What exactly is global warming?

Question

People are always going, 'it kills the polar bears!' but i know it's more than that.

Answer 1

"Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-twentieth century, and its projected continuation. "

Pretty much, the harmful chemicals and popultion are eating away at the ozone layers that keep harmful sun rays out. The ozone wholes are slowly getting bigger and the rays can get in more easily. It is told that areas of the North/South pole's glaicers are melting, soon to cause a global flood.

Watch Al Gore's movie "The Inconvieniet Truth" I had to. Three times. It was informative the first time but really boring the other times. But it does explain alot.

Answer 2

Some gases ("greenhouse gases") let sunlight in, which warms the Earth, and then block that heat from leaving. That's the "greenhouse effect", and it's a natural thing, mostly caused by water vapor.

Man is making excessive amounts of greenhouse gases, mostly by burning fossil fuels. That causes the delicate natural balance to go out of whack and the Earth warms. That's global warming.

It won't be a Hollywood movie style disaster. Gradually coastal areas will flood and agriculture will be damaged. But it will be very bad. Rich countries will cope, but it will take huge amounts of money. In poor countries many people will die of starvation, but not all of them.

Most scientists say, in 20-50 years. But we need to start right now to fix it, fixing it will take even longer than that.

Really good website for more information here:

http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/f101.a...

Lots of numerical scientific data proving it real here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Clima...

http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report...

Proof that most scientists think it's real and mostly caused by us here:

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

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/fu...

Answer 3

global warming is an increase in the overall levels of temperature of the earth. global climate change has been proven to be cyclical. people like to say CO2 and other green houses gases, but CO2 only makes up .054% of the green houses gases (most of it comes from water vapor) and fractions of that .054% is man made. the ice caps arent melting, they are actually expanding - http://www.nasa.gov/lb/vision/earth/envi...

http://www.globalwarminghoax.com/news.ph...

it snowed in baghdad for the first time in recored history -

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/i...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/1...

and temperatures are going to continue to decrease over the next couple of years

http://globalwarminghoax.wordpress.com/2...

http://digg.com/environment/Global_tempe...

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppa...

Answer 4

Heat from the sun is trapped at the Earth's surface by a blanket of greenhouse gases. This "greenhouse effect" keeps the Earth warmer than it otherwise would be. Human activities are rapidly increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, causing more heat to be trapped and increasing global temperatures.

Answer 5

Its the process of the globe warming because of increased concentrations of greenhouse gases. These gases trap infrared radiation reflecting off of the earth from escaping the atmosphere thereby warming the atmosphere. While many factors affect global temperature, human activity is adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and tilting balance of earth temperature to a warmer state.

Furthermore, people keep mentioning the ozone hole and global warming in the same sentence are mistaken and obviously havent been reading quality articles. While both are serious problems, they arent really related

Answer 6

its when the earth is heating up and eventually the whole world is going to flood becuase the galciers in antartica are going to melt ...which i think is bologna so yea it jst a thing the gov't or who ever made up to make a fast buck

Answer 7

a scam.

Answer 8

Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere.  It warms the earth and melts the ice caps.  That takes away the habitat for species like the polar bears.

Answer 9

WHAT IS GLOBAL WARMING?

Carbon dioxide and other gases warm the surface of the planet naturally by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. This is a good thing because it keeps our planet habitable. However, by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil and clearing forests we have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere and temperatures are rising.

The vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is real, it’s already happening and that it is the result of our activities and not a natural occurrence.1 The evidence is overwhelming and undeniable.

We’re already seeing changes. Glaciers are melting, plants and animals are being forced from their habitat, and the number of severe storms and droughts is increasing.

Answer 10

its what liberals beleive in. somthing that started becasue ale gore said its happening! its  a fake! it was actually hotter 50 years ago then today!