How big of a problem is global warming?

Question

I've heard that most scientists agree that global warming is real, but not everyone agrees about what should be done about it. I'm not sure exactly what this means, maybe that some think its a natural process and others think is completely caused by us?

Also, are the solutions to global warming all simply better for the environment anyway? I've always thought that regardless of its veracity, its still a movement that cleans up the planet. Or are there aspects that are just a waste of money?

Anyway, I'd like to know your stance and why. Links would be helpful too!

Answer 1

GLOBAL WARMING=DEATH.

Answer 2

you can say it can be the cause of the end of human era

Answer 3

I'm a skeptic so you shouldn't trust me cause i'm seen like a holacaust denier. Noone believes me its like i'm saying the earth's round back in the medieval ages!

Answer 4

how big? what!! doesn't  people now a days think of others? of course its big!!.. not only that most of the people living  in earth will suffer but the whole earth will suffer as well. as of now 75% of the earth is liquid water.. of the global warming continues, it would be like 95 to 98% of the entire earth's land will sink down to the the seas, the hardest part is that people can't survive with out land. how on earth will we live when all you see is water huh!. when the Antarctic ices will melt most probably land will become extinct. All will be covered by water.. and that will be the biggest problem of mankind..

Answer 5

Unfortunately really big problem especially in next 2 decade

Answer 6

There is currently no evidence that man has made any significant contribution to climate change.

Some interesting facts.

1. During most of the past 2,000 years, the temp has been about the same or higher. Currently, we are barely over the average for the last 2,000 years.

http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index....

2. During the medieval warm period (820 – 1040 AD), Greenland supported farming. Those areas previously farmed are now covered in glaciers. Obviously the melting and reformation of glaciers is a cyclical occurrence.

3. The earth experienced a little ice age which ended around the late 1860's or so. This is about the time man started recording temperatures. This would be like measuring a lake depth after a severe drought, then worrying about it flooding as it rose to normal levels.

4. The earth has been warming for the last 18,000 years, since the last major glacier time period. During this time frame, the glaciers have been melting at a fairly consistent rate. Also, for most of the last 1 billion years, the earth had NO glaciers or ice coverage.

http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/i...

5. The AGW theory states that CO2 is the primary driver of temperature. They arrived at this idea because they did not know of anything else which could cause it. But during the 70's and during the current decade, temperatures dropped while CO2 continued to rise. This means that natural occurrences are driving temp, not CO2.

6. The Pacific Decadal Oscillation and sun spots provides a much better correlation to earths' temperature than CO2 levels ever have.

http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/200...

http://motls.blogspot.com/2004/09/sunspo...

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/sppi_r...

7. Polar Bears are experiencing a population boom. Coke sales in the arctics are through the roof. Polar Bears have been around for thousands of years, and remember, we are only at the average for the last 2,000 years. They lived through all the previously warmer climates.

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/...

8. Many glaciers are expanding. Even Antarctica is growing on 98% of is land mass. Only 2% is melting.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1...

9. There is no consensus on AGW. This was a lie that has been propagated by the media.

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/monckt...

10. Yes we emit CO2 into the atmosphere and it is a greenhouse gas, but, we only contribute about .28% of all the greenhouse effect. Water vapor makes up about 95% of the greenhouse effect. CO2 and other trace gases round out the greenhouse gases at about 5% for all of them. Of that 5%, only 3% is CO2, and most of that is natural. Again, our contribution to the greenhouse effect is a paltry .28%

http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenh...

11. The spread of disease is not attributed mainly to temperature. If this were the case, Florida would be a giant festering disease ridden cesspool. Economic standing is the primary determining factor in the spread of disease. Poor cultures can not fight the disease or eradicate the pests like more successful nations.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12077886...

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.h...

12. Natural climate disasters (hurricanes, cyclones, etc) have never been scientifically linked to global warming (whether natural or man made).

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppa...

http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?i...

Answer 7

It ranks right up there with the ever-present threat of contracting cooties.

The sun causes climate change.  It always has, always will.  We are currently in the middle of a period of extreme solar activity, called the Modern Maximum.  Solar activity of this magnitude has not been seen in a thousand years.  It's no surprise the Earth has warmed in response.

The "Global Warming" movement would suggest the sun is relatively constant, and man is responsible for most of the warming taking place.  It claims an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is causing the warming, and our burning of fossil fuels is the culprit.

If CO2 is not the culprit, any and all measures taken to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere will have NO benefit to the planet.  In fact, it will make life MORE difficult for plants as CO2 is as important to plants as oxygen is to us.  Worse yet, focusing on a natural cycle as if it were a problem to solve takes attention and funding away from REAL pollution problems, like cleaning up our waterways.

Answer 8

In the past Dinosaurs go extinct in the present day human era in the near future human will be extinct human era will be gone forever.....

Answer 9

The biggest. We are effectively destroying any chance of the Earth - this amazing, infinitely unlikely, indescribably precious place - surviving into the future. Any action we can do to curb global warming, on the individual level or the governmental level, is ALWAYS beneficial. No amount of money is ever "wasted" on trying to ensure that the world goes on existing.

Changes in temperature have occurred throughout history, but there is generally consensus among most of the scientific community that the global warming that we are experiencing now is DEFINITELY being induced by human activity.

Have a look at this:

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2001/...

Answer 10

Global warming is a overexactoraed lie.

the problem with global warming is too much CO2 yet we only produce less than 2% of total a year.  too much CO2 is bad but CO2 is good.  think of the trees and crops. they need CO2 to live.   we are not destroying the earth, if any thing we are helping it.  the earth may be heating up, but it is from natural occurances.  I personally believe that we will see an iceage before the earth completely covered from water.  Just think about this.  When the earth was in a ice age, all covered with ice. How did it warm up, there was no factories with its smog to cause global warming.   It was a orbit transitition that changes through out time, and no, the earth is not perfect in staying in course, it will change.  what is happening now is just a change in the earths position of orbit around the sun. nothing dramasitc is going to happen and nothing we can do it going to change anything.

Answer 11

most scientists say global warming is bull ****, so i don't know where you're getting your information.

Answer 12

the council of rome debated this question in the 60's, and decided initially that they should push the idea of a global ice age.  then Time and Newsweek started running stories about global cooling, but the data wasn't adding up.

the sun is actually approaching a solar maximum, and is slightly heating up every planet in our solar system.  

global warming will quit only when the sun quits, and human activity has had zero effect on our planet's average temperatures.

it appears to me that powerful people are using this issue to scare liberals the same way they use terrorists and boogie men dictators in the middle east to scare conservatives.  it's about control.

check out the NASA research about the polar ice caps on Mars melting, and the council of rome documents showing how they discussed what to do to gain control of people.

Answer 13

It's offically time to panic.

Answer 14

Global warming is not a problem at all, it's the Earth doing what it does with or without human activity.  Most solutions for global warming are costly and ineffective, and don't really get to the root of the problem:  Drive less and put bulbs with dangerous "unEarthfriendly" metals in your house.  I mean, if it were that easy, Al Gore wouldn't be telling us to pay him anything.

Answer 15

You might be able to see it with an electron scanning microscope.