Who thinks Global Warming is a cycle?

Question

I mean when the dino's were alive it was hot, but then they all died and it became cold=Ice Age. And recent studies show the Earth has been warming up for over 300 years. I mean we are definatley speeding Global Warming up, but is it really hair spray? What do you think? Oh, ya, and do you think its stupid that people are freaking out about the Polar Bears? I mean, if its not Global Warming it will be pochers right?

Answer 1

I do. I've almost been convinced AGW was real though.

Answer 2

i think its possible that it is, but i think were not helpin out. wht u said about the polar bears is true, but at least wth the pochers, there can b ways to get them and prevent them from harmin them. but i think we should worry more about them drowning. more r dying from drowning

Answer 3

I do.

Answer 4

AGW believers are grossly distorting the science when they say they have "proven" that the current warming is the result of CO2 because there is no proof. All they have are dubious computer models which were designed based on our incomplete knowledge of climate.

The bottom line is we know that cycles of the sun and the oceans affect climate but we don't really know how.  It is possible that CO2 is the only cause of the current warming, however, it is impossible to know for sure.

There is a lot of good peer reviewed science that acknowledges that CO2 causes some warming but demonstrates that there is an upper bound on the amount of warming that CO2 can cause. This science suggests that other factors are likely acting along side CO2 and that we are not likely to see out of control warming in the future.

Answer 5

Normally global warming is part of a cycle.  This time it's not.

There are many basic scientific facts which can only be explained if the current global warming is being caused by an increased greenhouse effect due to carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere from humans burning fossil fuels.

For example, the planet is warming as much or more during the night than day.  If the warming were due to the Sun, the planet should warm a lot more during the day when the Sun has influence.  Greenhouse gases trap heat all the time, so they warm the planet regardless of time of day.  Another example is that the upper atmosphere is cooling because the greenhouse gases trap the heat in the lower atmosphere.  If warming were due to the Sun, it would be warming all layers of the atmosphere.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

We know it's warming, and we've measured how much:

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science...

Scientists have a good idea how the Sun and the Earth's natural cycles and volcanoes and all those natural effects change the global climate, so they've gone back and checked to see if they could be responsible for the current global warming.  What they found is:

Over the past 30 years, all solar effects on the global climate have been in the direction of (slight) cooling, not warming.  This is during a very rapid period of global warming.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/62902...

http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/media/pro...

So the Sun certainly isn't a large factor in the current warming.  They've also looked at natural cycles, and found that we should be in the middle of a cooling period right now.

"An often-cited 1980 study by Imbrie and Imbrie determined that 'Ignoring anthropogenic and other possible sources of variation acting at frequencies higher than one cycle per 19,000 years, this model predicts that the long-term cooling trend which began some 6,000 years ago will continue for the next 23,000 years.'"

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

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

So it's definitely not the Earth's natural cycles.  They looked at volcanoes, and found that

a) volcanoes cause more global cooling than warming, because the particles they emit block sunlight

b) humans emit over 150 times more CO2 than volcanoes annually

http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/Gases/man....

So it's certainly not due to volcanoes.  Then they looked at human greenhouse gas emissions.  We know how much atmospheric CO2 concentrations have increased over the past 50 years:

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

And we know from isotope ratios that this increase is due entirely to human emissions from burning fossil fuels.  We know how much of a greenhouse effect these gases like carbon dioxide have, and the increase we've seen is enough to have caused almost all of the warming we've seen over the past 30 years (about 80-90%).  You can see a model of the various factors over the past century here:

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

This is enough evidence to convince almost all climate scientists that humans are the primary cause of the current global warming.

Answer 6

not me, oh and i think pochers wouldn't bother to go to the north pole to get a few endangered polar bears.

Answer 7

YES, This is a normal climate cycle and I wish these people would explain why the other planets in our solar system are

getting warmer, maybe the sun is getting hotter??

Answer 8

Not me.  The scientific data proves it's not a natural cycle, THIS TIME.  Which is why these guys say it's mostly 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.

Polar bears are important because they're a sign of the oncoming problems which will seriously bother us.

Answer 9

part of it >  yes but not all.  the population is increasing every year and so are all the problems which come  with it. and global warming is one of them

Answer 10

There is little doubt that the earth is warming, but no one can say with 100% certainty what the cause is. Scientists believe we humans are the cause, and I am inclined to believe that reasoning, however I do not rule out that what is happening to the earth isn't part of some climate cycle. Recorded history only goes back so far, and isn't all that detailed. Scientists base a vast majority of their theories on evidence obtained from ice core samples, but could the regression in these samples be part of some extremely long weather cycle. Nature may be responsible for the inevitable warming that is happening to our planet, however there is no doubt in my mind that the human race is helping mother nature along faster than she is capable of moving herself.

Answer 11

There is a cycle, but it's well understood.  Too well for unrelated things like Global Warming, the Little Ice Age or Medieval Warming period to be related to it.

I don't know about the polar bears.  They've been in trouble as a species for a long time.  People whose personalities haven't advanced past the stone age see all the other predators as competitors.  The main change with Global Warming is that the scientists who used to monitor them year round, living on the ice floes can no longer do so.  Cessation of hunting has brought a small increase in population since they were once on the brink of extinction.  There are a lot of variables, but its certainly not stupid to be concerned.  They are the largest land predator, and their loss would be a terrible thing for human knowledge.  Look at the time and effort that's going into trying to clone a mammoth.  They aren't doing that for fun, there is a huge amount we can learn.  The whole thing is sad and depressing.

Answer 12

It is a natural cycle, and polar bears are doing just fine. Scientists who study them have noted that most populations are actually increasing in number.

Answer 13

Just wait until they crank up the worlds largest particle accelerator in Sweden/Denmark (??)..........once they get out of court, by scientists suing to stop them from starting it.

Want to read some truly scary "sci-fi" scenarios ?

Problem is, its like GW.................everyones working off theories and hypothesis, but IF.............................this might replace GW as the most debated and contested issue................no, guess not.

Answer 14

Of course it's a cycle....

and can "global warming" explain why this past year was one of the coldest in history?

But I'm sure Mr. Gore in all his environmental reverence will come up with some corny explanation.

Answer 15

The specific difference that makes what is going on in the atmosphere right now versus anything in the geologic past is that temperature and carbon-dioxide (CO2) have been closely related over the past 450,000 years, with temperature leading changes, but now CO2 is leading temperature by a huge and ever-growing gap.

In the 1850's CO2 began to spike above it's long-term average, and is now far beyond any level reached during the prior 450,000 years, which stayed below 300-ppm for that time and is today above 390-ppm.

The only reason temperature hasn't soared is the ocean, which is acting as a heat sink and in so doing rises about equally from the expansion of the seawater as it warms and the rest runoff from meltwater as the air also heats up worldwide, especially at the poles.

So, if the ocean is rising we are not in control, it should remain relatively static in level over time. The fact that it's rising is bad news, our planet is out of balance thermally and trying desperately to re-balance at a much higher temperature.

The continued rise in sea-level within a century will flood and destroy every major sea port in the world as the sea can and will rise at least another 15m/50ft higher than today if we don't reverse what we're doing.

For what's happening on polar studies, all recent work shows that the sea ice in the arctic is significantly smaller in area, also thinner and much younger in age, both a recent and disturbing trend. NASA/NOAA websites have articles and the latest satellite data.

The polar bear depends on the seal to live, the seal depends on the ice to survive and raise its young, the two animals are one. To the Inuit, they also are one with the seal in tradition, they also depended on the seal for their basic needs, they and the seal also are one.

The sea ice is by far thinner and younger now than a decade ago, there are fewer reliable places to raise seal pups since the ice is breaking up earlier, there are fewer seals, so, there are thus fewer polar bears. Other evidence is that young bears are drowning, having to swim tens of miles of open water where until a decade ago there had always been sea ice, while their parents survive, the swims are becoming too long for a young bear to make it.

This is really blowing it to allow to happen and be conscious of why.

We all kill these creatures every time we step on the gas, there's just no gun to see a bullet get fired from ... if you destroy their habitat, which is sea ice, you destroy them just as if you pulled a trigger. We are destroying their habitat, it's documented in the maps of sea ice volume and area made from satellite data, we are killing them off.

That is our legacy to future generations looking back at us at the moment. To call all this evidence a "maybe" is like so dumb it's an amazing social phenomena, quite remarkable and sure to be noted by historians.

The only short-term way to really reduce emissions is to stop burning gasoline and convert to bio-diesel immediately, that alone is a practical first step.

Current engines can run on diesel type fuels with minor changes, people have run their cars on recycled fast-food oil and other creative sources since the 1970's in Seattle, just don't tell anyone ... you can smell the fries go by.

Answer 16

Normally it is, but this time its different. We're not helping the situation either. ESPECIALLY YOU. WHat the h**l are you talking about? It's not stupid at all to think about the effects of global warming and the polar bear's endangerment. They are losing their home and I'm sure if the earth was heating up in your hometown and it was too warm to survive THEN you'd want ppl to worry now, wouldn't you? Many arctic species are losing their homes due to the terrible tragedy occuring as we speak. Polar Bears are amazing animals and I can't believe you just said that.