Is the climate warming?

Question

hi, i'm an education student just asking bout global warming issue. is the climate really getting warmer/hotter? give an outstanding reasons and facts about it. thanks it would be a great help!

Answer 1

yes of course it is the climate is warming up very fast faster then we think it is

Answer 2

It's been cooling the last 5 years. Don't be taken in by this hoax...

Answer 3

*sigh*  Yes, it's getting warmer.

and CO2, resulting from our burning of coal and oil is causing it.

In simple terms, without any global warming, the temperature of the earth would be far below freezing, and there'd be no life at all.  Water (clouds) is the strongest insulator.  CO2 and methane (CH4) come next.  Water is self limiting -- when there's too much of it in the atmosphere, it rains and restores the balance.  CO2 and methane remain in atmosphere far longer.  The way CO2 works is that it interacts with some energy level radiation, but not all.  Specifically, CO2 does not interact with light or ultraviolet radiation.  It does, however, react with lower energy levels, found in infrared radiation.  During the day, the earth heats up, absorbing energy from the sun.  At night, that energy is radiated away into space as infrared radiation.  Maybe you've noticed that on cloudy nights, it does not cool as much as on clear nights.  That's because some of the infrared radiation is "reflected" back to the earth.  CO2 does the same thing.

The way CO2 works is that molecules absorb energy, and then re-radiate it.  When it's re-radiated, that occurs in a random direction.  Which means that some comes back to the earth.

To some extent, adding CO2 to the atmosphere is like putting an extra blanket on when it's cold in the winter.  unfortunately, when it's already warm, it's not very helpful.  During the last 4,000 years, the average temperature has varied by less than one single degree.  Predictions are that the current increase might be between 3 and 8 degrees.  There's a wide variation because it's not known how seriously the various governments will act to address the problem.  In addition, if everyone stopped burning coal, oil, and natural gas completely today, the temperature would continue to increase for several decades, due to the CO2 that's already been added to the atmosphere.  *phew*  All that said, here's the science to back it up.

NAS, NOAA, NSF, NASA, EPA, MIT, UCLA all agree.  AGW (Anthropogenic Global Warming) is a serious problem.

http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer

"May 19, 2008: The National Academies have released the 2008 edition of "Understanding and Responding to Climate Change," a free booklet designed to give the public a comprehensive and easy-to-read analysis of findings and recommendations from our reports on climate change."

http://dels.nas.edu/dels/rpt_briefs/clim...  <== here's a good description.

http://www.funnyweather.org/  <== this is a more lighthearted link.

http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/glob...

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/globalwar...

http://www.exploratorium.edu/climate/  <== not regulated by the government.

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cn...

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cn...

http://www.international.ucla.edu/articl...

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/clima...

http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/global_war...

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news...

<<"Barring a large volcanic eruption, a record global temperature clearly exceeding that of 2005 can be expected within the next few years, at the time of the next El Nino, because of the background warming trend attributable to continuing increases of greenhouse gases."  The eight warmest years in the GISS record have all occurred since 1998, and the 14 warmest years in the record have all occurred since 1990.>>

http://yosemite.epa.gov/OAR/globalwarmin...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/...

i like this chart.

http://www.globalwarminglies.com/pics/te...

posted by global warming lies i might add.

you'll note that over the last 4,500 years the temperature has varied from the norm by a maximum of 0.7 degrees.

and the projected temperature rise in the next few decades is something like 3-8 degrees.

Answer 4

yes thats why they cal it global warming and the ice is breacking up rising sea levels

Answer 5

So how do you explain this? If global warming was created by man,who caused this?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/2008...

Answer 6

It's not as if the whole world will get warm all at once. It means that more of the heat energy from the Sun remains trapped in the Atmosphere. That makes the ocean water warmer.  Warmer ocean water will change the course of the jet stream,and cause more severe weather.  Heat drives the weather.  Increase the heat, and weather gets stronger, and more unpredictable. That is the 'climate change' that is threatening us.

Answer 7

No, actually we've been in a cooling stage for the past 8 years due to decreased solar activity, don't believe these fools about man made climate change. The sun determines how hot or cold our planet is, not us.

Answer 8

of course it is!

view this to believe me:

Answer 9

global warming is just plain untrue....it is a load of rubbish...

Answer 10

Nope, not anymore, global warming is done. The smart money says that we will be cooling for the next 30 years. The Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) is a large change of the surface temperature of the Pacific Ocean which switches between warm and cool phases every 25-30 years. The global warming of the last 30 years was associated with the PDO warm phase coupled with increased solar activity as well as anthropogenic CO2 emissions. The PDO switched to it's cool phase however shortly after 1998, the last cool phase of the PDO was between 1945 and 1975 which caused the Global Cooling scare of the sixties and seventies then it switched back to warm in 1977, which caused the global warming scare. The PDO was only recently discovered in the 1990's by scientists attempting to explain why Salmon harvest appeared to be cyclical in northern Pacific, so it is not fully understood, but it's effect on climate are undeniable, there are many who think this current  PDO cool phase coupled with reduced solar activity over the next few decades could potentially cause a very dangerous cooling episode for the human race.

http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/200...

Answer 11

yes it is. the climate is getting warmer/hotter than degrees! if we dont do something, we will be burned.

Answer 12

As far as I know, nobody questions the fact that the climate is getting warmer. What many people argue about is - what causes it.

You can find numerous articles on the web on this topic - some will lead you to believe that it's caused by human activity and some will tell you that it's not. The fact is - there is no definitive proof that would support one or the other theory.

However, here are some facts that may make you think:

1. CO2 has one of the lowest coefficients of green house effect. 500,000 years ago there were 3000 units of CO2 in the atmosphere vs 300 now and life flourished, and multiple ice ages came and went since then. So it doesn't seem to be a major factor but it certainly is not helping.

2. Last ice age occurred about 10,000 years ago - we are still thawing so melting ice could be attributed to this process

3. We are approaching another solar max - an increase in solar activity. Last time it happened in 70s and temperatures reached uncomfortable levels. If predictions are correct this solar max will be more severe...

4. Detailed weather records (including temperature) had been kept only in the last century. Couple centuries prior the records are very scarce and measurements were taken mostly near big cities that create their own microclimate... Going further back it's impossible to get exact temperatures - one can only guess whether it was warm or cold... So it is impossible to tell if the warming we observe now did not happen a few hundred years ago as well and is just a cycle.

There are many other facts but here is the bottom line:

Is the climate getting warmer right now? - yes

Are we causing it? - nobody knows for sure but we are contributing.

Should we be concerned? - yes. Deforestation is bad on many different levels. CO2 emissions are usually accompanied by other toxic gases so even if it weren't for climate it would still have to be curbed. Our pollutants change chemistry in the oceans that may cause more CO2 released.

Answer 13

Our current climate is well within the range of normal fluctuations shown in ice cores and tree ring data. There is enough solid data to completely prove that the AGW scam is just that available in labs all over the world. Only those who see potential financial or political profit are still participating in the fraud along with the oil companies that are funding it.

Has no one on the left ever taken the time to notice that oil, gas and other energy costs have risen drastically in lock step with the increasing promotion of the AGW scam.