How can global warming be a problem when...?

Question

Fossil fuels are irreplacable and due to run out in the next 200 years (oil much quicker). Consider also simple economics which will slow the use of oil far before then. Further consideration must be given to fission and near future fusion energy supplies which do not contribute to global warming. I'm much more worried about the raping of our seas and the slaughter of wildlife around us.

Answer 1

The global-average surface temperature has increased over the 20th century by about 0.6oC." How can you accurately make such fine measurements across the whole, varied planet? But it doesn't stop there: "Since the start of the satellite record in 1979, both satellite and weather balloon measurements show the global average temperature of the lowest 8 kilometres of the atmosphere has changed by +0.05 +/- 0.10oC per decade."

That's outrageous. The margin for error (0.10oC) is twice as high as the reading! Would you accept a car with a speedo that indicated that you were heading down the road at 180km/h while simultaneously saying maybe you were going backwards at 60km/h? In fact, the report shows the temperature of the atmosphere could have actually gone down by 0.05oC.

How much did those satellites and weather balloons cost in a world where children routinely die for want of the cheapest medicines? Next time you're measuring your 10-year-old's growth on the wall, you can say: "Well, we think you've grown by five centimetres, but you might have shrunk by five 'cause we're really not that good at measuring. But just in case you're growing too much, we'll stop feeding you. We will, of course, be spending your pocket money on further research."

And there's more: "The global average surface temperature has increased significantly by +0.15 +/- 0.05oC per decade. The difference in the warming rates is statistically significant [ie, it's a Big Problem for us but we can't explain it]. This difference occurs primarily over the tropical and subtropicalregions."

This means that on the surface, in some areas, the (fallible) people taking the readings - especially in progressively deforested and baked tropical areas - have found higher figures than the satellites, and since warming is the barrow we're pushing, we'll choose to focus on those findings, not on the satellites. And we'll totally ignore the fact that the planet's temperature changes naturally, so we've got a 50-50 chance of being right whatever we say.

But the most astonishing statements are about the supposedly shrinking Antarctic ice sheets and rising sea levels. Guess what? It's not happening. Apparently the ice cap is getting bigger and the rate of sea-level rise has not changed since industrialisation.

"The Antarctic ice sheet is likely to gain mass because of greater precipitation. No significant trends of Antarctic sea-ice extent are apparent since 1978, the period of reliable satellite measurements. Within present uncertainties, observations and models are both consistent with a lack of significant acceleration of sea level rise during the 20th century."

Hang on! Isn't the Antarctic ice sheet supposed to be shrinking and drowning everyone because of nasty old human-produced CO2? Isn't that what this is all about?

The document chooses to emphasise, in bold, all the likelihoods that the temperature is rising and that humans are to blame. At the same time it downplays material within the text which indicates: (i) they are not 100 per cent sure; (ii) the information is mixed; (iii) sampling is limited; (iv) there are still unknowns; and (v) significant parts of the research has margins of error that make it useless. And that there may, in fact, be no problem at all. But guess what these "many hundreds" of scientists who are earning a living researching the Greenhouse

Fiasco finally recommend? You got it: more research. The 10-year-old with the possible growth problems would see straight through that and have every right to say: "Not with my piggy bank, you don't." No wonder there are scientists who have refused to be associated with previous IPCC reports because of the cynical way they have been edited to keep the greenhouse bogy alive.

There is no mechanism through which carbon dioxide, which makes up a measly th of 1 per cent of the atmosphere, could be responsible for any current rise. Our planet is literally awash with a substance whose thermal capacity, and hence heat retention, outstrips virtually every other known substance: water. So how is such a small percentage of carbon dioxide responsible for anything? When I last posed that question, the previously vocal CSIRO remained deafeningly quiet. Fellas?

Chemical pollution, overpopulation, species depletion, human greed and misery are real problems on this planet, so let's not waste any more time jousting at windmills. I'm proud our Government stood up to this nonsense.

Answer 2

So why aren't governments trying to find re-placements for petrol in our cars?

Sea's cannot be raped, since they have no sexual organs.

Slaughter of wildlife is a natural process....it's called the food chain.

Answer 3

i just don't think it's real.

Answer 4

If you worry about our seas you need to worry about all the CO2 the oceans are sucking up. You can't wait until fossil fuel runs out. Alarming reports are showing that our oceans are becoming more acidic from all the CO2.

http://www.sciencenewsblog.com/cgi-bin/s...

So much for the "CO2 is good for life" argument coming from some skeptics. I too worry about our oceans.

Answer 5

The period 900 - 1200 AD has been called the Little Climatic Optimum, with temperatures 1 -2 degree Celsius higher than they are today. It represents the warmest climate since the Climatic Optimum. During this period, the Vikings established settlements on Greenland and Iceland. The snow line in the Rocky Mountains was about 370 meters above current levels. A period of cool and more extreme weather followed the Little Climatic Optimum. A great drought in the American southwest occurred between 1276 and 1299. There are records of floods, great droughts and extreme seasonal climate fluctuations up to the 1400s.

From 1550 to 1850 AD global temperatures were at their coldest since the beginning of the Holocene. Scientists call this period the Little Ice Age. During the Little Ice Age, the average annual temperature of the Northern Hemisphere was about 1.0 degree Celsius lower than today. During the period 1580 to 1600, the western United States experienced one of its longest and most severe droughts in the last 500 years. Cold weather in Iceland from 1753 and 1759 caused 25% of the population to die from crop failure and famine. Newspapers in New England were calling 1816 the year without a summer.

The period 1850 to present is one of general warming.

History shows us that the temperature rises and falls naturally all the time, the nile has even frozen over twice (829AD and 1010AD).

Answer 6

Scientists have considered this carefully.  Studies show that the effects of global warming will become serious and costly before we run out, or stop using fossil fuels because of cost.

Coal is the main reason.