What is the response to the common sense idea that global warming is a natural, unavoidable occurence?

Question

I have heard that the natural change in atmospheric conditions and things that happen in our environment over which we have no control lead to global warming. The ice age came about with no help from man before. So why are there so many that believe it is the evil product of man and industry?

Answer 1

Man contributes to global warming by using the earths natural resources along with the natural decomposition of organic matter on earths surface as well as on the ocean floors. Think of all the real estate with vegitation, 75% of the earths surface is (water) ocean. Methane gas and hydrogen sulfide are among the most plentiful in this process. Also 60% of the air we breath is nitrogen, 21% is oxygen and the rest I believe is a mixture of other gasses, can`t remember the % or the names, alzhiemers is kicking in here. Also the volcanoe erruptions contribute to the mix for a complex global warming process. In short I believe it`s a mix of man made effects along with the natural process. We can control our effect, but are doomed with the natural process.

Answer 2

For one thing, because over the last two hundred years we have unintentionally changed the composition of the atmosphere in a way that will increase global temperatures, and now we're seeing evidence of that change taking place.  Sure, lots of things happened on Earth before we had any influence, but now we do influence things.  To be honest, the physics and chemistry behind anthropogenic global warming is not that hard to understand, at least the basics were understood in the 19th century.

People should ignore the petition of "32,000 scientists."  For one thing, science is not done by petition, it is done by research and publishing in refereed journals.  If those scientists were actively involved in climate research, that's what they would be doing.  Instead, many of them are dead and most of them have no training in climate science.  If you don't go to a climate scientist when you're sick, why go to a doctor (or metallurgist or engineer etc.) when you want to know about climate?

Answer 3

The response is to ask what causes those natural climate changes, and are they causing the current global warming?

The answer is that changes in solar output and the Earth's orbital cycle are what normally cause natural climate changes, but scientists have determined that they aren't causing the current warming.  See the link below for further details.

Answer 4

Common sense?

How can it possibly be benign to release hundreds of millions of years of stored carbon in the space of 150 years?

“The concentrations of greenhouse gases produced by man has risen significantly during the historical record and it is absolutely known (by reproducible, verifiable lab experiments on the physical properties of these gases) that these gases cause warming by absorbing the outgoing radiation from the earth. The skeptics have not produced any evidence that this rise in the greenhouse gas concentrations occurred by some natural process and they have also failed to explain how all the industrial emissions could have been absorbed by some natural process during the recent historical period.  There is no way to explain the observed greenhouse gas concentrations without human interference, and there is no credible way to claim that the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations has not caused a warming of the Earth’s surface. While there are other natural processes at work and while the climate system is highly complex, trying to discount the role of human involvement in recent climate change is speculation and opinion, not science.” - Asher Siebert.

Answer 5

This is an cause and effect problem with no answer

.. . ..

To say it is mankind that is doing it leave open the door of what caused the big freeze when the earth froze over

.. . .

And then the sun thermal out put is not a constant it has its ups and downs in thermal energy output

.. . ..

NASA noted that the solar thermal out put has been at a high for the last couple of years

. . ...

Not a few degrees out put  but in solar language of power out put

.. .. .

The polar caps of Mars have started to melt as of 5 years ago because of the heat increase of the sun

.. . ..

Pollution is only one addition of mankind the black top parking lots around the world

.. . ..

The deforestation is the massive change in global climate nail in the shoe

.. . ..

Answer 6

If over 31,000 American scientists can finally agree that it's natural and non man made, I don't understand why the alarmists on here (Bob and Dana are two of the major ones), can't come around.  It's just so mind boggling.

I very seriously doubt that Bob or Dana "Master of Science" know more about Global Warming than 31,000 American Scientists.

Of course, Bob's responses are usually copy-paste jobs.

Answer 7

The scientific data proves otherwise.  This is science and what counts is the data, not people's intuition.

There are other factors which have changed climate in the past.  But the data shows that they're not what's doing it now.

"I wasn’t convinced by a person or any interest group—it was the data that got me. I was utterly convinced of this connection between the burning of fossil fuels and climate change. And I was convinced that if we didn’t do something about this, we would be in deep trouble.”

Vice Admiral Richard H. Truly, USN (Ret.)

Former NASA Administrator, Shuttle Astronaut

Here are two summaries of the mountain of peer reviewed data that convinced Admiral Truly and the vast majority of the scientific community, short and long.

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Ima...

http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1-report....

summarized at:

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

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

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

EVERY major scientific organization has issued an official statement that this is real, and mostly caused by us.  The National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute of Physics, the American Chemical Society, the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Association, etc.

Good websites for more info:

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

http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/sci...

http://www.realclimate.org

"climate science from climate scientists"

http://environment.newscientist.com/chan...

Answer 8

well, yes both where very natural occurances, but the reason why so many people think man is cusing global warming is because think of how long the earth has been around, the ice age just happened really, and now that man is here all of  sudden we are getting a change in climate wy before the time it should happen naturally. and so though man isnt causing global warming we are speeding it up. and making it happen at a more rapid pace

Answer 9

human cause global warming. the ice age that happen long ago required millions of years to happen but now pollution caused by us cuts that time line more than half. this is what i think . heck i am only 15 .

Answer 10

I find it amazing that most alarmist completely ignore the Claw Hypothesis/ Homeostasis. Enlightening the world only on the absolution of speculation. They do have valid points, but have a difficult time tying natural variability into the grand scheme of things.

Answer 11

There is simply too much evidence that what is occuring now is unusual.  Scientists have studied core samples and can determine what the Earth's climate was like.  

Blob, Bob and Dana provide some very definitive research and links.  Bravo gents.

Liss is a misinformant and a "slammer" - not sure why "her" agenda is so vehement, but she didn't answer the question - simply slammed some stand up dudes.

Answer 12

the sun is actually at its coolest stage right now. a natural heating event couldn't really happen since the sun is the reason it gets hot. there have to be other factors involved.

Answer 13

I think a big part of it is denial. I don't understand the mentality... It can't be compared to natural occurrences for the simple fact that it's obvious we humans have such a huge impact on the natural world. The temperature, slowly but surely, began climbing at the time we began exponentially using Earth's natural resources. Coincidence? NO. We alter it more than any other living thing. You can see our man made lights from outer space. The dinosaurs roamed for 250 million years .. I believe we have a chance to exist as long.

Answer 14

Because we know what causes ice ages and what causes ice ages to end. And we can rule that out.

Ice ages and inter-glacial periods are triggered by changes in Earth's orbit called Milankovitch cycles (by astronomers) or "orbital forcing" (by climatologists). Since Earth's orbit can be computed for thousands of years into the past and future, we know that orbital forcing peaked 6000 years ago, during the Holocene Maximum, and is cooling the planet right now. Here's the peer-reviewed science:

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

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

Answer 15

Because common sense is not so common.