Global warming, or pure coincidence?

Question

Global warming, or pure coincidence?

Answer 1

its happening all around most just havent noticed yet

Answer 2

Global warming is real!!!

Answer 3

There are many basic scientific facts which can only be explained if the current global warming is being caused by an increased greenhouse effect due to carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere from humans burning fossil fuels.

For example, the planet is warming as much or more during the night than day.  If the warming were due to the Sun, the planet should warm a lot more during the day when the Sun has influence.  Greenhouse gases trap heat all the time, so they warm the planet regardless of time of day.  Another example is that the upper atmosphere is cooling because the greenhouse gases trap the heat in the lower atmosphere.  If warming were due to the Sun, it would be warming all layers of the atmosphere.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

We know it's warming, and we've measured how much:

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science...

Scientists have a good idea how the Sun and the Earth's natural cycles and volcanoes and all those natural effects change the global climate, so they've gone back and checked to see if they could be responsible for the current global warming.  What they found is:

Over the past 30 years, all solar effects on the global climate have been in the direction of (slight) cooling, not warming.  This is during a very rapid period of global warming.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/62902...

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

So the Sun certainly isn't a large factor in the current warming.  They've also looked at natural cycles, and found that we should be in the middle of a cooling period right now.

"An often-cited 1980 study by Imbrie and Imbrie determined that 'Ignoring anthropogenic and other possible sources of variation acting at frequencies higher than one cycle per 19,000 years, this model predicts that the long-term cooling trend which began some 6,000 years ago will continue for the next 23,000 years.'"

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

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

So it's definitely not the Earth's natural cycles.  They looked at volcanoes, and found that

a) volcanoes cause more global cooling than warming, because the particles they emit block sunlight

b) humans emit over 150 times more CO2 than volcanoes annually

http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/Gases/man....

So it's certainly not due to volcanoes.  Then they looked at human greenhouse gas emissions.  We know how much atmospheric CO2 concentrations have increased over the past 50 years:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mauna...

And we know from isotope ratios that this increase is due entirely to human emissions from burning fossil fuels.  We know how much of a greenhouse effect these gases like carbon dioxide have, and the increase we've seen is enough to have caused almost all of the warming we've seen over the past 30 years (about 80-90%).  You can see a model of the various factors over the past century here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Clima...

This is enough evidence to convince almost all climate scientists that humans are the primary cause of the current global warming.

Answer 4

I love this -

"Yes, global warming is a "natural phenomenon" however, we must look at the evidence" ... and then the writer takes off on the evils of emissions.

So ... can we then drop the entire "global warming" claim and get back to the core issue of controlling waste and waste emissions? I, for one, am getting VERY perturbed at the massive pollution China has been cranking out lately. And the Old Soviet Union left a lot of areas that are still thoroughly contaminated and unlivable. Huge cancer rates that far out-strip the horror stories of Love Canal and 3 Mile Island. Brazil is burning down their jungle far faster than it will ever be replaced while the US has more forestland now than we had 100 years ago.

Thank goodness, we can finally stop this man-made global warming issue and begin dealing with the pollution issues again.

Answer 5

it's a scam.

volcanos put out more in one eruption than we on earth do in 15 years... are we gonna plug up all the volcanos??

Al Gore uses more electricity in one of his homes in Tennesee than the average village block does on any given night.

He can make money in "green" so of course he's gonna spew on about this global warming stuff... it benefits HIS WALLET.

we are in our coldest and snowiest winter since the 1950's here... I'd love mr gore to come survive a michigan winter and tell me all about his global warming c**p.

When I was little they talked about another "ice age" on the way... and I think that is more likely than global warming is.

Answer 6

It is not man made in any way and anyone who thinks it is caused by man is a communist.

Answer 7

This day and age is different from the past. Therefore we had non pollutants back then  like  we do today. We are slowly killing ourselves Hoping and praying the Past would repeat before we meet  our future dooming  us . Not enough people are paying attention to MOTHER.

We have progressed so much in the same token we have regressed.

Answer 8

Yes, global warming is a "natural phenomenon" however, we must look at the evidence.

Any increase in global temperature in 350 million years of documented climate history from ice cores, ocean cores and swamp cores shows a significant increase in either carbon dioxide or methane prior to that change in climate.

The carbon dioxide levels in our current atmosphere mostly from human causes, is much higher than is "normal" for the earth, and can have unknown consequences.

50 years of weather and temperature studies in Hawaii have concrete evidence in increases in global temperature.  

The arctic ice sheets are melting at extreme rates, the greenland ice sheets and the glaciers in the mountains of tibet are receeding hundreds of feet each year, and are not being replaced by seasonal drops in temperature.  

You can call the poles (north and south) the earths air conditioner.  Without them, things don't cool down like ocean and surface temperature.  As the ocean temps increase, they release more carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.

Methane leaks off of landfills in ridiculous rates.  That's why recycling and composting makes so much sense - the less we put into landfills, the less contribution to that toxic soup we have.  

The results of these increases in greenhouse gases are as of yet unknown - but do we take a cross our fingers approach or a preventative approach.

It's like if you found you had cancer - would you cross your fingers and hope it went away - or would you do something to prevent and treat it......your choice.

Answer 9

Neither... It's called the sun.

Answer 10

No it is not.  It is not coincidence that the sun is the most active it has been for the last 10 000 years.

Answer 11

No way. its man made.

Were like cultured organisms on a petri dish as we multiply we drown ourselves in our waste and we better find a way to clean it.