Is Global Warming a fact or a theory?

Question

Do YOU believe in Global Warming?

Answer 1

global warming is a fact, everyone agrees. The mechanism for how global warming is happening is theory, but that is not the same as saying that it's a guess. Every major climate organization in the country believes that human CO2 emissions are causing most of the warming. Politicians and armchair wannabes like to pretend that they can outsmart science with their uninformed babble.

Answer 2

This debate will rage on until the last minute, when it will be far too late to do anything about it. Man made or natural, doesn't really matter, because we are past the point of rectifying the problem.

I could care less about all the speculation by Gore or the pro/con scientific community. I know what I know and there are groups nationwide who are accepting a volatile restructuring of our Country and way of life, if for no other reason than our families.

I personally would rather prepare for the worst and apologize to the naysayers, than be caught in what could prove to be reality.

And yet, guess who would be among the first to come banging at your door for food, water and safety?

Answer 3

Actually. It is a theory made up of facts.

It has not been proven, which makes it a theory.

There are however facts that lead to the making of the theory.

i could continue on..but i would hope you understand. It is a very strait forward concept.

Answer 4

I never realized that being an Admiral gave so much scientic credence as is being supposed.  Annapolis must have changed their curriculum.

I am equally disposed to agree with my plumber.

Answer 5

It is absolutely not about believing. Global Warming is a fact. It is also very dangerous. Global Warming is an increase in the Earth's temperature caused by human activities, such as burning coal, oil and natural gas. This releases carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. JUST TO WARN YOU, IF AMERICA DOESN'T DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS, THEN IN THE NEXT 100 YEARS, THE WORLD MIGHT FLOOD! (this is true)

Answer 6

Neither, scam. Made by people like Al Gore. He has not done anything in politics since his endorsement of global warming. Why? He is making millions. The sun is getting hotter, the ice caps on Mars are shrinking. There are more facts against than for.

Answer 7

Global warming is true!!

It is occurring right now as we write on our computers!Global Warming is the Earth getting hotter because the sun or Earth is getting closer some how.Scientist's say that there is a black hole between the earth and the sun.In a years worth Scientists say we will get sucked in the black hole at the year 2025!they also say that if we some how survive the black hole,we can start a new civilization.

Answer 8

Its a fact!!! have you seen all the ice that is melting

in Antarctica! poor little penguins

Answer 9

Global Warming is indeed a fact, but not something that we will be able to change.  Truthfully this present climate change is a minor bump on Earth's timeline.  Though we caused it is not the end of the world as portrayed in The Day After Tommorow.  The media has blown the situation out of porportions.  The best thing we can do now is to better adapt ourselves to a world were fuel is not as assesable.

Answer 10

Look at all the Wikipedia references...  By the way, I edited the one about Greenland to reflect how it REALLY got its name and it wasn't a marketing technique by the Norse Vikings. LOLOL

Anyway, global warming is a cult.  Plain and simple, with no factual basis.  Otherwise Gore would have went to Cal Tech instead of Hollywood.

Answer 11

For the benefit of the ignorant, Eric the Red discovered Iceland and named it Iceland because of its grim forbidding landscape.  He found that people were reluctant to colonize in part because of that.  His next discovery was Greenland (although other Vikings were probably first), which they named Greenland even though it was solid ice pack.  His son, Leif Erikson is credited with discovering North America, which he named Vineland, although where he landed in Newfoundland probably didn't have a lot of vineyards.

Answer 12

There is no such thing as a "fact" in science.  Even the theory of gravity is a theory.  When a theory gets widespread support, people start calling it a fact.  I think global warming has about reached that point.

Answer 13

In order to come to a worthy conclusion, you have to be a little  more specific in your questioning.  

- Do you mean Law or theory?   If so, its a law- it does happen sometimes.  

- Is it happening now?   Except for a few people who deny out of ignorance or just to be pains in the x*x's, it is pretty well accepted that it is happening now.

- Did humans cause it, or is it natural?    A very good question that will lead to no conclusion.    Almost certainly not one or the other completely, but some of both.

I believe its happening now, though not sure how fast.   I don't know how much people are to blame for the rate of warming, but there are many things we should be doing for our own good as a species that we should be doing that could limit whatever impact we are having.

Answer 14

There are many basic scientific facts which can only be explained if the current global warming is being caused by an increased greenhouse effect due to carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere from humans burning fossil fuels.

For example, the planet is warming as much or more during the night than day.  If the warming were due to the Sun, the planet should warm a lot more during the day when the Sun has influence.  Greenhouse gases trap heat all the time, so they warm the planet regardless of time of day.  Another example is that the upper atmosphere is cooling because the greenhouse gases trap the heat in the lower atmosphere.  If warming were due to the Sun, it would be warming all layers of the atmosphere.

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

We know it's warming, and we've measured how much:

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science...

Scientists have a good idea how the Sun and the Earth's natural cycles and volcanoes and all those natural effects change the global climate, so they've gone back and checked to see if they could be responsible for the current global warming.  What they found is:

Over the past 30 years, all solar effects on the global climate have been in the direction of (slight) cooling, not warming.  This is during a very rapid period of global warming.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/62902...

http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/media/pro...

A recent study concluded:

“the range of  [Northern Hemisphere]-temperature reconstructions and natural forcing histories…constrain the natural contribution to 20th century warming to be <0.2°C [less than one-third of the total warming].  Anthropogenic forcing must account for the difference between a small natural temperature signal and the observed warming in the late 20th century.”

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/104...

You can see this in the third graph here, where the dotted lines are just from natural causes, and the full lines are natural + human causes:

http://www.pnas.org/content/vol104/issue...

If that’s not enough to convince you the Sun isn’t responsible, consider the fact that no scientific study has ever attributed more than one-third of the warming over the past 30 years to the Sun, and most attribute just 0-10% to the Sun.

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

So the Sun certainly isn't a large factor in the current warming.  They've also looked at natural cycles, and found that we should be in the middle of a cooling period right now.

"An often-cited 1980 study by Imbrie and Imbrie determined that 'Ignoring anthropogenic and other possible sources of variation acting at frequencies higher than one cycle per 19,000 years, this model predicts that the long-term cooling trend which began some 6,000 years ago will continue for the next 23,000 years.'"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitc...

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/ab...

So it's definitely not the Earth's natural cycles.  They looked at volcanoes, and found that

a) volcanoes cause more global cooling than warming, because the particles they emit block sunlight

b) humans emit over 150 times more CO2 than volcanoes annually

http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/Gases/man....

So it's certainly not due to volcanoes.  Then they looked at human greenhouse gas emissions.  We know how much atmospheric CO2 concentrations have increased over the past 50 years:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mauna...

And we know from isotope ratios that this increase is due entirely to human emissions from burning fossil fuels.  We know how much of a greenhouse effect these gases like carbon dioxide have, and the increase we've seen is enough to have caused almost all of the warming we've seen over the past 30 years (about 80-90%).  You can see a model of the various factors over the past century here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Clima...

This is enough evidence to convince almost all climate scientists that humans are the primary cause of the current global warming.

Answer 15

I'm yound, but if im correct there was a big global warming (or ice age)scare in the 90's? >> maybe? or lower i can't remeber. But there was "evidence" it was aall happening and everyone freaked! But it turned out to be a hoax or something like that.

This could well be the actuall global warming. But bear in mind this has happened before. This one looks like the real thing, if it came down to me deciding i would wait a year or two or more to see the difference in temperature.

But it seems the evidence is too strong so i would say if i had to it probably is happening, but slower than everyone thinks.

Answer 16

Global warming is a theory, based on observations and measurements (facts).  

Gravity is a theory, do you believe that gravity affects you?  Climate change will too.

Answer 17

If you have to believe, then it's not a fact.

Theories aren't facts.

Answer 18

Global Warming is a theory.

Gravity is also a theory.

Hopefully that answers your question in plain and simple terms.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 19

Fact. Global warming is something that is happening-like it or not- to our world. It's not about believing or not believing- it's dangerous climate changes that are just happening. It's fact, but we can stop it. So do anything you can to go green- you'll be happy you did!

Answer 20

Let me start off by saying we (my family and I) live 100% off of the grid and are completely self-sufficient with a 0% Carbon footprint. I believe this is the first step anyone can make “help the environment”. Once you convert your own life style to a greener more eco friendly route, you can start helping others.

if your interested feel free to contact me personally at www agua-luna com

We definitely didn't start global warming, but we definitely do contribute to it now.

Natural gas (or Methane along with other thanes) for example, is completely a natural contributer to global warming and is derived pretty much the same way as oil. ie. Matter (animal, plant etc) decomposes over time resulting in a anaerobic (hope I spelled that right) decay of non-fossil organic material / gas (natural gas or methane).

One problem with global warming is that the concept is so vague in the minds of the people. The critical interpretation is basically how it’s explained in school and the news. However most of the public see global warming connected with the ozone and pollutants which cause harmful greenhouse gasses, etc. therefore investigating and fighting for things like alternative energy (ie. Solar, wind, hydrogen, ethanol, biodiesel, etc)

Greenhouse gases are real and do contribute to global warming. Think of the different gas layers like ozone (o3) that circumference the globe as the clear plastic on a greenhouse. Longer rays of light from the Sun go in and reflect off different thermal masses bouncing back and creating shorter lengths of energy that cannot exist the plastic barrier. These beams then just continue to bounce around inside the green house until they’re finally absorbed completely (some do escape but very few), thereby warming the greenhouse greatly even in cold temperatures.

Basically there are 2 ways that this reaction (or lack of) affects the planet. Global warming and global cooling.

1. as we add to the gases in the stratosphere, where the ozone layer is (Carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, etc), we add to the plastic of the greenhouse, trapping more short wave length energy and heating the earth more.

2. as we deplete the ozone (with chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs), we allow more long wave length energy, which bounces back out to space without heating any thermal masses on earth, thereby cooling the planet.

It’s pretty easy to see the results..

Melting ice sheets & glaciers

Floods & droughts

Great hurricanes & cyclones

Seasonal extremes

Seasonal phenomena’s

Species extinction

New & resurgent diseases

There are many ways to stop both global warming and cooling from accruing or at least slow them down until we can discover a way to reverse it, but Stop burning fossil fuels is the biggest.

I currently own 2 converted h2 vehicles which run on 100% hydrogen and 1 EV (electric vehicle), not to mention our home is completely off the grid, using alternative energy (solar, wind, etc)

If you interested I offer several DIY alternative guides to walk you step by step threw Greener living, how to run your car on alternative fuels and being self-sufficient, at agua-luna com or

www agua-luna com

Hope this helped, feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions if you’d like assistance in making your first self sufficient steps, I’m willing to walk you step by step threw the process. I’ve written several how-to DIY guides available at  www agua-luna com on the subject. I also offer online and on-site workshops, seminars and internships to help others help the environment.

Dan Martin

Alterative Energy / Sustainable Consultant, Living 100% on Alternative & Author of How One Simple Yet Incredibly Powerful Resource Is Transforming The Lives of Regular People From All Over The World... Instantly Elevating Their Income & Lowering Their Debt, While Saving The Environment by Using FREE ENERGY... All With Just One Click of A Mouse...For more info Visit:  

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Answer 21

Both.  It's a proven theory, as much as anything in science is ever proven.

This is science and what counts is the data.

"I wasn’t convinced by a person or any interest group—it was the data that got me. I was utterly convinced of this connection between the burning of fossil fuels and climate change. And I was convinced that if we didn’t do something about this, we would be in deep trouble.”

Vice Admiral Richard H. Truly, USN (Ret.)

Former NASA Administrator, Shuttle Astronaut

Here are two summaries of the mountain of peer reviewed data that convinced Admiral Truly and the vast majority of the scientific community, short and long.

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Ima...

http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1-report....

summarized at:

http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report...

There's a lot less controversy about this is the real world than there is on Yahoo answers:

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/a...

And vastly less controversy in the scientific community than you might guess from the few skeptics talked about here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_...

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/fu...

"There's a better scientific consensus on this [climate change] than on any issue I know...  Global warming is almost a no-brainer at this point.  You really can't find intelligent, quantitative arguments to make it go away."

Dr. Jerry Mahlman, NOAA

Good websites for more info:

http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/f101.a...

http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/sci...

http://www.realclimate.org

"climate science from climate scientists"

http://environment.newscientist.com/chan...

Answer 22

neither - it's a joke...

Answer 23

uh, it's not about "believing". It's a fact. Global warming is a serious threat to everything on Earth. I just wrote a HUGE paper on it. lol so i'm well-informed :-)

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