How many people understand that whether or not global "warming" is happening isn't subject to debate...?

Question

The debate is to what extent human activity is effecting it.

Answer 1

You don't get out much do you- there's plenty of debate going on.  Grow up and look around.

Answer 2

Global warming is caused by humans on one side,

Global warming is caused by sun spots on the other side.

One side has Al Gore, and a few GOVERNMENT and CORPORATE officials, who stand to make millions, possibly billions, if everyone switches to green energy.

On the other side, there are dozens, of non profit organizations, and yes, corporations, PLUS the added benifit of real science. The difference, not counting the science, is that the latter dont stand to make a fortune. Guess what people.. Im not funded by oil companies. Oil companies, if you watch any of their commercials, They are on Al Gores side. Same with GE, and its many, many, many subsidaries.

I think im going with the sun spots. Our SUVs and trucks aren't really causing the polar ice caps to melt. At least, not the ones on Mars.

Answer 3

The Great Global Warming Hoax..

brought to you by Al Gump and Exxon

Answer 4

The problem with global warming policy is that we have a scientific issue that has been taken over by the political machine.

Your question is a good example of this.  There is nothing in science that is not open to debate.  Until an action has been carried out in the exact same way every time that it's ever been done,and ever can be done, then it is only a theory.

So, No, the debate is not over.

That being said, I do partially agree with you.  Global Warming is indeed real, but you shouldn't use that term because it only addresses a portion of the issue.  The correct term is "Global Climate Change".  The thing you need to remember is that the earth is a dynamic system.  It is always changing.  We don't need to really worry until things stop changing.

CO2 is indeed climbing.  The last NASA measurement I saw had it at 380 PPM (parts per million).  That means for every million particles of "atmosphere" 380 of them are CO2 (not really that large a portion).  That's almost has high as it was during the medieval warming period (500PPM).  Of course that was a truly good time for human kind, so the warming portion may be a good thing.

We also need to remember that if you look at the earth during the whole of it's existence, it has been covered by ice for almost 80% of the time.  So if we're trying to maintain the status quo for the planet, we need to precipitate an ice age.

Finally, in the science community, climatological measurements need to extend for at least 10 years before it can be called a trend.  According to the NASA EOS satellite, global average temperature stopped increasing in 1998.  There was a plateau from 1998 to 2002, and since 2002 temperature has actually been decreasing.  So I think we can identify a "trend" that says this period of warming seems to have stopped.

FRFLYER,

You damned your own theory when you kept stating that there was a consensus on the theory.

First, its a theory, not a fact, and second, where there is a consensus there is not science, but politics

Answer 5

is global climate change real? oh yes, it is very real. one only needs to look at the geological record to prove that. is man responsible for global climate change? and if so by how much? that is the debate that is going on. man does have an effect on the environment, but on a global scale our effect is actually quite small even in the short term. our biosphere is quite robust, and self healing, but it can also be quite fickle as well.

Answer 6

No, we are moving beyond simple questions about whether we cause it, and on to, assuming we are causing part of it, can we stop it. In theory we should be able to stop that part that we cause by not causing it, but that does not imply we can stop global warming merely by stopping all emissions of GHG.

Answer 7

Put down the kool - aid and walk back away slowly.

You wont win any debate by just stating that you are correct in your assumptions period.

Even the IPCC admits that we have been cooling since 1998, better get with it and update your known FACT book.

Answer 8

In the real world a lot of people understand that global climate change is now a fact of life.  But in the scientific community there really isn't any debate as to what extent human activities are involved.  

The debate now is in regards to what solutions will get us the best results.

This study impresses me a lot.

Answer 9

Yes using 100 years of data to predict millions of years of Global Climate Warming Cooling always changing weather is always going to come out the way you want it to.

So open up your pocket books and bank accounts to save this planet people.

Answer 10

I think the real debate is whether GW is normal or 'dangerous'. History shows that we've seen it before, so WHEN it comes and goes, there will be nothing new about it.

The NorthWest Passage HAS opened before, you know. The Vikings even used it!

Answer 11

global warming is over

Answer 12

Most all scientists say it's mostly caused by us.

EVERY major scientific organization has issued an official statement that this is real, and mostly caused by us.  The National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute of Physics, the American Chemical Society, the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Association, etc.