What is your opinion on global warming??

Question

given the facts we know about global warming, would you be willing to reduce the amount of heat/electricity we use in order to save our planet???

I think this is an important issue that needs to be addressed quickly if we want to see any significant change in the outcome.

Thoughts???

Answer 1

What facts do we know?  There are many opinions out there, but very few facts.  As far as I can see, there is a lot of conjecture, but no scientific data to support it.  This reminds me a lot of the evolution debate.  It seems every other day there is a story out there that makes evolutionists scratch their heads.  My thought on this is that there are a couple of facts that we do know.  Firstly, we know that naturally occurring things do FAR more damage to the ozone layer than anything people can do.  Things like volcanic eruptions and just the normal functions of animals do exponentially more than aerosols or car exhaust.  Now, do those things need to change a little bit, yes.  Do we need to lower our electricity use to see it happen, no.  That is like trying to drain the ocean with a spoon.  Good intention, lots of trouble, little result.

Answer 2

Well i really wish everyone in the world reduced their amounts of water and electricity usage, that could be such a simple thing to do, and start thinking of other ways how to prevent global warming.

But no, it's all about personal needs these day for them, let them see how they feel when we all melt and die.

Answer 3

Global warming is a controversial topic.

Just as there are supporters for the theory, there are also opponents for it. That includes scientists also.

Nasa, IPCC - which is the acronym for "Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change" and a whole lot of scientists give copious amounts of data, charts and satellite images about it while supporting their arguments.

They say that Carbon Dioxide, Nitrous Oxide, Methane, Water Vapor and all other such factors cause global warming.  Due to the phenomenal development of science the past few centuries, human beings are the main culprits in causing global warming. They have listed many human activities which cause global warming and suggest various actions to cut it down, such as using less and less energy, using green fuels such as ethanol, planting more trees and so on.

But the skeptics including scientists say that there is no foolproof method of measuring it.  They say that science is a subject, which shows every one how he/she can understand the various theories by having the ability to conduct our own experiments to prove it to us.

In the case of global warming, there is no possibility for the common folks to do experiments to convince themselves about it and hence they say that the topic is flawed.

For example there are various websites giving details of how global warming increases due to the increase of carbon dioxide due to man made causes. They show various charts, which show both carbon dioxide and global temperatures increasing over the past few decades. Hence according to them there is a co relation between them - that is, there is a "Cause and Effect" relationship between them, meaning the cause is Carbon Dioxide and the effect is increase in global temperature.

But the skeptics dispute this - their argument is : 'Can anybody say with conviction "Since due to man made causes so much Carbon Dioxide has been released into the atmosphere, so much temperature increase has taken place globally"?'

But then what should do we?

Should we reduce the usage of high energy consuming equipments, reduce the usage of cars, reduce the usage of air conditioners and so on or keep doing whatever we have been doing all these years?

In my opinion, there is nothing wrong in trying to reduce the generation of carbon dioxide by whichever means possible. One such move is to plant trees in our localities, as many trees as possible.  

We can get the details from this UNEP website: http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/...

Any other action in this respect is also welcome.

Answer 4

This is science.  Opinions don't matter, data does.

"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 and the first Commander of the Naval Space Command

Global warming is real and mostly caused by us.

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

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...

"There's a better scientific consensus on this [climate change] than on any issue I know - except maybe Newton's second law of dynamics".

Jerry Mahlman, NOAA

Good websites for more info:

http://profend.com/global-warming/

http://www.realclimate.org

"climate science from climate scientists"

Answer 5

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

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 very few 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.

The farmers 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

POSITIVE ACTIONS

if you want to help the planet ,plant a tree every week ,if everyone on the planet did we we would be able to slowdown the destructive processes

reduce carbon emisions,and they are already working on that by alternative forms of energy and regulations on carbon producing materials,aerosol cans,burning rubbish,industrial chimneys,powerplants etc.

the capture of carbon and the production of water and assist the aquiferous manta.

the world bank pays large subsidies for reforrestation to capture carbon and the best tree for this is the Pawlonia

Waterharvesting projects ,such as millions of small dams.to redirect over ground waterflows from the rains into the ground to supply subteranian water supplies.

the protection of existing forrests.

stop building more highways,urban planning to include vegetation stop building cities encourage people to return to the land to conduct their business from there which now has become possible thanks to the internet.

education to motivate people to auto sufficiency by building more home food gardens.

education on environmental awareness

education on family planning to curb over´populaion

Agricultural education and improvements to follow the principals or sustainability and soil management.

more environmental or land ,design to prevent bush fires,such as--fire breaks

,more dams.regulations and control for public behaviour

alternative effeciant public transport to discourage the use of the internal conbustion engine

recicling wastes,limit water use

these are Al gores sites

http://events.stepitup2007.org/............

http://www.stepitup2007.org/

http://events.stepitup2007.org/............

here are a 100 more 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... Source

Answer 6

The only fact is the planet is warming in recent years. Why or to what extent mankind is affecting this is still debatable. Further, there is no substantive evidence to suggest that if we stopped using energy altogether, that it would have any material effect. The earth goes through natural temperature changes and little is discussed about the positives of planet warming to which there are many.

Answer 7

yes. Time to save energy. Energy saved is energy produced. We must reduce the use of fossil fuels and go for solar, tidal, etc. energy.... The world is heating up very quickly. TIme to act.

Answer 8

I said this earlier, but I'd like to say it again since I really don't want people to overreact to this:

If you look throughout history, global warming is just part of the earth's climate cycle. There have always been spikes in temperature, something like every 100,000 years. Although the current warming cycle is a little bit higher because of human contribution, it won't be the one to dissolve the ozone and cause the earth to spontaneously burst into flames.

The world is basically overreacting because of nature. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. Al Gore needs to step back about a few million years and realize this is normal.

So the answer to your question is there is little we can do to STOP it, as it's an ever present cycle. The earth's increasing temperature will occur whether we're here or not, and it will then decrease again as time goes on. But we can alleviate it by cutting down on driving, saving on electricity, etc. Whatever Gore says in his documentary.

Believe us science geeks. This stuff is all we ever study:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200...