Is global warming just another fear tactic?

Question

Like how our government are telling us that we're running out of oil?

Answer 1

There's an awful lot of doomsday scenarios out there. Just watch the discovery channel. Asteroids, Gamma Ray bursts, Sunamis,Super Volcanoes, etc. There are a lot of possibilities. I'm probably the least worried about catastrophic global warming. I think what draws most people to it is that unlike the others we can say it's our fault and realize a feeling as though we have some kind of control over our natural world.

Answer 2

I think some people are sincere about global warming, although I don't think the facts necessarily back them up. But I think a lot of people are using the fear of global warming as a tactic to increase government control over our everyday lives and to raise taxes.

By the way, if you do a little research, you'll find that other planets in our solar system are also getting warmer. This indicates that global warming, if it really exists, is a result of a natural solar cycle instead of something manmade. But you almost never hear this in the media.

Answer 3

It is interesting that the same people that push global warming on us are also responsible for much of the high cost of fuel.  They restrict drilling, new refineries, nuclear, and they still whine about expensive gas.  Global warming is more the same that we get from the left, pure fear tactics, with a sprinkling of science.  There is little shame to be fooled once, but if you are fooled  over and over again,  you probably have a left bent.  I am a geologist in the LA region.  There is plenty of oil here too but the land is very expensive and it has been much more economical to sell the land to housing and development and to concentrate the wells in tight areas.  To develop an area for oil wells in Southern California would take so much money in environmental studies that it is much cheaper to let other provide our oil.  That is why we are dependent on midddle east oil.  They can drill laterally so you can reach most of the oil from a tight area.  We are not running out of oil though some of the easiest oil is no longer available.  It is finite resource, but those that think we are running out aren't geologists in my opinion.

Answer 4

Do you think there's unlimited oil in the ground?  The problem with oil is that China (1 billion people) and India (nearly 1 billion more) are coming out of their 19th century lifestyles and starting to emulate the western world (with cars replacing carts and bicycles).  That creates a rapid and enormous demand on existing world oil resources (as seen by the +$100/barrel prices).  Most of the really easy oil to get has already been gotten.  Now they're having to look in places where is more difficult and more costly to obtain the oil.

Would you rather our government just said "all is well, smile and be happy" or that they communicate the reality of various problems in the world?

Answer 5

i think the goverment have got better and more important things to do than trick the public into thinking global warming is real.

Answer 6

If we're not running out of oil yet, we will be soon.  It's a finite and non-renewable resource, and it's well-known that we're approaching peak production of oil.

As for global warming, it's science.  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 7

The gov't is just parroting the Liberal press. It's just the Politics of Fear and Loathing run amok. Which is stupid, because the truth that we need to convert to renewable energy sources is far more powerful and cannot be refuted.

Oil is far too valuable a resource to just burn up. Pharmaceuticals, synthetics, etc. make much more sense than pouring it all out an exhaust pipe!

Answer 8

Why would politicians use global warming as a fear tactic?  I think people give way too much credit to these morons in DC.  They only control your way of thinking if you let them.  I don't believe in Global warming because al gore says so.  I believe in it because I've done research on it, and the mechanics of it make sense.  As far as oil goes.  Yes there is a limited amount, yes we will run out in the near future at the rate we're going.  But does it really matter?  I mean it takes something like 10,000 years for the earth to produce fossil fuels.  I don't think we can let the reserves last that long.  Time is irrelevant unless your selfish and only think of your existance on this earth.

Answer 9

No i don't think it was a fear tactic . I just believe we don't know what the h**l is going on just allot of guessing . With all the things going on weather changes earth quakes flooding droughts this could be the end of the world as we know it. Everything changes why not the earth

Answer 10

Manmade global warming isn't real, though some activity, likely solar, causes the temperature to fluctuate a bit every hundred years or so.

No, we're not running out of oil.  We have run out of refineries to produce what we need from it, essentially gasoline.  Here in Canada we have seven times the oil in all of the Middle East, as yet untapped. We operate with what we have to go with, while they turn the taps down to keep the price up.  But no, there's no oil shortage.  Transporting it is a problem.

Answer 11

I wouldn't necessarily say that it's a fear tactic, but it does educate the public on how to conserve on our natural resources and help protect our environment before we face another extinction.

Answer 12

Some of it is being used for political reasons but

Global Warming is true, there are Natural fazes but we are affecting that to a great extent ,with deforestation ,desertification and pollution., especially air pollution.

A few weeks ago one of NASA's top scientists concluded that the Arctic Ocean could be nearly ice-free within five years, much faster than all previous predictions.

when the north pole is gone , you may have polar bears soon in America ,looking for a home ,

Calculations do not include the accumulative ,speeding up ,factor with time. the increase in water temperature will get faster all the time as well as the melting, when the ice is all gone the deeper cold Ocean currents will be drastically affected,which in turn will affect the warm currents,since all moving bodies of water are connected in series.

This will affect coastal climates ,world wide ,almost instantly. All aquatic flora and fauna will be affected,many dying off and others becoming invasive,

And recently In Chiapas ,and Tabasco in Mexico .more then a million people became homeless overnight with water coming up to their roofs ,because of rains from super evaporation from the forests,this had never happened before. Millions of animals died.

In India 3000 people died because of super storms .

.A few years ago in Europe 3500 people,died during a heat wave ,many of them in France .

Right now the average death toll annually is 150.000 due to Global warming

. these figures are already out of date and are expected to double soon.

In Northern China millions of people are running for their lives because regular dust storms so far have buried 900 villages under the sand and the whole of northern China is turning into a dessert.

The Sahara is growing by 7 kilometers a year all around the edges ,like a slow burning fire shriveling up their neighbors In the Kalahari huge rivers have dried up and thousand of species are gone due to their habitats disappearing .

The biggest changes are invisible at micro biotic levels species are becoming extinct ,others are multiplying ,

This affects the insect populations that follow ,and changes in that ,affect all that follows in the food chains ,

All life is interrelated of both flora and fauna, And since we are on the top of the food chain ,

we are always the last to know.

So Global warming has its toll there are incidents all over the world ,

However

confusion rules the day ,i am beginning to think that SCIENCE HAS BEEN INVADED WITH POLITICS AND HUMAN EMOTIONS

The truth is being distorted at high levels,

And lies have been weaved in.

Some of the real dangers are being hidden because there are no solutions , Public could panic.and Authorities would loose control .

Besides Corporations have other priorities and changes will cause loss of profits ,this also affects the truths being published

Others facts are exaggerated so that the phenomena can be used to milk the people.

This is further complicated with Arrogance that will not admit that mankind could be guilty, or that Gods could be out of control ,unloving or incompetent

But I do not think we can make a real difference anymore to change the tide.

On a Global scale,Humanity is not co operative enough .

The poor regions have other priorities such as daily survival.

There is a lot we can do about being more responsible with what we got ,

In the first world countries many do not care or are more interested in Global Control than Global Warming.

Answer 13

Global warming is unfortunately all too real!!! No, we are not running out of oil (that is a fear tactic), it's just an excuse for big oil to drive up prices.

Answer 14

No  all the fear tactics are the ones you are listening  to.

Answer 15

Global warming is real, whether it's from natural causes, or whether man has contributed to it, it's real.  Polar bears are drowning!   I read that this had never been recorded in history before.  I don't think it's a scare tactic, though, or Cheney and Bush would have thought of it first!

Answer 16

Hi

Yes its all true...

Answer 17

No, sometimes the truth is scary.

But yes, you are being told lies, such as the lie that global warming is a fear tactic.

The most profitable company in the world funds denial information, and has an unusual amount of control over your government:

Exxposing ExxonMobil's Agenda: Manipulating Politics and the Public

http://www.exxposeexxon.com/facts/dailyf...

Here's who manufactures the stories, such as the appropriately named "Junk Science" segment on Fox News:

At Fox News, a Pundit for Hire

http://www.freepress.net/news/print.php?...

"Objective viewers long ago realized that Fox News has a political agenda. But, when a pundit promotes this agenda while on the take from corporations that benefit from it, then Fox News has gone one disturbing step further"

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

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, documents how the media supports the false appearance of controversy on the topic of global warming:

http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/05...

Creating controversy where science finds consensus

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1978

"A new study has found that when it comes to U.S. media coverage of global warming , superficial balance—telling "both" sides of the story—can actually be a form of informational bias."

Media False Balancing Allowed Extreme Views to be Treated Same as Scientific Consensus

http://www.globalissues.org/EnvIssues/Gl...

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As for the "peak oil" issue, the two times that oil production was impacted by only 5% the price of gas shot up 4X.  Consumption is approaching production capacity rapidly, and as China and India switch from bicycles and mopeds to cars, the gap between demand and production could grow by 3% per year.  Not only will you want to live within walking distance of your work, but global economies that rely on consumer spending and GDP growth will have some very bad days.  

American consumption such as low average auto MPG ratings is accelerating the arrival of those difficult times.  Politicians are simply getting too much money from the fossil fuel industries ($500,000 to Inhofe for example) to do anything about it.  We can deny it right up until we're out of a job and we can't afford to drive anywhere, but we can't say we weren't warned.  

The price of oil is already doubling every 7 years or so.  Are you ready for gas at $7/gallon by 2014?  $14/gallon by 2021?  $28/gallon by 2028?  It's no evil government conspiracy, it's our own lack of restraint, and our love of cheap Chinese products from Wal-Mart sending our money there (so they can buy cars to drive to their jobs making our cheap products, and drain global oil reserves even faster).  

We resist bad news by creating a theory that maybe someone is telling us the news as a fear tactic.  That allows us to not change our behavior and to keep burning oil and coal to bring those days on as soon as possible.

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Edit -

The Bush administration is parroting the "liberal press" (which actually parrots ultra-conservative oil industry propaganda)?  Could conspiracy theories make any less sense?  Here's what a conservative administration has brought us:

- unauthorized, unsupervised surveillance of citizens (including all of us not suspected of any crimes)

- denial of due process - indefinite holding of suspects who have not been formally accused of any criminal charge

- torture of suspects, in violation of international law

- refusing to turn over international fugitives to face trial for war crimes (Donald Rumsfeld)

- covert U.S. military action in countries where no war has been declared (Pakistan)

- assignment of political appointees to government offices to ensure complete unilateral control of all branches and functions of government

- denial of freedom of speech, controlling the media, censoring and editing federal scientists' research reports

- evading congressional and judiciary probes into administration behavior, including destruction of evidence

Ultra-conservative fear mongering has trashed the Bill of Rights and brought us to the brink of fascism.  It's laughable if they blame it on the "liberal media."

Answer 18

We're not running out of oil.  But the demand is increasing faster than the supply, making it VERY expensive.  And that will get worse.  This isn't a "tactic", it's a very real fear, given our overdependence on oil to keep our economy healthy.

The same is true of global warming.  This isn't a "tactic" of people, it's scientific fact.

"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

Answer 19

These are the Real Effects of Man Made Global Warming:

In about 9 months. The ice caps will all melt and everyone living below 700 feet will drown. Birds will fall out of the sky on fire. Nuclear missiles will spontaneously explode in there silos. France will invade Germany and win. Cockroaches will grow to the size of hogs. Dogs will begin breeding with cats, producing a vampire like off spring called a dat.

Comets a light year away lurking in the Oort cloud will suddenly start on a collision coarse with the earth. About 10 days after that, the world wide temp will drop to -65 and people living New York city will be eaten by wolves that escaped from the Bronx Zoo. The top rated TV show will be Survivor Idle, where contestants sing for a bag of Bar-B-Qued pork rinds. Afterwords, civilization will be set back many years and if you survive, cell phones will revert back to the size they were in 1989 and you will only be able to make phone calls on them.

Answer 20

Global warming is a climate phenomenon. The hysteria surrounding it is filled with fear tactics. Especially the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" really works hard to instill fear in people. And it succeeds.

And by the way, we ARE running out of oil. Earth has what it has and when it is gone it is gone. U.S. production is already way down because all the easy wells are pumped dry.That is why out oil imports are way up. Not because our use is up that much (it is up, but not that much)  but because so many of the local wells are empty already. I grew up in the Los Angeles area in the 1960s and there were oil pumps operating all over the place, in shopping center parking lots and residential neighborhoods. And Signal Hill was covered with drilling rigs. Now all the pumps in the shopping centers and neighborhoods are gone, the wells pumped dry. Signal hill still has operating pumps but no drilling rigs. It is only a matter of when, not if, until all oil is gone. Maybe 100 years maybe longer, or maybe shorther. Of course it will never be totally gone. It will just become so rare and expensive that people cannot afford to use it as fuel for cars when the supply gets small enough.