Man made versus Natural global warming, which is the real evil? We eliminated CFCs, DDTs ... & we still die?

Question

Is there a comparison between man made globall warming compared to nature's global warming? Would global warming exist if man went extinct tomorrow? Please look at the following link which sounds "scientific", but should there be at least some mention of natural influence??? Volcanoes, etc.

Answer 1

I believe you may be mixing several issues here.

1) CFC's form an aerosol that floats up to the upper layers of the atmosphere and causes deterioriation of the ozone layer.  This has nothing to do with global warming.  The risk is that with a depleted ozone layer, the incidence of skin cancer will increase.

2) DDT, a poison that accumulates in fatty tissues, was causing weak egg shells in may species of birds, and was accumulating in small animals that were eaten by larger animals (which accumulated the toxin also), and so on.  If I remember correctly, its effect was neurotoxic.  Again, it had nothing to do with global warming.

3) Volcanoes do eject particles into the upper atmosphere, and they do affect the weather, but the effect is global COOLING, not global warming.  Do some googling on things like the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, or Krakatoa, or Mt. St. Helens, or similar volcanic eruptions.

4) The most obvious culprits in the case of global warming are the so-called 'greenhouse gases' CO2 and Methane (CH3).  Both of these gases contribute to global warming for reasons that are a bit complex to explain here.  Under normal circumstances, the balance of O2 (oxygen) and CO2 (carbon dioxide) is maintained by the absorption of the gases by organisms on earth.  For instance, if there is an abundance of CO2, plants (especially plankton) tend to absorb more and grow better, which means less CO2.  If there is too much oxygen (as there during the age of the dinosaurs), it gets absorbed by animals when the breathe in, which causes more CO2 (when they breathe out).  That's rough justice, of course.

There are some risks to this being out of whack.  Excessive CO2 causes vast plankton "blooms" that render some parts of the ocean uninhabitable for other species.  This is made worse by the fact that land-borne plant species, most notably vast rain forests in the equatorial region, which NORMALLY absorb quite a bit of CO2, have been cut down to make way for people.  That means less absorbtion of CO2 by trees and more burden on the ocean, which is already taxed by the amount we are producing.

So when you talk about man made global warming, we are talking about both the excess production of methane and CO2, but also about deforestation.

Natural global warming can occur for several reasons.  First, there appears to be a natural warming and cooling cycle that is somehow related to the ice ages that have occurred in the past. The jury is out as to what caused them, but there were so few humans at the time that we could not possibly have been a major contributing factor.  There are other causes as well.

Whether you believe global warming's primary cause is man made or not, the fact is that it does occur, has occurred, and is occurring, and we can expect changes in the number of species that we're used to seeing (some will flourish, and others will go extinct or nearly extinct), and in the weather (hotter in some places, wetter in others, and maybe even colder in a few places because air mases are moving where they don't usually go... such as "katabatic" polar winds reaching further south as the ice caps melt).  We can expect the coastlines to change as water levels rise.

Some of these changes, such as the rise in the water levels, have been going on since the 17th century, as is shown in the fact that ramps built on beaches at the time (to bring ships ashore for hull maintenance) are now quite far out to sea, and the contours of islands discovered then have shrunk.

We need to consider that the causes of global warming may be BOTH man-made AND natural, and react accordingly.

With luck, we can keep politics out of it.

Peace

Answer 2

Follow this  link to a list of Non-believers in Human caused GW.

The link also has links to the scientists work.

I believe that if you read even a small amount of the work these scientists have done you will realize the question of human caused GW is FAR from decided

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

Answer 3

No link, but there is little real evidence that man-made global warming exists.  Proponents of the theory make claims like "warmest years on record" without qualifying the statement.  "Warmest years on record" sounds horrifying, like the earth is going to burst into flames or something.  But if you realize that we've only been recording the temperature for something like *maybe* 150 years, the sample length is infinitely too small to even make that claim.  But i guess so long as it gets you a Nobel prize and millions of dollars in lecture appearance money, it okay to mislead the world.

Answer 4

You are right, we have to look at the big picture! Not events, weather, CFC's or Man Made, we have to go beyond that.

Here is  a start:

I attended the Focus the Nation at Sierra College on 1-31-08. The event was the 2% Solution, a 2% reduction over 40 years to solve GW. Oil is a nonrenewable resource and we are running out-but not soon - $30 Gal for gas. The 2% Solution is ok for the USA for a 10 year plan to cut 20%. But over those 10 years, we have to be building renewable energy and about that time, we can cut an additional 20%. This should get us from importing any oil. We must have a pollution surcharge where we pay the real price (health effects, GW and cleanup) for oil, NG, coal, cigarettes, Cooling Towers, Cars, trains and airplanes. Humans have to put some of this nonrenewable into renewable energy like small hydro-electric dams, concentrating solar power plants, wind and wave machines, nuks, and geothermal. With the peak of oil in the 1970’s, peak NG in the 1990’s, having mined cheep coal, the peak of ocean fishing in the 1980’s, and the peak of uranium in the 1990’s, humans must stop procrastinating and make real changes to keep earth sustainable including in the energy debate, finance and regulation.

Many of mankind’s advancements cause earth surface to warm, destroy the ozone layer, kill off endanger species, heat cities, and in some way cause more dramatic destruction.  Blacktop and buildings (roads, roofs and parking lots-heat cities), deforestation (air pollution, soil erosion), duststorms (increase hurricanes and cyclones, cause lung diseases), fires (cause pollution, mud slides, and deforestation), refrigerants (like CFC's) and solvents (including benzene destroy the ozone layer raising skin cancer rates) and plastics; cars, airplanes, ships and most electricity production (causes pollution including raised CO2 levels and increased lung and other diseases); these human problems we must fix to keep life on earth sustainable! Humans have destroyed half of the wetlands, cut down nearly half of the rain forest, and advance on the earths grasslands while advancing desertification which increases duststorms.

The result is:  change is on the way, we just do not know what changes (where and when). Look beyond the hype, beyond the weather, beyond a quarterly report and beyond today. President Bush has made a choice of energy (ethanol) over food and feeding the starving people around the world; this is a choice China has rejected. The fact is Bush wants to buy your food to send to starving people since our grain is not available. Now what USA Presidential candidate is give you the facts so you can make an educated decision?

Over the next 90 years carbon dioxide is projected to skyrocket as human’s burn more fossil fuels. The problem is, the oil will be gone in less than 30 years at present rates of consumption without projected increases and shortages. We have to come up with what will take its place. Again we have to cleanup our mess. One of the big problems we have is at some time Yellowstone will blow its top again, as the magma move closer to the surface, creating a nuk winter. After that we will not have to worry about the destruction of the ozone layer, global warming or pollution.

But with that we must understand we have never seen what is now happening before. CO2 has never lead to temperature change, but temperature change has led to increases in CO2. The models have to be made as we go along with current evidence! But again adding a small amount of CO2 to the atmosphere enlarges the earths sun collection causing warming; increase water in the atmosphere and it forms clouds cooling earth but sometimes causing flooding. Even natural events are warming earth and causing destruction. The sun has an increased magnetic field causing increases in earthquakes (more destruction), volcanoes (wow, great destruction), and sun spots. Lighting produces ozone near the surface (raising air pollution levels). The USA Mayor's have taken a stand and I believe are on the right track, we can have control and can have economic growth. The sun is available to produce energy, bring light to buildings and makes most of human’s fresh water. Composting is the answer to desertification. New dams are the answer to fresh water storage, energy and cooling earth by evaporation, we need many small ones all over (California needs 100 by 2012 and has not even started).

Remember knowledge is power and this information is very powerful. Humans have 50 trillion dollars worth of stuff that runs on cheep oil, natural gas, or coal. We need 20 Trillion Dollars worth of renewable energy over the next 10 years if we are to avoid a world wide depression (and right now ethanol does not count)!

That is why I founded CoolingEarth.org, a geoengineering web sight where you can learn more about earth, the atmosphere, and how to sustain life on earth’s surface.