WHat really causes global warming?

Question

I need information for a debate tomorrow, and the topic is what is really causing global warming? what REALLY is the source? whats your opinion on this matter?

Answer 1

What caused Global Warming? we don`t know, but now temperatures are down world wide. It`s over.

Answer 2

Sun spots or sun flaring which occurs about every ten thousand years (ice age).  To get a close examination of the subject as to why this causes an ice age get a book on meteorology and historical climatology.  There are also lesser sun flare ups in between these periods that can cause intermittent warming and cooling.

Answer 3

There's no single answer.

Some historic climate changes were caused by massive volcano activity or small orbital shifts of our planet.  Much of the warming early in the last century was possibly caused by increased solar energy (i.e. the sun sent more energy our way), but the warming the latter part of the last century is mostly caused by increased greenhouse gases (which retain heat from the sun, rather than letting it all drift back into space at night) in our atmosphere.

Answer 4

The truth is nobody really knows. It would be very useful knowledge to our species. Maybe eventually we'll be able to engineer our climate. I don't think we are anywhere near that. I just hope we don't start tweeking things until we have a far better understanding than we do at the present.

Answer 5

We have the technology to move past the carbon debate. We do not have time to go through the government red tape, government has to change. Without governments mandating renewable resources that do not harm the environment, we are doomed. We have to take the time to get it right. With oil on the decline, we have to make massive changes, swiftly. But we can not do this twice-like we will have to do with most ethanol; we have to put our money in the best return on investments and where we get multiple benefits. We have had most of this technology for 20 years but have not implemented it. We know what is cost effective; we know where we need better technology. Solar Concentrating Electric Power Plants, wind, wave, small hydro-electric, geothermal, and nuclear energy are what we need. We must have a pollution surcharge where we pay the real price (health effects, global warming and cleanup) for oil, natural gas, coal, cigarettes, cooling towers, cars, trains and airplanes. Raising the price of fossil fuel today gives us more time to solve these problems and helps pay for the 20 Trillion Dollars worth of renewable energy over the next 10 years. Humans have 50 trillion dollars worth of stuff that runs on cheep oil, natural gas, or coal.

Oil is a nonrenewable resource and we are running out-but not soon – anyone willing to pay $30 per gallon for gas. The problem is the oil will be gone at least to run cars, heat homes, power electric plants or air travel. A 5% Solution is what the USA needs for a 10 year plan to cut 50%, at the same time, we have to be building renewable energy so at the end of 10 years we can cut an additional 20%. With the peak of oil in the 1970’s, peak natural gas 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. We have to come up with what will take its place and cleanup our mess.

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 and other forests, 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 food from out side the USA to send to starving people since our grain is not available.

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 we are far behind).

Education 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. Watch for changes in the sight coming soon.

This is a grassroots movement. We need as many people as possible working on this. Please email me your ideas, if you would like to help. The charity needs many helping hands and minds-would you like to help there? I am working on Patents-need more help. How about Designing? I have a job as an engineer, another as a contractor, another as a county worker, but find time to help teach on YA. I have cut my employers electric costs by 5 million dollars-you do the math and figure out how much CO2 that is. But like I am saying on YA, we have the technology, we lack the government support.

LMurray

Answer 6

Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation.

The global average air temperature near the Earth's surface rose 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) during the hundred years ending in 2005.[1] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes "most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-twentieth century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations"[1] via the greenhouse effect. Natural phenomena such as solar variation combined with volcanoes probably had a small warming effect from pre-industrial times to 1950 and a small cooling effect from 1950 onward.[2][3] These basic conclusions have been endorsed by at least thirty scientific societies and academies of science,[4] including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries.[5][6][7] While individual scientists have voiced disagreement with some findings of the IPCC,[8] the overwhelming majority of scientists working on climate change agree with the IPCC's main conclusions.[9][10]

Climate model projections summarized by the IPCC indicate that average global surface temperature will likely rise a further 1.1 to 6.4 °C (2.0 to 11.5 °F) during the twenty-first century.[1] The range of values results from the use of differing scenarios of future greenhouse gas emissions as well as models with differing climate sensitivity. Although most studies focus on the period up to 2100, warming and sea level rise are expected to continue for more than a thousand years even if greenhouse gas levels are stabilized. The delay in reaching equilibrium is a result of the large heat capacity of the oceans.[1]

Increasing global temperature will cause sea level to rise, and is expected to increase the intensity of extreme weather events and to change the amount and pattern of precipitation. Other effects of global warming include changes in agricultural yields, trade routes, glacier retreat, species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors.

Remaining scientific uncertainties include the amount of warming expected in the future, and how warming and related changes will vary from region to region around the globe. Most national governments have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but there is ongoing political and public debate worldwide regarding what, if any, action should be taken to reduce or reverse future warming or to adapt to its expected consequences.

Contents [hide]

1 Terminology

2 Causes

2.1 Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere

2.2 Feedbacks

2.3 Solar variation

3 Temperature changes

3.1 Recent

3.2 Pre-human climate variations

4 Climate models

5 Attributed and expected effects

5.1 Economic

5.2 Security

6 Adaptation and mitigation

7 Social and political debate

8 Related climatic issues

9 See also

10 References

11 Further reading

12 External links



Terminology

The term "global warming" is a specific example of climate change, which can also refer to global cooling. In common usage, the term refers to recent warming and implies a human influence.[11] The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) uses the term "climate change" for human-caused change, and "climate variability" for other changes.[12] The term "anthropogenic global warming" is sometimes used when focusing on human-induced changes.

Causes



Components of the current radiative forcing as estimated by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.Main articles: Attribution of recent climate change and Scientific opinion on climate change

The Earth's climate changes in response to external forcing, including variations in its orbit around the Sun (orbital forcing),[13][14][15] volcanic eruptions,[16] and atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. The detailed causes of the recent warming remain an active field of research, but the scientific consensus[17][18] is that the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases due to human activity caused most of the warming observed since the start of the industrial era. This attribution is clearest for the most recent 50 years, for which the most detailed data are available. Some other hypotheses departing from the consensus view have been suggested to explain the temperature increase. One such hypothesis proposes that warming may be the result of variations in solar activity.[19][20][21]

None of the effects of forcing are instantaneous. The thermal inertia of the Earth's oceans and slow responses of other indirect effects mean that the Earth's current climate is not in equilibrium with the forcing imposed. Climate commitment studies indicate that even if greenhouse gases were stabilized at 2000 levels, a further warming of about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F) would still occur.[22]

Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere

Main articles: Greenhouse gas and Greenhouse effect

The greenhouse effect was discovered by Joseph Fourier in 1824 and was first investigated quantitatively by Svante Arrhenius in 1896. It is the process by which absorption and emission of infrared radiation by atmospheric gases warm a planet's lower atmosphere and surface.

Existence of the greenhouse effect as such is not disputed. Naturally occurring greenhouse gases have a mean warming effect of about 33 °C (59 °F), without which Earth would be uninhabitable.[23][24] Rather, the issue is how the strength of the greenhouse effect changes when human activity increases the atmospheric concentrations of some greenhouse gases.

On Earth, the major greenhouse gases are water vapor, which causes about 36–70% of the greenhouse effect (not including clouds); carbon dioxide (CO2), which causes 9–26%; methane (CH4), which causes 4–9%; and ozone, which causes 3–7%.[25][26] Molecule for molecule, methane is a more effective greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, but its concentration is much smaller so that its total radiative forcing is only about a fourth of that from carbon dioxide. Some other naturally occurring gases contribute very small fractions of the greenhouse effect; one of these, nitrous oxide (N2O), is increasing in concentration owing to human activity such as agriculture. The atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and CH4 have increased by 31% and 149% respectively since the beginning of the industrial revolution in the mid-1700s. These levels are considerably higher than at any time during the last 650,000 years, the period for which reliable data has been extracted from ice cores.[27] From less direct geological evidence it is believed that CO2 values this high were last attained 20 million years ago.[28] Fossil fuel burning has produced about three-quarters of the increase in CO2 from human activity over the past 20 years. Most of the rest is due to land-use change, in particular deforestation.[29]



Recent increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). The monthly CO2 measurements display small seasonal oscillations in an overall yearly uptrend; each year's maximum is reached during the Northern Hemisphere's late spring, and declines during the Northern Hemisphere growing season as plants remove some CO2 from the atmosphere.The present atmospheric concentration of CO2 is about 385 parts per million (ppm) by volume.[30] Future CO2 levels are expected to rise due to ongoing burning of fossil fuels and land-use change. The rate of rise will depend on uncertain economic, sociological, technological, and natural developments, but may be ultimately limited by the availability of fossil fuels. The IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios gives a wide range of future CO2 scenarios, ranging from 541 to 970 ppm by the year 2100.[31] Fossil fuel reserves are sufficient to reach this level and continue emissions past 2100, if coal, tar sands or methane clathrates are extensively used.[32]

Feedbacks

Main article: Effects of global warming#Positive feedback effects

The effects of forcing agents on the climate are complicated by various feedback processes.

One of the most pronounced feedback effects relates to the evaporation of water. Warming by the addition of long-lived greenhouse gases such as CO2 will cause more water to be evaporated into the atmosphere. Since water vapor itself acts as a greenhouse gas, the atmosphere warms further; this warming causes more water vapor to be evaporated, and so on until a new dynamic equilibrium concentration of water vapor is reached with a much larger greenhouse effect than that due to CO2 alone. Although this feedback process causes an increase in the absolute moisture content of the air, the relative humidity stays nearly constant or even decreases slightly because the air is warmer.[33] This feedback effect can only be reversed slowly as CO2 has a long average atmospheric lifetime.

Feedback effects due to clouds are an area of ongoing research. Seen from below, clouds emit infrared radiation back to the surface, and so exert a warming effect; seen from above, clouds reflect sunlight and emit infrared radiation to space, and so exert a cooling effect. Whether the net effect is warming or cooling depends on details such as the type and altitude of the cloud. These details are difficult to represent in climate models, in part because clouds are much smaller than the spacing between points on the computational grids of climate models. Nevertheless, cloud feedback is second only to water vapor feedback and is positive in all the models that were used in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.[33]

A subtler feedback process relates to changes in the lapse rate as the atmosphere warms. The atmosphere's temperature decreases with height in the troposphere. Since emission of infrared radiation varies with the fo

Answer 7

Easiest debate ever, the sun!

As the opposing side has no scientific evidence refuting this, it is an open and shut case. You win!

Answer 8

I will suggest reading this in its entirety. There are many reports out today that exaggerate the effects of man made global warming. I have always been interested in what credible sources have to say about the subject as opposed to all the hype that people quote or remember as part of their politics.

The following are parts of this article are cut and paste which I found informative:

Quoted from Dr David Viner, senior research scientist at the University of East Anglis’s climatic research unit.

1.

He says that the increased solar brightness over the past 20 years has not been enough to cause the observed climate changes but believes that the impact of more intense sunshine on the ozone layer and on cloud cover could be affecting the climate more than the sunlight itself.

2.

Dr Bill Burrows, a climatologist and a member of the Royal Meteorological Society, welcomed Dr Solanki's research. "While the established view remains that the sun cannot be responsible for all the climate changes we have seen in the past 50 years or so, this study is certainly significant," he said.

"It shows that there is enough happening on the solar front to merit further research. Perhaps we are devoting too many resources to correcting human effects on the climate without being sure that we are the major contributor."

3.

"The Sun's radiance may well have an impact on climate change but it needs to be looked at in conjunction with other factors such as greenhouse gases, sulphate aerosols and volcano activity," he said. The research adds weight to the views of David Bellamy, the conservationist. "Global warming - at least the modern nightmare version - is a myth," he said. "I am sure of it and so are a growing number of scientists. But what is really worrying is that the world's politicians and policy-makers are not.

4.

"Instead, they have an unshakeable faith in what has, unfortunately, become one of the central credos of the environmental movement: humans burn fossil fuels, which release increased levels of carbon dioxide - the principal so-called greenhouse gas - into the atmosphere, causing the atmosphere to heat up. They say this is global warming: I say this is poppycock."

Answer 9

Global warming is somewhat of a misnomer.

It really should be called climate change.

Throughout the history of the world, the climate has changed and shifted constantly.

It has gone through ice ages and thawed, and then repeats.

These climate shifts can take hundreds to thousands of years to complete.

During the Middle Ages, the earth was in an ice age, and eventually it thawed, but then receded into an ice age again.

Currently, we are coming out of an ice age, so naturally the earth's over all temperature will increase slowly. A shift in the average global temperature of 2 to 4 degrees Celsius can be the difference between and ice age and a heat wave.

This does not however mean that every place on the earth will get warmer. Some will get warmer, but others will suffer no changes, and others will get cooler. This happens because of the air's currents, which dictate the earth's climate. Scientists worry the air currents will shift if the polar caps continue to melt, because the ice controls the air. If the air currents change, so dos climate. So places known for agriculture could suffer great losses if the climate changes, due to changes in temperature, rainfall, etc. This is bad for everyone, because the population is dependent on these places for food and other goods.

The controversy does not lie in the concept of global climate change, which scientists agree is happening. What does stir debate is how much humans are contributing to the increased speed at which the earth's climate is changing. Some believe we are greatly increasing this natural process by emitting too many greenhouse gases & pollutants, while others believe these toxins have very little impact. The world will not end, it could just change dramatically, which may impact some populations. Som people could suffer drought & famine as a result. The problem is, scientists don't know how bad things can get or who will be affected.

Answer 10

a lot of things

Forests being cut down (they reduce co2)

Plankton dieing (they make 18% of our oxygen)

Cars

Pollution

Cows Burps (Research this one, because of the way cows digest food, with 4 stomachs, the contribute a LOT more then you would think)

Fires

Living things breathing

I dunno what else....