Is global warming occurring? Have the forecasts of global warming been confirmed by actual measurements?

Question

Is global warming occurring? Have the forecasts of global warming been confirmed by actual measurements?

Answer 1

yes

Answer 2

Temperatures have overall risen over the past 160 or so years (the years for which accurate records exist), apart from a period of 40 years after ww2 when they fell. This may or may not be a long term trend - 160 years is a drop in the ocean compared to the age of Earth.

The reasons for the warming are contested. Man made emissions may or may not play a part ranging from 0% to 40% of the effect.

Answer 3

Quit believing all this garbage we are not putting anymore co^2 in the air that is not there already. If you drink a soda when you open a soda can or bottle you release CO^2.

how many cans or bottles of soda are consumed every minute. there are air factories that manufactor CO^2 all the time for consumer purposes such as making soda and other things this stuff is a bunch of hype. Do a search on Penn and Teller and view the environmental video they have from their BS series. Its all a bunch of hype

Answer 4

NO its not warming up silly.

Answer 5

It's pretty simple to prove it's taking place.

Just go look for the massive glaciers that once covered much of North America and Europe.  It's been taking places for thousands upon thousands of years.

Answer 6

Yes, global warming is occuring.

  The ice floes and even Greenland have been melting.  Climates have been steadily rising- the last few summers in many parts of the United States have had the hottest summers ever recorded.

  When ice melts at the North and South Pole, Greenland, and Antarctica, less light is reflected back into the atmosphere and is instead trapped in the atmosphere as heat.  This is only one of the reasons for the temperature rise.

  If all the ice were to melt the ocean would rise 40 feet. The sea level has gotten higher over last few decades.

  The length of the seasons have also been changing. Flowers are blooming months before usual and winter and spring are usually shorter.

  Yes, there is significant evidence.

Answer 7

does counting dead people count as measurements

lots already in china ,India ,Africa ,and some in France, Mexico and there must be many more places by now ,

or does it have to be only Americans ???otherwise it is not global warming

Answer 8

The theory of man-made global warming is false.  Rather than just giving evidence proving that global warming is based on misrepresented evidence I will directly address the points made by global warming scientists.  If you do not plan on reading my post (I know it is long) I would ask you to watch this video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...  this video makes many of the points I will be making.  Now I will list the points that global warming scientists make: 1. CO2 causes an increase in global temperature. 2.  The IPCC has produced a report on the issue.  3. Computer models predict what we are saying.  4. There is a scientific consensus on the issue/all major scientists agree on man-made global warming/the only people who disagree are paid by the oil companies.  5. Major Politicians, CEO’s, scientists, etc agree.  6.  Even if there is a chance that global warming is real we should do everything we can, it can’t hurt.

1.  This is the main point made by global warming scientists. Data does in fact show that temperature and CO2 are correlated, however the nature of the correlation has been overlooked.  Global warming scientists say that an increase of CO2 causes global temperatures to rise, but this is not the case; a rise in global temperatures causes a rise in CO2.  Using the same graph featured in “An Inconvenient Truth”, (the graph where Al Gore goes up on the cherry picker, the data from the ice core), the graph clearly shows a lag in CO2 as compared to global temperature.  Temperature starts to go up 800 years before CO2 begins to rise.  This happens because of the oceans.  CO2 released by natural or man-made sources is mostly absorbed into the ocean, when the global temperature raises it gradually increases the ocean temperature which releases CO2 and other gasses into the atmosphere.  Also most of the warming occurred before 1940 when industrialization was not as great.  One would believe that if global warming is tied to CO2 it would accelerate in the post WWII period, but it didn’t.  The globe actually cooled for 4 decades after WWII, when industrialization was the greatest.  Now take a look at our atmosphere as it relates to greenhouse gasses.  CO2 makes up .03% of our atmosphere, a very small amount of our atmosphere.  Other greenhouse gasses like water vapor make up 1-4% of the atmosphere.  Now take a look at where CO2 comes from, all human activity combined produces 6.5Gt of CO2 per year.  Volcanoes alone match that number.  All animals combined (meaning respiration, decomposition, etc) produce 150Gt of CO2.  So humans produce a very small amount of CO2 which itself makes up a very small amount of our atmosphere.  Water vapor is acknowledged to be the major greenhouse gas, and all of that is produced via evaporation (i.e. naturally).  

I know some of you may be thinking “ha, he acknowledges the greenhouse effect.”  To you I ask you to read a science textbook, the greenhouse effect is real and plays a very important role in maintaining a livable temperature on the earth.  Global warming scientists cite the greenhouse effect via our emission CO2 as the source of global warming.  They are disproved by their own words.  As I said before the greenhouse effect is real and causes heat to become trapped in the troposphere which warms the earth.  So if human emission of CO2 is to be blamed we would expect the troposphere to be warming and thus increasing the surface temperature (the temperature cited on global warming graphs) of the earth but look for yourself: http://wwwghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/temperature... the troposphere is actually cooling, only the surface temperature is rising.  This warming is not due to the greenhouse effect it is due to the sun.

It makes sense, the sun is the ultimate source of all of our energy.  Studies have shown that the effect of sunspots much more closely correlates to the rise in temperatures. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sunsp... http://www.livescience.com/environment/0...

http://web.dmi.dk/solar-terrestrial/spac...

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/...

The other planets in our solar system are also warming. http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/ma...

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?art...

All this data points to the sun as the source for our current warming, and what about those ice core studies?  http://www.lavoisier.com.au/papers/artic...

Here are the results of the ice core studies they show a very cyclic effect in regard to global temperatures.  The global warming crowd also argues that weather disturbances will become more likely but the actual numbers show no increase.  Oh and the glaciers, they have retreated and advanced every year since the earth began, they melt in the summer and build up in the winter.

2.  The IPCC, http://www.ipcc.ch/, is the main source of data for those in support of global warming, and has been very controversial.  In a prior report a graph, the so called “hockey stick” graph, was shown to be forged.  A reprint of the report had to be issued but the damage was done.  The fake graph was the main point made in the report, all data rested on its accuracy.  When an independent review took place the data used to make the graph was shown to be made up, that’s a fact even the IPCC admitted the fraud.  Now allegations have been made that the IPCC has censored the report and refused to take scientists names off the contributors list.  Contributing scientists have alleged that their passages, which were critical of man-made global warming, were taken out of the report.  15 passages in all are alleged to have been cut from the report.  Scientists have also said that their names are on the contributors list even though they left the committee after finding their objections to global warming were ignored.  These scientists left the committee but the IPCC refused to take their names off the contributors list so that they can claim all major scientists agree with them.  The IPCC is a heavily partisan committee that went into session fully knowing that their report would be in favor of global warming, any scientist who disagreed was censored.

3.  Computer models are predictions; they are based on hundreds of assumptions.  If even one assumption is wrong the whole model is incorrect.  Every computer model is based off the assumption that man is the main cause of global warming, which if you’ve read the above paragraphs, should be questioned.  Another disparity occurs in the amount of CO2 released, most models have two times the amount of CO2 being released than is actually seen.  You may wonder why these programmers are being so bold with their outrageous assumptions; the fact is these models predict the climate 50 to 100 years from now.  These programmers will be retired or dead before their models can be proven accurate or inaccurate.

4. This is the most blatant lie made by the global warming crowd; there is no scientific consensus on this issue.  Here are the names of over 17,000 scientists who disagree.  http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p36.htm  This lie of scientific consensus is purely propaganda meant to make you believe without evidence.  Consider for a second, what does scientific consensus mean?  This may sound silly but imagine that all the scientific community got together and decided that humans can fly unassisted, does this mean it’s true, no.  Science is not politics, issues are not voted on, and truth is not based on which outcome is most accepted, if it was we would be the center of the universe not to mention the earth would be flat.  Those were the scientific consensus of the time, but experimentation has proved them to be wrong.

5.  A recent poll has shown that only 8% of the population believes that global warming is not man-made.  Everyone else believes global warming is man-made and this will affect the world either in this generation or sometime soon.  This accounts for the support of politicians and CEO’s.  Politicians see their constituents believe global warming and the politician jumps on the global warming band-wagon to get votes.  CEO’s and presidents of corporations also see the poll data and try and get customers by pledging their support.  Price differences between stores are often not that great, so leaders of these corporations want to gain customers based on “morals.”  Scientists love the global warming hype; more and more funding is being poured into various institutions for scientists to use.  Scientists find applying for grants easier with this increase in money.  Scientists can get media face time and get studies published before moving on to their real interests.  You may wonder why so many ordinary people believe in global warming even though all the evidence disagrees.  The fact is global warming dissenters are ignored.  The media airs only stories in support of global warming; many people don’t even know that there is a legitimate opposition to global warming.  And the claim that the only people who disagree with global warming are paid by oil companies is unfounded, its mudslinging.  That claim is just as founded as the claim that all those in support of global warming are paid by the major environmental conservation companies.  

The global cooling scare can show where this is current scare will take us.  If you don’t remember this scare I’ll explain.  In 1974 scientists were convinced that the globe was cooling so fast that we would soon enter a new ice age.  The media portrayed it as fact, committees were put together and came out with the global cooling conclusion, a scientific consensus was called.  Ordinary people were scared that the world would end and what happened?  We now have global warming a 180 from the ice age we were supposed to enter.  Global warming is the exact same scare as global cooling.  You’d think that people would have acknowledged global climate cycles by now.  

6.  This claim has been made more popular recently; it’s called the preventative principle.  This may seem to be the end all global warming argument.  However this statement just conveys ignorance.  You, in your rich country in your house or apartment and on your computer, will not be affected by the precautionary principle.  These changes to alternate energy would apply worldwide, and it is a fact that these energy options are currently much more expensive than coal and oil.  Take Africa for example, a continent made up of mainly third world countries.  How do you expect the poorest people in the world to ignore their coal and gas resources in favor of very expensive alternate energies?  They can not afford it but the UN via the IPCC expects them to switch over.  Also the US alone spends over 4 billion dollars on global warming research, that money could be much better used to promote any number of charity programs.  

If you read my post or watched the video you should at least have been prompted to take a fresh look at global warming as an unproven theory.  It is no lie I do not believe in man-made global warming, my purpose in writing this is not to completely convince you global warming is false.  I wrote this to wake people up from blindly following the global warming crowd.  I urge you to look at global warming and take in consideration arguments made by scientists who oppose global warming.  Your time, vote, money, and liberties are being taken in the name of global warming.  

Start with these links:

http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2Sci...

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

http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA235.htm...

http://www.worldclimatereport.com/

Answer 9

Yes, and yes.

And by the way - yes.

Answer 10

Warming is occurring. Only time will tell if measurements will confirm the forecasts. They revise the forecasts every year, to match what have been observed. So today's measurements match today's revisions of last decade's forecasts. But no, the forecasting has not been particularly accurate if you look at the original forecasts and not the revised ones. All the more alarming forecasts have been wrong, and all the revisions are for less dramatic changes.

Answer 11

Yes.

There's an overwhelming amount of peer reviewed scientific data that says that.  Short and long summaries.

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

http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf

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

Good website for more info:

http://www.realclimate.org

"climate science from climate scientists"

Answer 12

Yes and Yes.

First, I suggest you read this article:

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

Anyway, on to specific points:

1. Oceans are heating up. Yes, it does take lots of energy to heat the oceans. If they are heating, think about how much energy we've already poured into the global environment. Also, only a few degrees temperature change can make a HUGE difference. The oceans in the arctic are maybe three degrees warmer than they were this point last century, but the arctic ice cap is melting in ways never seen before. For example, there never used to be open water in the canadian archipelego, even in the summer - now, there are miles and miles of open sea.

On the canadian archipelago: http://newark.cms.udel.edu/~cats/healy_2...

On sea ice generally:

http://news.independent.co.uk/environmen...

2. Some people will say that solar activity is increasing as part of an 11-year cycle. Yes, solar activity is increasing, but most scientists believe that the effect on the earth's climate has been negligible.

From a NASA press release: "...the solar increases do not have the ability to cause large global temperature increases...greenhouse gases are indeed playing the dominant role..."

Source: http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/1...

3. Another frequent response from skeptics is "global cooling," a weather phenomenon that was loudly touted in the 1970s by some scientists.  It's true that some climatologists (though not all) believed that we might be in a period of global cooling, it should also be noted that we knew a lot less about weather patterns then than we do now.  Scientists also used to believe that the earth was flat, and that the body's health was regulated by the four humours.  Now some people claim that the earth is round and that diseases are caused by genes and microbes.  According to global warming skeptics who latch onto "global cooling" statements from 30 yeras ago, we should forget everything doctors and geographers say because they said something different once, too.  That's not how science works - we learn, we study, we refine, we learn more, we study more...we don't just tell people to shut up because their predecessors were wrong before.

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

4. Many skeptics will say that what humans put out in terms of CO2 is far less than volcanoes, fires, or other animals. As for volcanoes, fires, and animals - those have always been there. They should not have any net effect on the planet's climate. The only changing factor among those and humans is humans and our increased activity.

5. If global temperatures increase, then the temperature difference between temperature zones will remain the same. So there will always be extreme weather events like heavy snowfall in Central Park in April.  But you can't look at one data point and use it to make a trend - otherwise, you could say that all white people have red hair, because you just saw a white person with red hair.  You'd have to ignore all of the evidence to the contrary.

6. One frequent question skeptics ask is "how did the last ice age end?"  Well, that's hard to say.  Ice ages have been on cycles for hundreds of millions of years, it's true, but the problem is that the last one ended right about the same time that people discovered farming.  That might be a coincidence, but it might not - the question then becomes, "Did mankind's increased use of agriculture alter the CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere and warm up the earth enough to end the last ice age, or did the end of the last ice age contribute to farming?"  It's a tough question, but you should read about the Early Anthropocene Hypothesis:

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

7. Finally, and I think this is the most persuasive argument ofr why we should change our behavior as a society: Both sides in the global warming debate have something to gain and something to lose. However, the anti-global warming side has much to gain by continuing to fight change - they have a direct expense that they can expect by having to change the way they do things, and by having to find ways to clean up their acts. Keep in mind that some of the most vocal critics of global warming theory are those who are either industry insiders themselves or who are funded by industry. On the flip side, those who are trying to convice the world of the reality of Global Warming have no direct benefit that they will gain - most do not own, say, environmental cleanup businesses. Their benefit is based entirely off of a belief in doing the right thing.

Answer 13

In what part of the world? January 2007   In New England, it was in the mid to upper 70's. were almost into May and we have 20's 30's. We can cut back on fossil fuels, but what ever they put in its place will cost us more, and the gov. and wealthy own it now. There are laws about burning wood because its easy to get it free. paper and card board start forest fires  (when unfire) candels cause house fires, keros ene fumes are bad for your health. If you have a wind mill for electricity, they say you are stealing from the electric Co.s then your arrested. Solar pannels are great, but who can afford the batterys to store the energy in? the wealthy. Oh yeah battery acid is hazardous to the enviroment. The science channel says that earth is made of magnatized molten lava, now thats hot. heat rises. Put earth in a baloon, the heat will only rise as far as the baloon will let it, the baloon is our ozone layer, the air between earth and baloon is our atmosphere. you poke  enough holes in that baloon with rockets, space shuttles and what-not, its gone, the heat from the sun gets to the earths surface, the heat within the earth meets with the heat of the sun, WHALA. I don't know about you but im 58 there isn't anything I can do to protect my great grandchildren from what is inevitable. Its called EVOLUTION Pass it on. Heres something to chew on: CLONED FRUIT & VEGETABLES   (Science channel 4/13/07)

Answer 14

Don't follow the crowd on this one.  When the media figures out that the real story is the rotten science, the exaggerations, the truncated data, the conclusion jumping, and the political agenda of the global warmiacs they'll all look like complete idiots.

Answer 15

Watch Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. It should clarify some things for you.