What are your thoughts about global warming?

Question

I'm doing a research project in school on global warming (and how it's effecting wildlife), and I would just like to know what you people think about it.

Do you believe it is real, or just another stage that the earth is going through? Please support your opinions.

Do you think that people these days are knowledgeable about what is going on with it, or do you think that people know but just don't care?

The population of chinstrap penguins has decreased about 60% over the years because the krill that they feed off of live under a layer of ice, and since the earth is warming and the ice is melting, the krill population is declining.

Polar bears may be added to the endangered species list because their habitat is melting away.

Reindeer are moving south because they cannot get to the grass up north anymore because of freezing rain.

Also, if you have any ideas on how to help global warming, please feel free to add a possible solution or two to your answer. Thank you!

Answer 1

"Real" and "just a stage" are not contradictory. It can be real AND just a stage at the same time. A real stage.

No, I do not think people are knowledgeable. They are being fed a bunch of political propaganda and cannot get real unbiased facts any more.

The rest of your question is just a bunch of statements. So I guess it is just more political propaganda. Look at the bad things happening! It must be our fault! Like the lawyer who shows bloody pictures of the body to horrify the jury and make them mad so they will convict, but without actually showing any evidence that it was the defendant who actually committed the crime.

Answer 2

Global warming is real and mostly caused by us.  Three reasons, with solid support, most important first.

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

Science is quite good about exposing bad science or hoaxes:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/ATG/polywater...

There's a large number of people who agree that it is, who are not liberals, environmentalists, stupid, or conceivably part of a "conspiracy".  Just three examples of many:

"Global warming is real, now, and it must be addressed."

Lee Scott, CEO, Wal-Mart

"Our nation has both an obligation and self-interest in facing head-on the serious environmental, economic and national security threat posed by global warming."

Senator John McCain, Republican, Arizona

“DuPont believes that action is warranted, not further debate."

Charles O. Holliday, Jr., CEO, DuPont

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 3

There is so much to say...but I'm to lazy to say it. What the documentary that came out last year, very good it's called "An Inconvenient Truth".

Answer 4

It's liberal bullshit.

Answer 5

Global climate change has been happening for billions of years. I know I study it. The Earth has been much warmer, and much cooler. The problem with the current warming trend is it is much quicker then most warmings we have seen in the rock record. The only way we can get these results in the GCM (global climate models) is to add in greenhouse gases produced by humans. My question is will humans get smart enough to start reducing CO2, because that is the only way to slow the process.

Answer 6

Be careful about depictions of wildlife in trouble.  Most wildlife exists on the edge of survival.  Their populations are held in check by nature.  They have good times where their populations grow and tough times where they decline.  The declining times are never pleasent.  The penguins have been pressured before.  The polar bear populations are in no trouble at all.  Reindeer are moving south because that's where the food is.  They are very mobile animals.

A warm planet can sustain more life than a cold one.  If you feel you have to worry, worry about a cooling planet.  Then you would REALLY see some wildlife in trouble.

Answer 7

How can these "Bush-backing right wingers" not understand that Global warming is a problem?  I am so sick and tired of them trying to deny what is happening to the earth.  I understand that most of the media we are being fed is produced by politicians, so I don't read that.  Try going to Green-Peace, or any other number of sites.

Have they not seen a change in weather patterns as of late?  What about the fact that last year, had the highest amount of hurricanes in years?  

Do you people not see that if the world keeps getting worse, we will not have a planet left for our children or grand-children?  Or does that not bother anyone?

Answer 8

I don't think there is anything we can do about global cooling, I think its too late.

Answer 9

Watch "Planet Earth" Sunday on the Discovery channel.

Answer 10

there is a lot of evidence of man made climate change .and there are many reasons to hide the truth

scientists who work for politicians ,get paid by these politicians and they have downplayed the facts because solutions are expensive and means change and change effects many peoples incomes,and upsets profit margins,so most of the world is kept in the dark of the real things that are going on.for political and economic reasons

Global warming is a very complex collection of many effects

this text only covers some aspects of global warming ,mainly agriculture i.e.effects of deforestation and subsequent man made desertification

water and air polution such as caused by

industrial contamination ,the contaminating effects of the cities(the internal combustion engine) ,are other stories,

and all of these are also man made ,such as the high industrial chimneys pumping contamination into the clouds and the burning of tires,some of this polution has been found in the ice in the polar regions

there are natural cycles in the planets life

but a lot is influenced by mans existance ,and this is increasing with overpopulation,putting strains on Natural resources and increasing contaminations as well as destructions of essential componants the ensure living conditions for all life forms

climate change is caused in great parts by desertification ,and most desertification is caused by man

the thinner ozone layer helps to speed this up.and this is caused mainly by air polution ,also as a result of mans actions

DEFORESTATION

in the past

the Building of the Spanish Armada deforrested Spain

the Phoenician trading fleet turned Lebanon in a dessert

Ganges Khan put everything to the sword and torch, then filled the wells with sand,

the sun finished of the job and whole countries turned to wastelands.

Today ,

Slash and burn destroys the protective vegetation (which helps to form the soil ),

leaving it open to the Sun ,and then ,wind and, water erosion.

The Plough turns the soil ,killing micro-biotic life (essential to soil building) and accelerates the drying out .

Pressures of the :vehicles, cattle and rain impact brings the salt to the surface.

Mono cultures ,aided by chemicals Exhaust and pollutes the soil .

Adding to this the effects of overgrazing has resulted in large scale desertification.

and there is less and less water (because of deforestation),to irrigate this production ,Farmers

are overpumping deep carbon aquifiers

and plowing more and more unstable lands going into the jungles and onto mountain slopes

expanding populations and expanding farming ,that has to keep pace with the expanding populations are very strong forces that encroach upon the rainforest's

clearing them for farming and settlement areas .

Rainforest's always are in third world countries and always in third world countries corruption and the need for money s highest

in North Africa,India,Mexico ,millions of people are effected by land loss and desertification and some have died as a result

,the Sahara is growing by 7 kilometers a year

and most of the desserts we know are a results of mans actions ,and they are increasing ,not getting less ,in the dinosaurs days ,there were no desserts.

collectively this planet is drying up ,

each degree rise in temperature means 10%crop loss

and there is less and less water (because of deforestation),to irrigate this production ,

and there are less and less farmers to do it..

Arable lands and their farms are lost all over the globe. Many farmers sons abandon farming and head for the cities.

Northern China is drying up, what once were millions of food producing people, are now hungry refugees ,running for their lives from the all consuming dust storms.

This will have a great effect on world food prices when they start buying at what ever cost, to feed their people.

Africa and Asia are loosing millions of people to AIDS , many of whom were food producers.

The farmers that are left have to feed some 70 million more people than the year before but with less topsoil.

Over the last half century,

Population growth & rising incomes have tripled world grain demand from 640 million tons to 1,855 million

In the near future the global farming community will not be able to feed every body ,food prices will continue to rise. .

RISING SEAS

The northpole is melting ,and we will know it without ice in our life times.

this does not affect the sea level because it is ice that is already in the water.but the melting ice from Green land and the south pole ,are another matter

Global warming could be slowed down to some extent,but it will mean global co operation between all countries ,and taking into account human nature and the world politics ,it is unlikely that this will happen,

At least not untill we are all in the middle of planetary disastres and it becomes a battle for the survival of humanity every where,instead of just some third world countries Source(s) here are a 100 ways to help

http://www.eco-gaia.net/forum-pt/index.p...

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/natur...

Lester E Brown is the director and founder of the global institute of Environment in the United states .he has compiled a report based on all the satalite information available from NASA,and all the information that has

come from Universities and American embassies WORLD WIDE ,

his little book--a planet under stress , Plan B has been trans lated into many languages and won the best book award in 2003

Permaculture Consultant for the department of Ecology for the regional government in Guerrero Mexico http://byderule.spaces.live.com...

Answer 11

Be careful how you do you project because the whole issue of "global warming" has become such a politically charged issue that scientists with dissenting opinions are having their careers threatened.  It's a new form of political correctness.

Having said that, there are a number of things that should be taken into consideration.

1.  The earth has been MUCH warmer and MUCH cooler in the past.  About 55 Million years ago, the estimated water temperature at the North Pole was about 75F.  Not much chance for ice to form when the water is that warm.  About 40,000 years ago, much of North America was covered in glacial ice.  What did prehistoric humans do to cause enough warming to melt all that ice?  It was warmer about 1000 years ago that it is today.  What man made thing caused it to be warmer 1000 years ago then today?

2.  Carbon Dioxide represents 0.4% of out atmosphere.  If the volume of CO2 doubled it would still represent less than 1% of our atmosphere.  Two things you are not hearing in the press is:  Plant growth rapidly accelerates when CO2 levels rise; "excess" CO2 could cause the earth to become greener!

3.  The largest gas affecting global warming is water; when are we going to start talking about controlling the water vapor on earth?

4. The biggest factor affecting the earth's temperature is the sun.  We will soon need to find a way to control sunlight I guess.

5. The US Senate voted NOT to join the Kyoto treaty by a vote of 95-0.  This was during the Clinton administration.  If NOT ONE US Senator voted for ratification what does that tell you?

6. The earth's climate is a very non-linear and random environment.  Unless the data is measured over thousands or millions of years, the information gained may not be valid.

My personal feeling on global warming is you have to "follow the money".  I mean this in 2 ways: first, the initial proponents of the global warming were generally environmentalist/socialists who wanted a method to slow or reduce industrial development and also redistribute wealth among nations.  This showed in the formation of the Kyoto protocol where the US would have paid heavily but so called "developing nations" like India and China would have been exempt.  

Secondly, in the research world, grant money is the life blood for many universities.  Governments and industry usually provide grant money to research things which are deemed critical to our society.  Early in the last decade, AIDS was receiving a lot of attention and many grant seekers tried to somehow tie their work to AIDS research.  Now "global warming" is the cause of the moment and it seems to help get grant dollars flowing.

Anyway, please take a look at the link below to give you a detailed discussion on the issue.  Please also note at the end of the document it is signed on by more than 19,000 doctors and scientists.

Answer 12

I'm not worried about it at all. I heard that the damage is already done and even if we tried to reverse it would take forever anyway. And..if it wasnt us polluting the Earth then something else would have...

The earth goes through cycles of heating and cooling on its own...We are in the middle of two Ice Ages right now. The Ice Ages are to do with the Earth changing its orbit around the sun. You know how the Earth moves towards and away from the sun during the year? Well imagine that every few hundred thousands of years apart and the Earths orbit moving further away from the sun than usual and staying there...cooling the Earth...and then moving back towards the sun back to its 'normal' orbit... That creates an Ice Age. But its not the only contributer.

I could go on forever but I wont...

Read the book called "Revenge of Gaia", its very informative.

I am, however, worried about the volcano in Yellow Stone National Park that is yet to blow!!! That bugger will send us into a VERY long winter...