Is the Cause of Climate Change a Lie?

Question

I just finished watching a documentary on Climate Change and how it is a big lie. They had some really interesting facts in there. They are saying that humans are not to blame as we are too tiny to make an impact of this magnitude on this planet. It seems that, this is caused by sun spots coz when there are heaps of spots on the sun, the earth gets warmer and when there are no spots, the earth has an ice age. Also that right now, the spots are increasing and the Earth is getting warmer. As Galileo Galilei noted, this cycle has been happening forever. Care to comment?

Answer 1

I implore you to name the film you watched.

Answer 2

Yes, the Sun has more impact on the Earth's warmth than man has:

"Global warming results not from the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, but from an unusually high level of solar radiation and a lengthy - almost throughout the last century - growth in its intensity,"

"It is no secret that when they go up, temperatures in the world's oceans trigger the emission of large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. So the common view that man's industrial activity is a deciding factor in global warming has emerged from a misinterpretation of cause and effect relations."

"Instead of professed global warming, the Earth will be facing a slow decrease in temperatures in 2012-2015. The gradually falling amounts of solar energy, expected to reach their bottom level by 2040, will inevitably lead to a deep freeze around 2055-2060,"

Habibullo Abdusamatov, head of the space research laboratory at the St. Petersburg-based Pulkovo Observatory

Answer 3

we dont help it though!! the pollution we put in the air in one day is so unbelievable. the gases ruin the ozone layer. and we cant fix the ozone layer. it was made by nature. the ozone layer protects us from the suns most powerful rays. without it the sun will hit down hard and melt the ice caps faster than ever.

Answer 4

I heard it could lead to dancing!

Answer 5

AGW is a theory, that's all.

Answer 6

The sun is certainly much more powerful than we humans are, even if there are 6 billion of us. Global warming is part of a long-term trend. But we aren't helping the situation by burning so much fossil fuel.

Answer 7

Yes, it all just a big lie by liberals who are trying to spead their anti-capitalist agenda.

Answer 8

Don't believe everything you see on youtube.  The filmmaker of that video was accused by some of the very scientists it showed, as being deceptive.  And there are proven mistakes on some of the key charts shown (so the filmmakers were either incompetent or intentionally dishonest, you decide).  Climate scientist that have reviewed it for "accuracy" give it a very low grade.  If you're interested in truth, you may want to read some of the following links regarding this film:

Answer 9

Hmmmmmm, where's that post-1980 warming now?

Answer 10

Of course this has happened before on earth, but never at this rate.  Even the biggest greenhouse gas events in history (Permo-Triassic, Palecoene-Eocene Thermal Maximum) weren't this fast.  There is a multitude of evidence that confirms that humans are to blame for the co2 increase.  Do you see any huge volcanoes going off right now spewing co2?  Or do you see millions of cars, power plants and trucks spewing exhaust which contains alot of co2?  The sunspot theory is a fav. of the oil and gas lobby, beware.    http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v44...  Plus, the isotopic signature of the Carbon in the carbon dioxide that is building up in the atmosphere is from old organics...meaning oil and gas that we are burning.  (google  C14 depletion in CO2)

CO2 is at it's highest level in 10 million years, this is highly significant!  Projections for the future go any where from 500 ppm to 1000 ppm.  Right now we are at about 380 ppm.  Pre-industrial levels were around 280 ppm, last glacial maximum was around 180 ppm.  

It's my job to study this stuff, and I'm scared!

Answer 11

First of all, better safe than sorry.

Second, we are not too small to make an impact. Just look at the deforestation and desertification we have caused, it is humongous and adds up. Not to mention the pollution of oceans and lakes which dramatically alters their ability to absorb CO2 and produce O2.

Third, the speed with which things change is unprecedented. There is no doubt in my mind and in that of many, no most, scientists that man has a serious impact on the climate.

Answer 12

All I can tell you is that roughly 95% of climate scientists disagree with the conclusions of that film. The possibility that the sun is the cause is obvious and has been studied. The solar output does not appear to be the cause as recent research has shown temps have gone up concurrently with solar output going down (references for this study are all over this forum).

You should also question the agenda of the type of people who would make a film contradicting the mainstream. Often you will find people with huge economic incentives and not scientific ones behind it.

Answer 13

No.  The data clearly proves that this is not a natural change.

"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...

EDIT - The swindle movie is junk:

"A Channel 4 documentary claimed that climate change was a conspiratorial lie. But an analysis of the evidence it used shows the film was riddled with distortions and errors."

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

"Pure Propaganda"

http://www.medialens.org/alerts/07/0313p...

Explanations of why the science is wrong.

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/arc...

So, why did Channel 4 broadcast it?

"The science might be bunkum, the research discredited. But all that counts for Channel 4 is generating controversy."  

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climat...

Answer 14

No, the cause of global climate change is not a lie... look up in to the sky today and you will see for yourself that the sun does indeed exist : )

I have to comment though on something from above "There are 6,000,000,000 of us and growing"  So?

The entire human population can be placed in to an area smaller than Texas with less population density than Manhattan Island.  Because most of us live a few hundred feet from our neighbors we have a very biased view of how populated the world is.  There are 150 million square kilometers of land area on the Earth... people just don't fathom how HUGE that is.

Yes there are just under 7-billion of us, but the world is a monumentally large place and we are only growing at a little over 1% a year.  Most of the developed world is now declining in population.

It is perhaps the largest problem facing Europe, how do they pay for their nanny-State pyramid scheme welfare State without importing so many people from the areas of higher population growth (middle east) without becoming a Caliphate under sharia law.

If we stop preaching the leftist global warming agenda, we will have more time to discuss actual problems that the world faces.

EDIT to reply to Bob above.  Don't confuse Man-Made Global Warming with Global Warming.  MMGW is a political issue - GW is a science issue.  The world has a climate that changes constantly and semi-predictably.  There is consensus about climate change, yes it happens.  But there is absolutely NO consensus on the political agenda of so-called Man Made Climate Change.

if anyone cares to look at the data, they quickly see that the two graphs of CO2 and temperature are related.  The temperature goes up and the CO2 percentage then FOLLOWS !  ; )

Answer 15

I'd be interested to hear the title of that documentary.  It's not very often a mainstream network will air something so opposed to what the media generally pushes.  But either way, it's good that someone is finally showing the other side to this issue.  Man made global warming has not been proven, nor is there a consensus like I'm sure someone will tell you there is.  In fact, there's even more evidence out today that will refute almost anything a global warming alarmist will throw at you.  Along with the reasons you mentioned, there are many others why the earth's climate changes.  Sun spots, atmospheric changes, radiation, the tilt of the planet . . .  Sometimes there are even changes that happen very rapidly vs. the norm of gradually over time.  Meaning that the state of the planet is never really stable and can range from gradually fluid to very fluid.  I encourage you to look up more regarding why the concept of global warming less of a crisis and more media and political sensationalism than anything.  It's more about social control and siphoning more money out of us than the government already does.  Take a look at what being "green" actually entails.  Most of the time, the benefits it supposedly offers are outweighed by the costs.  And to Aaron, you are just a sheep if you blindly follow what popular opinion is instead of forming your own decision on the basis of information you collect and evaluate.  If you really adhere to that principle, 30 years ago you would have promised an oncoming ice age because that's what the mainstream and the supposed unbiased and sensation-free media told us.  I'm still waiting for that one to happen, my friend.

Answer 16

No.  It's not sunspots - just look at the data.  Linked below is a graph from the Stanford Solar Center of sunspot number, global temperature, and CO2 over the past 150 years.

http://solar-center.stanford.edu/sun-on-...

As you can see, the number of sunspots (and also solar irradiance) have not changed on average over the past 30 years as global warming has accelerated rapidly.  There is simply no way the Sun is responsible for the recent warming.  In fact, no scientific study has been able to attribute more than one-third of the recent warming to the Sun.  Not one single study.  And most attribute just 0-10% of the recent warming to solar influences.

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

The Swindle conveniently stopped the graph at 1980, before solar influences and global temperatures diverged to disprove this argument.  Then they labelled 1980 as 'Present' or 'Now' (I forget which) on the graph.  One of the many deceptions, errors, and outright lies in the film.

That humans are causing the current warming is based on solid scientific evidence.  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;...

I'm not going to go into the many, many, many errors in the Swindle, but suffice it to say you should absolutely not rely on it for your information on the science behind global warming.  Virtually every point made in the film is wrong.

Answer 17

Actually the Sun is quiet now - Sun cycle 24 has not started as predicted.  Monitor Sun emissions here:

http://spaceweather.com/

There is a distinct tie between Sun cycles and total heat on earth. Sun spots  usually accompany IMFs - Interplanetary Magnetic Fields.

However even the majority of scientists ignore the tremendous heat from within:

http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/vwlessons/...

"The Earth's Crust is like the skin of an apple. It is very thin in comparison to the other three layers. The crust is only about 3-5 miles (8 kilometers) thick under the oceans(oceanic crust) and about 25 miles (32 kilometers) thick under the continents (continental crust)."

Intelligent people know - It's the oceans that determine Earth's weather/climate (El Nino & La Nina) - making up 70% of the surface.

Try to explain this heat anomaly in the western pacific (the most active area of the Pacific Ring of Fire)

http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite...