Is Global Warning true or is it a fad?

Question

Is Global Warning true or is it a fad?

Answer 1

It is true.... but if there was a major volcano erruption on earth, that could negate some of the impact. In the early 1800's there was a volcano that had major world wide impacts due to the ash blocking the sun. It snowed in NY in June and wiped out lots of crops. That year many starved or died of related illnesses.

Answer 2

Both.  The major warming/cooling is from sun/earth cycles.  Greenland ice core data shows those. see http://www.exploratorium.edu/climate/cry...

There are smaller oscillations we might affect (we are in one of those now), but the general cycles are beyond our control.  

In fact, we are now in a long slow slide to another deep ice age lasting about 50,000 years.  Within the next few thousand years we should be reducing our population to ease into it.  Actually, we should be doing so now for other reasons.

Answer 3

Both.  It is real.  It is not as bad as they are making out to be.

Answer 4

Paul,

The term greenhouse effect was deemed inaccurate some time ago. The greenhouse effect in our atmosphere is much different than the warming in an actual greenhouse.

Answer 5

The media and politicians will wear it out in a few more years, and invent something else to blame the entire population on and win votes with.

Answer 6

Be careful who you listen to:  Mr master of science apparently has never been in a greenhouse.  In a greenhouse the air is heated during the day and it gets much hotter than outside because the air does not circulate.  At night the greenhouse cools down after the sun goes down but the temperature does not go down as far or as fast as outside the greenhouse because the air does not circulate.  Global warming works in the same manner.

Answer 7

It's a cult. Just try questioning them.

Answer 8

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...

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 9

More of a political hoax than fad. Ultimately, it will be the excuse to impose higher taxes and reduce the freedoms of all of us.

Answer 10

Evidence points to global warming the only points of debate are did humans do it or is it a natural phenomena. Will lowering emission rates do any good.

As far as I can tell it does not matter what we do the consequences are inevitable, enjoy the ride.

Answer 11

there probally is global warming  but not created by  humans we are just told that so we pay more and use less...it makes more money for certain companies to produce so called earth friendly products for us to buy and use    .....   bet they dont cut down ???????????

Answer 12

Let's ask the people from this town in Alaska what they think..

http://climate.weather.com/articles/alas...

Answer 13

i belive global warming is a true problem.  you can not deny that the polar caps are much smaller than they have been in years past, the temperature of our climate is rising.  i think it might be slightly hyped but, it is a problem that needs to be fixed and should have been reconized 10 years ago.

Answer 14

True.

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 15

i think it is real. it is becoming a real threat to us. but wheather if it is so serious i am not so sure. but it muz b true.

Answer 16

It is more than a fad. I think it is a criminal scam and some people needs to go to jail.