How come everybody is worried about Global warming happening rite now if its been so un-normally cool lately?

Question

it just seems a bit ridiculous, dont ya think?

Answer 1

No, it is a very real problem.  The consequences of global warming could lead to the end of humanity.  For example global warming could melt all the glaciers aroung Greenland could cool the Gulf Stream thus cooling temperatures all over the world sending us into another ice age! Sounds severe to me.

Answer 2

You obviously don't understand global warming. The temperatures aren't increased around the globe; some places will be abnormally warmer, some cooler. The high temps in certain areas will go up drastically, eventually... we are already seeing this. With the depletion of the ozone layer, the sun affects us more (like sunburns and skin cancers). Any slight increase in temps can cause the glaciers to melt (already happening), which can lead to a chain of events that wipes out major cities around the world. Also, as the core temps of the oceans rise, the power of storms will increase (as we are seeing with hurricanes). All of this is happening, and the causes and effects are not simply stated... do your research. However, it isn't a debatable issue-- it is a scientific fact.

Answer 3

This is a long-term trend--you can't look at one season, or one year to understand what's really going on.

If you want a pretty intuitive and dramatic example, look at the Arctic ice cap, which used to be the size of the entire US, and as of 2005, lost an area equal to all the United States east of the Mississippi River. And the decrease is accelerating, because the more ice melts, the less white stuff to reflect 80% of the sun's rays, and the more dark water that *absorbs* 80% of the heat from the sun.

From Wikipedia:

"While the International Panel on Climate Change 2001 report predicted that the North polar ice cap would last to 2100 in spite of global warming caused by climate change, the dramatic reduction in the size of the ice cap during the northern summer of 2007 has led some scientists to estimate that there will be no ice at the North Pole by 2030 with devastating effects on the environment. [2]

"Other scientists such as Wieslaw Maslowski, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School, estimate that there will be no summer ice by as soon as 2013. He argues that this projection is already too conservative as his dataset did not include the minima of 2005 and 2007. "

This accelerating melting contradicts the "earth is cooling" mantra, can't be explained by thermometers located near cities --  one popular argument used by the skeptics.

Answer 4

there r documentaries and pictures to show the horrors of global warming.. even al gore said he failed to sent the message after an incovenient truth . yes it si something to worry abt .because we r the most important cause for this.not just that know one is even doing anything.only a few goodmen  is yelling out at the world abt this disaster.i dont think its us who is gonna suffer it may b the next generation.

global warming is slowly consuming us. but nothing seems to get into any ones head.still one can make the difference will not work here

Answer 5

I don't think the average person really cares about global warming, it certainly is not global warming that is spurring more fuel efficient vehicles, it is the price of oil.

Answer 6

Global warming does not just means it gets hotter it means it also gets more extreme, the overall global temperature rises and floods and storms become more extreme.

Answer 7

I live in the Equatorial Line (Malaysia) and it's getting hotter! A cool morning is 29 celcius. A normal day is 30-33 celcius. Whew. The coldest it'll ever get is up high in the mountains, 19 celcius.

Answer 8

well today it was 70 degrees i  alaska now thats rediculous yes it has been cool but global warming can trap the cold wheather too so it could cause an ice ige or all the ice burgs to melt either way its happening!

Answer 9

Adam C answered your question very well.  I would just like to add a couple of links to help explain his point visually so you can understand why it is important right now even though individual areas may be cooler than average.

The first link is an animated map of the Earth using a colour chart to indicate above and below average temperatures.  As you watch the globe spin and the years pass you will notice many blue spots indicating areas cooler than average and yellow and orange spots indicating areas warmer than average.  That is the effects of weather.  

The thing that makes it important right now is that as the years pass the blue disappears and the average all over the globe gets a lot higher, a lot more red appears.  That is the effect of manmade Global Warming, and it's going to take big changes in the way we do things over a long period of time to prevent that from happening.

The second link is to the Hadley Center for Atmospheric Research website.  It is an excellent place for you to educate yourself on the topic.

Answer 10

Squrt, you've asked a common question that confuses some people and here's the simple answer:

The average temperature of the entire planet is getting warmer - this causes all sorts of problems with the climate as a whole and disrupts local weather patterns.

This disruption can cause unseasonal coolness, warmth, dryness, excessive rain, all sorts of things. The one consistent thing is that many places see weather that is unusual - just like you mention that it's "un-normally cool" where you are.

It's not possible to judge what is happening to the entire planet just by looking around your small patch of it.

The other confusing thing is the time scale - it takes a long time to warm an entire planet! You need to look at what the average temperature over decades, not just one summer.

Finally, although man made global warming is the main factor affecting the climate over decades, there are still plenty of factors that can affect the climate in the short term especially regionally (that is, not over the entire globe) - sunspots, el nino/nina, volcanoes, etc.

All this means that while the planet as a whole continues to warm up, little by little, every year, individual experiences of weather in one place for one season has very little to do with "warming" although it is likely to be unusual...

Hope this helps.

Answer 11

not really. it being so abnormally cool lately is sort of a sign of how much our whether patterns are shifting. for so long our whether patterns have been some what stable. i mean how long ago has it been since it bucketed down with snow in the melbourne area? but with the polar caps melting it thus affects the the ocean waters and the current etc which thus influences the whether. so just because in some parts of the world/country its cooler than normal, it doesnt neccessarily mean that we shouldn't worry about global warming. and global warming is a very real problem. and its not as easily fixable as you seem to think it is. you cant just 'fix it' and then its all back to normal. our climate today or well before the significant signs of global warming, is the result of millions of years. for our climate to turn back to normal would take such a long long time. but that will never happen if people dont stop being so skeptical and do everything they can to reduce their carbon footprint. and this isn't me being a hippy. this is me facing the facts and being real about the situation. anyone who thinks that we can just pollute billions of tonnes of harmful gases into the atmosphere without it having any detrimental impact on the planet is very naive. everything affects everything. what you do always has an impact on something whether you notice it immediately or not. global warming is no different.

its great that you are trying to learn about it. keep up the effort. go and watch 'the inconvenient truth' from the video shop.

Answer 12

Global warming is a reality, but its a cyclical thing that mankind cannot influence. All this c**p about CO2 emissions is just a way of generating more inflationary trading of commodities. Carbon trading is no better founded than pork belly trading.

The world is being run by cretins.

Answer 13

global warming doesnt just have to do with the air temperature. and it is almost 100 degrees here in kansas

Answer 14

Because people are stupid.

Answer 15

They simply changed the label to "Climate Change" and continued preaching the end of the world.  They won't rest until we apologize to the trees and return to our caves.

Answer 16

It was fixated by plants a few million years ago. What do U think made our present supply of fossil fuels. Wrong it was not the Dinosaur but plant fossils. All oil come from plants ,olive oil ,and many others. The plants capture the sun energy and change the CO2 and water  to oil. The plants take in the CO2 and give us the O2 but keep the C. Just like the plants of old ,the plants are still making fossil fuels and have never stopped.

Answer 17

find how to avoid global warming

Answer 18

You should do some research on global warming. Global warming effects everything, not just the temperature outside, lol. Watch the movie "the inconvenient truth" so you can educate yourself.

You have seen all the hurricanes in the south, tsunami's, flooding, fires in California, the polar caps are melting. All these natural disasters are because of global warming.

Answer 19

If one day the ices in north pole melt, the world will be floodes as the world already 70% covered by sea. Whereas if the south pole is melted, sea level will not increase as the ices are already floating on the sea (same theory about ices in a glass). But the extra amount of fresh water will kill the sea creatures and that will be the end of our ecosystem. We will be the fuel for the next round of civilisation.

Answer 20

thats what global warming is, if its too cold, or too hot, and stronger weather patterns

Answer 21

People are worried about global warming because almost all media sources are bombarding them daily with messages about it.  And at the moment there is such a huge amount of "awareness" about the issue that there is a high amount of "me-tooism" and bandwagon-jumping going on.  Not to mention the flaming you'd receive if you publicly express any doubt as to the veracity of the global warming.  Most people just won't risk it.  These things are like a snowball rolling down a snow covered hill.  Best to step aside and let it roll on by.

Here's my offering to the zeitgeist:  Regardless of the accuracy of the global warming "debate", I think mankind should tread as lightly as possible upon the Earth, just because it's the right thing to do.

Answer 22

Hmm... though we (in the US midwest down to Texas) have had a cool spring than usual... we have had a warmer summer than normal with more days around the 100 F mark than normal. It generally isn't normal for the Northern parts of Texas to get up into the 100's F until about July and it's been that way since about May. But our temperatures have to do with where the Jet Stream is located. Which may or may not be an effect of Global Climate Change.

Answer 23

It is cooler than usual!  No desert hot winds anymore!  Must be that global sunscreen they were talking about, lol!

Answer 24

everbody is worried because it is a given fact...you say that its un-normally cool lately thats still because of the global warming it affected the weather and the season...that's why many habitats and animals migrate because of the unusual change of the weather which is caused by the global warming....if that continues the balance of life will be changed...you may not feel it right now but sooner or later you'll feel it too...like the snowing in afghanistan...they're not supposed to experienced snow...and because of the change...people were not ready for it which caused the  deaths of the people.

Answer 25

The reason why its unormally cool is because Global Warming causes cooling in some places then excessive heat in others. Just for the record you should be worried expecially those who live on islands or near shorelines due too the inaction of global warming unfortuantly your skwered . Normally the earth keeps cool when the suns rays bounce off the ice in the north and south poles depending on the position of the earths tilt due too large amounts of green house gases in our atomosphere the gases lock the ways in causing the ice too melt and the sea level too rise and, causing our oceans to temperatures to increase  which causes severe storms since 1987 the amount of cat. 4 and five hurricanes has increased by 82 percent and tornadoes in North America alone has increased by 151 percent since 1990. Not to mention cyclones by 88percent. Lets get back too the rise of sea-levels this is a major problem because mesqutios are able to reach higher elvations spreading more and more diseases most of which have not been seen in century's. Another problem is severe droughts if its raining on one side of the world or country excessively like now the other side is in major droughts and for the first time in history the rain forest is in severe drought due to global warming. Also scientist have predicted that by the year 2050 an estimated 1,000,000 species world wide will become extinct and about 300,000 thousand people a year will die worldwide because of global warming not counting disease, famine, floods, storms, wildfires, pollutints, and drought. As for people who live in places such as New York, California, Washington D.C. and the nothren part of Europe if Greenland were too melt completely by 2050 those areas will now be part of the ocean by the way there is only 40% of Greenland left scientist predict that it will take less than 7 years till it is completley gone. For those of you who live in Asia, Florida New Zealand , Hawii, Austrillia, the Bahamas, and by the Gulf Coast if Anartica were to melt completly your country or state will be underwater as well. There is only 60% of Anartica left. No I don't think its ridiculous it is predicted we only have 7 years till damage is irreversible they said that three years ago so I guess that makes it fours left to go and not much has changed.

Answer 26

Global warming has been said to cause more extreme weather, rather than just hotter weather, and most believe that it could put us into another ice age if the ice caps melt.

Answer 27

Go to the north pole and watch the permafrost evaporate before your very eyes, then tell me global warming is ridiculous.