impac...

The Discovery of Global Warming

http://www.aip.org/history/climate/index...

The author Spencer R. Weart is Director of the Center for History of Physics of the American Institute of Physics (AIP) in College Park, Maryland.  His own informed conclusions regarding global warming are posted here:

http://www.aip.org/history/climate/SWnot...

Here are summaries of some of their latest research into carbon cycle science and what to do to mitigate the damage, which is being conducted across more than a dozen federal agencies:

http://co2conference.org/agenda.asp

http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sa...

So the investment in preventing the Y2K bug reduced the damage.  That's evidence that catastrophes can be prevented with adequate investigation, forethought, investment, and action.  It's also evidence that making such an investment in prevention often does not involve debilitating economic consequences.

Answer 5

1)  Yes, global warming is really happening...it's the average temperature trend since the last Ice Age.  The Earth's temperature has NEVER been constant.  Given the choice between global warming and global cooling, warming supports a LOT more life.

2)  My in-laws went nuts over Y2K...tried to get my wife and I to do the same.  The OFFICIAL stance published by any government agency was to prepare for Y2K like you would for a hurricane.  The estimated duration was approximately 2 weeks.  The media, and those who stood to profit from it, preached the doom and gloom...much like global warming.

3)  Man's contribution to global warming is minuscule.  If man had never discovered oil or coal, the Earth would STILL be warming.  The IPCC has said as much.  The feel-good initiatives proposed thus far will have no effect...but they will get politicians elected and businesses/charities tons of money...all at our expense.  Don't trust them.