How do humans cause climate change?

Question

The earth has been around long before we, humans, were here. Today's best and greatest minds cannot, do not know and will not be able to "make", "create" or "generate" a single speck of dirt from our backyards, let alone, entire eco systems. If so, why can some be so bold as to declare that human activities from the last 150/200 years are directly responsible for global climate change and that everything could go within the next 10/20 years?

Answer 1

Man has been changing local climates all over the world for probably thousands of years ,by changing forests into deserts

and more recently into tar and concrete

And there is a big climatic difference between the two extremes

Genghis Kahn burned all the forests and filled the wells with sand ,that sure changed the climate in whole countries at a time

The deforestation of Spain to build the Spanish Armada changed the climate over there

The same way the building of the Phoenician fleet deforested Lebanon which is now a hot desert ,like the Sahara ,large parts of which used to be forests .

But one cannot deforest on the equator because replanting trees with out water under the hottest Sun is very difficult.

But we are the best at changing climates than any one else before us ,by exchanging forests for concrete and tar ,and large scale mono culture farming with out trees ..

And the Mexican indigenous people deforest large parts of their mountain slopes for plots to grow corn, to feed their large families of around 15 kids average .

All old people agree that there are less clouds hanging over the mountains ,less rains ,and less water in the rivers ,then when they were young .

The days are now hotter and their winters are much colder ,And they have many cases recently of people who have frozen to death

They were, the first to ADMIT that they are changing their climate.I know I interviewed many

These kind of climatic changes are happening all over the world

Take a look at Northern China which is now a dust bowl impossible to grow anything or even live there ,

Whilst before it was a thriving agricultural region ,and before that it was forests,the climate has been totally changed there

due to unsustainable agriculture ,using Chemicals and with overgrazing grasslands turning them into dessert

In Africa some rivers have dried up because so many of the forests have gone in places ,because of expanding populations ,this also results in different climatic conditions locally.

And did not the farmers change the climate in central USA during the 20ties with the straight lined plowing ,turning the country into a dust bowel.

Global warming is an additional ball game

No one who knows the facts can possibly say we do not affect climatic conditions .

Only ignorance and dishonesty can,and the overwhelming desire to absolve humanity from any guilt,so that some unscrupulous people can continue to behave like Pigs in Paradise http://byderule.multiply.com/journal/ite...

In 300 years half of the planets forests have gone ,and in the last 50 years half of the wet lands ,and rain forests

These Areas absorb heat during the day and release heat at night ,

Cause cloud formation(shade).humidifying the air on the surface as well as releasing excess water at the roots that keep rivers flowing ,which in turn brings more water into the Environment .

As well as contributing to absorbing carbon emissions as do the leaves of the trees together with the oceans .

All in all many factors which directly affect the local Environment .

The loss of the above resulting in rivers drying up ,less rain ,desertification,loss of habitat for many species and so on.

dryer and hotter surface environments which can manifest in different weather patterns such as tornadoes or bush fires

And then on top of that comes the story of the effects of pollutants released into Nature and especially the Air ,by MAN http://earthissues.multiply.com/photos/a...

A cocktail of events and a lot of the ingredients have MAN written all over them

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

Answer 2

You've been listening to the media the wrong way, or someone is way too far off base.  Here's the lowdown that makes much more sense.

The simple answer to your question is that humans don't cause climate change.  Multiple scientific articles from multiple sources have shown that the Earth's climate change pattern for the past 4000 years.  That pattern sent the planet through multiple warm and cold spells in years past.  Going over a longer stretch of time shows the same pattern of a warm/cold cycle.  Have you heard about ice-cores?  Ice cores are taken in Greenland and Antarctica, and these ice cores contain bubbles of air.  These bubbles were trapped inside the ice cores as more snow compacted on top of them, and these bubbles show the chemical composition of the atmosphere from thousands of years past.  From these cores we also know that greenhouse gases have increased in advance of a warm spell in the Earth's climate, and decreased in advance of a cold spell in the Earth's climate.  This is all before humans starting in with industry.

So, in all of this we can say that humans don't cause climate change.  However, what remains to be seen is how much the buildup of industry around the world impacts the pattern of natural climate change.  So your question really should be, "How are humans impacting natural climate change?"

The impact has to do with the natural concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere versus the total concentration.  In the past 150-200 years we've had the industrial revolution, which means humans have begun adding their own contribution to the total concentration of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere.  The total concentration is what is measured by monitoring stations around the world, and that is supposedly going up.  Remember, we know that the natural concentration of greenhouse gases increases before a warm spell.  Thousands of years ago the total concentration was the natural concentration (for the most part).  Fast forward to today, and the total concentration measured reflects the natural concentration and the total concentration of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity.    So in total concentration today is being made to more then the natural concentration by human activity.  In turn, the possible effect is that total concentration will be much more then in previous warm spells, making the climate pattern change, possibly into a longer, warmer warm spell in the Earth's climate record.

I say possible in those last few sentences, because this is a very simple view, when the Earth's combined atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere and hydrosphere processes are very complicated and research in climate is ongoing.  The bottom line here is, be environmentally friendly, but don't go overboard, be skeptical, ask questions, and never believe the media unless they got something to back it up!  

Where did I pull this from?  I didn't earn my undergraduate degree in meteorology for nothing!  But you can also check out the AMS website too, there's journal articles going back almost a hundred years and a lot of climate articles too.

Answer 3

I get your point very well, and it's not a difficult one to understand. Science has all the necessary ingredients to duplicate life, but they still can't create a true  living organism. We aren't creators, but manipulative observers at best. Even speculative predictions are based on hindsight, then nature throws a curve ball every so often. So to be safe, we assign mathematical formulas to increase our odds of being right. I wish it was that black and white...it would be sweet.

Answer 4

Because some of the things humans do such as drive, use electricity, gas ect cause pollution to the air.

Answer 5

It's a religion.  Global warming is a religion followed by lemmings with tiny, tiny brains.  It's the ultimate "follow the leader" dogma ever invented.

I never stop laughing at people on this issue, and it would be a lot funnier if these people didn't want to destroy our standards of living to 'save a planet' that doesn't need saving.

Answer 6

Because by burning fossil fuels, humans release CO2 which has been trapped for millions of years.  This added CO2 is more than the natural carbon cycle can absorb, so it accumulates in the atmosphere.  Since CO2 is a greenhouse gas, when it accumulates in the atmosphere it traps more heat, causing the planet to warm.  When the planet warms, its climate changes.

In a nutshell, that's how humans cause climate change.

Answer 7

I have no idea what you're getting at with the "create dirt" comment, but I'll try to answer anyway.

If you don't think humans impact climate, what's your stance on acid rain? It'd be interesting to know, considering the link between humans and acid rain has been proven a fact.

Answer 8

Maybe some humans are delusional.

Answer 9

about the dirt makin thing idk mulch pile i guess

but uh yeah humans r the scum of the earth they're the cause of all of earths' problems thats why i'm getting experimental surgery to turn me into a dolphin cuz every1 loves dolphins

Answer 10

Humans don't create matter. But we do move it around, from safe places to places that are a lot less safe.

Carbon in the ground is safe. When we drill up or dig up that carbon and burn it, the carbon ends up in the air in the form of CO2. And that's a problem, because CO2 in the air is a greenhouse gas that warms the planet. Here's what we have done to CO2 levels in the past 10,000 years:

http://www.columbusnavigation.com/pictur...

The current level of CO2 in the air is 385 ppmv. That's higher than it has been for about 23 million years -- and the growth in CO2 shows no sign of stopping, or even slowing down. No, it won't take 10 or 20 years, more like 50 or 100. But climate takes such a long time to change, we need to start NOW in order to change course before it's too late.

Right now, about half the CO2 we release into the air is absorbed in the oceans. But as the oceans continue to warm, they absorb less and less CO2. When they get warm enough, they will stop absorbing CO2 altogether, and start re-emitting the CO2 they absorbed in the 20th century. If we don't have a handle on our CO2 emissions by that time, we're all screwed.

Every single thing you eat -- every single thing -- is a plant or animal that has evolved in a different atmosphere than we have today, and in a different climate than the one we're headed for. Think about it.

Answer 11

Wow quit living in the 1800s and get up with the times.

Dirt is nothing but aggregates composed of different concentrations of common molecules held together by bacterial biolfilms and trapped water.

by a simple increase in concentration of nutrients that don't occur in an areas naturally, an entire biosphere of microorganisms can be altered, altering a habitat drastically.

Answer 12

They can't.  Simple as that.

There are a lot of "scientists" who say we cause climate change, but they're saying it to get funding and to save their jobs.  Can't blame them, but it's a shame they have to lie all the time to the general public.

Did anyone see that odd response about "acid rain?"

Funny that there are still people who believe in "acid rain." Wasn't that hoax disproven back in the 70's?  

Some people seem to be living in the past too much.  Maybe if we could get him to read a book he'd learn something.

Answer 13

It is especially interesting that the green house gas is not there,so how can it actually change anything. Then they would not need to to switch to climate change.

Answer 14

f**t!