Who's to blame for global warming?

Question

The main idea is that people are the main culprits for globle warming, but i recently heard that natural occuring things like, volcanos and the breakdown of leaves in the environment also make a contribution..is this true? if so how much of an issue is it?

Answer 1

err...irresponsible human;

Answer 2

I'll try to explain you in the simplest way:

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the highest the last 600,000 years. Has nothing to do with the natural processes, but only with what humans have done the last 300 years.

Long ago, the atmosphere was full of carbon dioxide. Plants consumed carbon dioxide and gradually died, with the carbon dioxide converting into coal and petroleum, deep beneath the surface, which allowed other lifeforms to develop - the ones which use oxygen as energy.

This carbon is being released again into the atmosphere, causing the same climatic conditions which existed so long ago, before animals could flourish.

Whatever else you hear; like natural causes contributing to what is going on now, may be coming from petroleum politicians, corrupted scientists and other criminals of humanity. Stay away from them.

Answer 3

Yes they do but their contribution is only very minor. Here is a section from an essay I am writing on the subject...

Global warming is resulting from the enhanced greenhouse effect. The ‘greenhouse’ is the naturally occurring gasses in the troposphere that help keep the heat from the suns rays inside this level of the atmosphere during the night and repel it during the day. Without the greenhouse gases being present the earth would be inhabitable.

The gases that occur naturally in the atmosphere are methane, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and water vapors. The enhanced green house effect occurs when natural level of the gases present increases due to human activity. Carbon dioxide is raised by the combustion of fossil fuels and deforestation, nitrogen oxides have been raised though the use of fertilizers for agriculture, water vapor increase has been caused by factories and the process of using steam as a form of energy and methane increase is due to the fermentation of rice patties and an increase in the population of humans and cows. There are also several new gases that have been released and created by humans, these are CFC’s found in old fridges, air conditioners and industry and ozone. The increase and addition of these gases is preventing more heat from escaping into the upper atmosphere and retaining it in the troposphere, this is slowly causing the global temperature to rise and the effects that come with it.

Answer 4

In general, mankind.  We relentlessly burn fossil fuels (oil, coal and natural gas) without adequate thought of the consequences, we consume products wastefully, increasing the demand of such products, thus increasing the burning of fossil fuels.  Also, man relentlessly destroys the forests of the world, particularly deciduous and tropical forests, the very things that help to curb carbon dioxide levels, to support the ever-increasing human population.  Indeed, man is the ultimate culprit.  However, natural processes such as volcanic eruptions, animal respiration and time, also contribute to global warming.

Answer 5

Measured data shows it's mostly us.  The sun is about 10% of it, and volcanoes cool the Earth slightly because of the dust.  Nature is very good at recycling natural CO2, not so good at dealing with the fossil fuels we burn.  Nature thought it had that carbon stashed away millions of years ago.

Climatologists include all these things in their analyses, of course.  Contrary to what some people seem to think, they know their job.

Here's the data.

Very short version:

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

The best summary of the data available:

http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf

Scientists have seen much stranger things than global warming (like Einstein's relativity or quantum mechanics) proved to be true by data.  So the data, not "logical" arguments, is what they go by.  The data is why why the vast majority of scientists agree that it's real and mostly caused by us.  Data about that here:

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

If you want to know more, here's the best website (warning - it's very big) with lots of data:

http://www.realclimate.org

"climate science from climate scientists"

Answer 6

That's not correct.  There is a normal cycle of the production and breakdown of CO2--as anyone who paid attention in grade school science knows.  The problem is that there is excess CO2 over and above that being added to the atmosphere, increasing the total amount of CO2 and thuss creating the greenhouse effect.  And that is caused by human activity--primarily the burning of fossil fuels.

Possible alternative explanations--volcanicemmissions, etc. were examined years ago by scientists and found not to be factors (e.g., there has been no increase in volcanic activity over the last century or so).

Your best bet for scientific news/information is to stick to websites like nasa.gov, livescience.com, or to legitimate popular science publications like National Geographic, etc.  The people who continue to claim such "causes" are responsible for global warming are spreading information either out of ignorance of the science involved or deliberately on behlalf of special interests like the oil companies.

Answer 7

i think that people of western civilisations...eg USA... coz they use cars soooooo much.. and iv seen proof of them using cars for everything... and its so sickening.. swer.. and volcanos and stuff they dont happen all the time but people drive cars everyday...millions of them....so the earth aint to blame

Answer 8

USA BECUASE  SHIFTING EVERY INDUSTRY TO CHINA WHERE THERE IS NO CONTROL ON ENVIRONMENT!

Answer 9

yes, volcanos emit greenhouse gasses, as does plant life. Nature has evolved to accomidate these emissions and our enviornoment can absorb the occassional volcano.

However, I had a geophysist (phd & all) tell me, that the amount of CO2 released by our cars and power plants is equal to having a Mt. St. Helen's eruption every single day of the year.

Yes, there are multiple causes, but the unnatural release of fossil fuel emissions is what is creating this imbalance.  And unfortunatly, global warming has a flywheel effect.

For instance, the tundra consists of frozen CO2.  As the Tundra metls, more CO2 is  released into the athmosphere, which in turn causes the Tundras meling rate to increase.

Same thing with ice coverage.  As light colored ice melts, the darker water is exposed to sunlight, which absorbs more sunlight and heat and causes even more polar ice sheets to melt.

In otherwords, forget about terrorist, the real threat to us is the climate changes that we are starting to experience.

Answer 10

industrial owners!!!!!!!

Answer 11

Here is an excellent lecture that discusses the politics and bad science of global warming.  Like the lecturer says, it is a biased report to counteract the pro global warming biased reports in the media.  Then you can make up your mind.  This is in contrast to the environmentalist who claim to believe them because all "experts" believe it (not true),  so there is no need to question the science.  Who has something to hide?

http://www.fcpp.org/main/media_file_wm.p...