Why are some people so skeptical about global warming???

Question

the signs are all there!!!

Answer 1

Some are skeptical of anything that is common knowledge, they often believe in conspiracy theories.  Others are conservative politically.  If Al Gore or environmentalists say it it must be wrong.  And a worldwide problem that demands an international solution is difficult for them to accept.

But many are just humans who don't like change.  Global warming demands change or threatens a big change.  It's easier for a lot of people to deny it exists.

It will be interesting to see if the conservatives change their minds now that genuine hard core conservatives accept it as fact.  They could say that John McCain, who said:

""Our nation has both an obligation and self-interest in facing head-on the serious environmental, economic and national security threat posed by global warming."

is not a true conservative.  It's hard to say that about these guys:

"I agree with you (Gore) that the debate over climate change is over."

Rep. Dennis Hastert, Republican, Illinois

"the evidence is sufficient that we should move towards the most effective possible steps to reduce carbon loading in the atmosphere"

Newt Gingrich, former Republican Speaker of the House

From his own website:

"Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich challenged fellow conservatives Tuesday to stop resisting scientific evidence of global warming"

http://www.newt.org/backpage.asp?art=433...

Answer 2

because it's a lie.

join the heresy

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...

Answer 3

You are correct, they are there, and they keep re-appearing about every 10,000 years or so too.  They appear to alternate with periods of global cooling (ironically)...go figure.

Answer 4

The theory of man-made global warming is false.  Anyone who believes otherwise has not investigated the evidence or is purposely remaining ignorant to the legitimate opposition to global warming.  I have given up an one and a half hours to watch “An Inconvenient Truth” so I ask you to do the same and watch the movie detailing the opposition.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...  

And another video for those of you short on time: http://www.friendsofscience.org/index.ph...

Some more general resources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warm...

http://www.friendsofscience.org/index.ph...

http://www.john-daly.com/

CO2 is not causing the globe to warm the opposite is true, the warming is increasing the atmospheric CO2.  When the world heats it gradually increases the temperature of the oceans which serve as the largest CO2 sink.  As the oceans heat up they release CO2 which is stored in them.  The information comes from the same data Al Gore uses, the temperature always goes up before the concentration of CO2 goes up.

http://www.lavoisier.com.au/papers/artic...

CO2 makes up only .03% of our atmosphere.  Water vapor, another greenhouse gas, makes up 1-4% of our atmosphere, this gas is acknowledged to be the main greenhouse gas.  All human activities combined contribute only 6 Gigatons of CO2 to the atmosphere each year.  Animals, through respiration, decomposition, etc contribute 150 Gigatons of CO2 to the atmosphere.  So humans contribute only a small amount of CO2 to the atmosphere which is already in very small concentrations in the atmosphere.

http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov/science.html This is where my data came from, it is an interesting site, it displays the same graphics as Al Gore in his movie but it tells how low the human contribution is.  So Al Gore is using the same data but coming to a different conclusion, who do you want to believe a politician with no scientific training or the NASA CO2 laboratory, a group of scientists who spend their entire careers studying CO2.

We know the greenhouse effect is real it is a necessary effect to keep our planet at a habitable temperature.  However if our current warming is due to greenhouse gasses it would cause warming in the troposphere , but the troposphere is actually getting cooler.

http://wwwghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/temperature... That points to other explanations to our current warming.

So what is causing our current warming, it is the sun.

http://web.dmi.dk/solar-terrestrial/spac...

http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2003/s...

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/06...

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

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/...

http://www.globalwarming.org/article.php...

The fact that only the earth’s surface is warming points to direct heating from the sun rather than heating due to greenhouse gasses.  Also other planets in our solar system are warming pointing to a common cause of warming, that common cause being the sun.

http://www.livescience.com/environment/0...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/...

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/sola...

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/sola...

The global warming crowd says our glaciers are melting and animals will suffer this is another false claim.

http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2Sci...

http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA235.htm...

http://www.worldclimatereport.com/

The global warming crowd also insists our seas are rising due to global warming, however this is not entirely correct.  Seas in certain areas are rising, there is no global sea rise.  The seas have been rising ever since the last ice age: http://globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:H...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Post-...

These two sources show that sea level increase now has actually leveled off from a very steep rise for the past 20 thousand years.  For proof of this look here:

http://www.climateark.org/articles/1999/...

A mark left by Sir James Clark Ross, an Antarctic explorer, in 1841 is still visible.  Not only that but the mark was placed in 1841 to show how high the sea was, not only is the mark visible it is 30cm above current sea levels.  Now it is possible that the mark was placed at high tide and the picture taken at low, but even then the mark would still be above current sea levels.  The seas have risen dramatically over the past thousand years not due in any part to us.  If you want proof of that take a look at one of the dozens of ancient underwater cities that spot the globe.  When these cities were built they were on land now they are deep underwater: http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/20...

This shows a dramatic increase in sea level during human time but long before the world became industrialized.

The global warming crowd also claims a scientific consensus on the issue, this is wrong in two ways.  One, there is no consensus, this is a false claim to make you believe in global warming by suppressing the opposition.  http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p36.htm

Second, even if there was a consensus it would mean nothing, science is not politics, you don’t vote on theories to determine their legitimacy.

Here’s 21 pages of websites that disagree with global warming.

http://www.climatechangedebate.org/docum...

The thought that the only scientists who disagree with global warming are paid by oil companies is simply a stupid statement with no reality.  This is the most illogical argument by people in support of global warming.  Aside from being completely false it begs another question: Who pays global warming supporters?  The answer is big environmental agencies that make millions off of global warming each year by teaching, publishing books, and selling environmentally clean products.  

The IPCC is the main supporter of global warming, their statements are defended blindly by people who don’t want to admit that global warming is not real.  People will claim that they took into account natural sources of CO2, they didn’t.  Take a look for yourself:

http://www.ipcc.ch/activity/srccs/index....  That is the latest IPCC report, read the entire report, do a search of the documents, there is absolutely no mention of natural sources of CO2.  The natural sources have been completely ignored.  Also people will claim that the IPCC took the sun into account in their report, this is not entirely correct, while the sun is mentioned the report it’s effects have not been accurately represented.

http://www.john-daly.com/forcing/moderr....  The IPCC did not take into account the Svensmark factor.  This would greatly reduce the effect of solar radiation on the earth.  Look back up to the solar resources to see the effect of the sun correctly represented.

Also allegations have been by IPCC scientists who disagreed with the IPCC statements.  They say that their research was censored or taken out of the IPCC report.  This is not the first time the IPCC has lied, they forged the famous “hockey stick” graph, which later resulted in a reissuing of the IPCC report.

Here’s another source that disagrees with the IPCC: http://rpc.senate.gov/_files/Sept1004Glo...

And another: http://www.sepp.org/Archive/NewSEPP/ipcc...

And another: http://www.john-daly.com/guests/un_ipcc....

Quotes form politicians, CEO’s, and others are not proof of global warming, they issue these statements to get votes and customers.  Scientists are able to get published and get time on the media by supporting global warming.  The IPCC continually lies and misrepresents data so they keep their jobs.  

In regards to the precautionary principle that says we can only help if we switch over to alternative energy, this idea is not correct.  While this may seem legitimate it only helps the first world, third world countries can not afford to switch to the more expensive energy options.  Also the US currently spends 4 billion dollars a year on global warming research which could be better spent on research for disease or to fight poverty.  For an excellent example of how the precautionary principle is harmful you do not need to look further than DDT.  This pesticide was cheap and incredibly effective but it was banned because of it harmful effects on egg shells.  Now thousands of people die every year in third world countries because of malaria, a disease that could be easily controlled with DDT.

I hope anyone who believes in global warming they will take a look at the resources I provided.  These resources should convince you that global warming is not man-made, it is caused by cycles in the earths climate.  If you are not convinced I hope you at least take a new look at global warming as an unproven idea.  Remember that global warming is big business for anyone who aligns themselves with it.

I could not go this entire post without mentioning global cooling.  

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

http://www.michaelkubacki.com/cooling.ht...

In the 1970’s it was claimed that there was a consensus on the fact that the world was headed into an ice age.  We have seen once before how damaging a false claim about our climate change can be to our world.  Most of the global warming crowd does not want you to know about this scare because it is so similar to the scare today.  Government panels were formed and claimed the world was headed to an ice age, evidence poured in supporting the claim, a consensus was claimed, then the whole issue just faded away.  That is what will happen with the false scare of global warming.

Answer 5

the earth goes through periods opf warming and cooling wait a few thousand years and it will be clobal cooling everyone is freaked about

Answer 6

People are skeptical because any of who have been around long enough remember the Global Cooling crisis in the 70's. It was junk science then and it's junk science now. You can't watch the climate for 10 years when the earth is millions of years old, say it's getting warmer and call that a trend.

The hypocrites promoting this theory are also profiting from it. David Suzuki (who is not a climatologist) is making a killing off this climate change, traveling coast to coast in his great big fuel burning bus. That's ok though right, because it's a bio deisel bus. Wrong. Bio Deisel actually produces more CO2 than regular diesel. Not in the burning stage but in the manufacturing (processing).

Al Gore, the guru of climate change and global warming uses 20 times more hydro than the average American as was shown on his hydro bills. He flys all over the world (burning more fuel) in a private jet lecturing us on how to make less CO2. This is all ok though right, because he buys carbon credits. WRONG. It just so happens that Al buys his carbon credit from a company he wants us all to buy our offsets from, a company which is owned by...You guessed it, AL GORE!!!

Global warming is nothing more than big business. Should we cut back on pollution and wasting energy? Should we save the rainforests and the whales? Of course. Is the world gonna die in 10 years (like Al Gore has been saying for the last 4 years)? I doubt it.

Like I said, for those of us who have been around long enough, we've heard it all before.

P.S. RISING SEAS

Stated by byderule: 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.

Response. The average temperature in the antarctic (south pole) is -53°C. If the earth gets 54° hotter, (which is what it would take for that ice to melt) i think the rising oceans would be the least of our problems.

Answer 7

You know what makes me even more convinced that global warming is incorrect?  It's that skeptics are now actively being silenced.  

When a scientist disagrees, the science isn't disputed.  Instead he's immediately accused of working for "Big Oil" and his job security is often called into question all of a sudden.  You don't see the skeptics attacking the supporters of global warming, they question the science.

This whole global warming thing has now become a religion to many, backed by the hysterical mass media.  Doubters are compared to holocaust deniers and we are told "The Debate is over!"

Simple facts that are not told to you are:  

1.  The earth has warmed and cooled many times, and does so continuously.

2.  The glaciers are melting.  Sure they are.  Have been for hundreds of years.  They have been since the last ice age.  This is not cause for alarm.  

3.  It was warmer than it is now back in 1100 to 1300.  And then it got cooler.  Climate changes.  Climate always changes.

4.  Scientists are now questioning the relationship between warming and CO2.  Pre-industrialization - did CO2 levels rise first and then temperature, or the other way around.  Many scientists feel it's temperature first, then CO2.

5.  Even if global warming is fact, it is not all gloom and doom.  Colder climates will flourish, such as Siberia and much of Canada.  

6.  Many climate models, used to predict global warming, do not even factor in clouds or precipitation.  Christ, how can you predict the world's climate a century from now when you don't even factor in basic weather phenomena?

7.  Solar activity does not seem to be factored in at all.  The sun changes too, just like our own planet.  It's been more active over the last 20 or 30 years.

The world is warming, at least up until 1998.  It happens.  But to say man is the cause of it, is going to far.  We may be contributing, we may not be.  How much are we contributing?  Is the TRILLIONS we spend to reduce CO2 worth the gain, when we could be spending those TRILLIONS on things that will improve BILLIONS of peoples lives, like helping them improve their economies, providing safe and plentiful fresh water, combating malaria, improving education, etc.?

Lastly, Kyoto is a joke.  If everything were implemented completely, it would make a difference of 0.7 degrees by 2100.

Answer 8

FACT OR FICTION

many North Americans are used to fiction and they   feel more comfortable with fairytales instead of the truth,

Many blindly believe that our fate is in Gods hands ,and their focus is on the beautifull heaven that awaits ,they are not to concerned with the world their children will inherrit

there may come a time that for the sake of our survival the two views will be seperated in to Enemies and friends of the planet

World leaders are not concerned with the well being of the masses ,on the contrary .it was stated at a conference in Copenhagen,in 1998,by An American statesman , that the Agenda demanded a decrease in the world population of 60%,and you cannot achieve this if you start saving everybody.

scientists who work for politicians ,get paid by these politicians and they have downplayed the facts because solutions are expensive and means change

and change effects many peoples incomes,and upsets profit margins,so most of the world is kept in the dark of the real things that are going on.for political and economic reasons

HOWEVER CLIMATE CHANGE IS FACT FOR MILLIONS

Global warming is a very complex collection of many effects

this text only covers some aspects of global warming mainly man made desertification

industrial contamination ,the contaminating effects of the cities ,is another story

there are natural cycles in the planets life

but mans existance has its effects,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

in North Africa,India,Mexico ,millions of people are effected by land loss and desertification and some have died as a result

in china, thousands of what used to be farmers are running for their lives from the dust storms that have burried their towns and turned their lands into dessert,

,the Sahara is growing by 7 kilometers a year

and many  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 because of bad farming practices like,over grazing and fertilizers,

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..

and there are 70 million more peole every year that have to eat and drink and wash

who are overpumping deep carbon aquifiers

who are plowing more and more unstable lands because they have lost so many million hectares to desertification ,

because of bad farming practises ,such as using fertilizers and heavy machinary or over grazing

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.

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/natur...

if forrest are being exchanged for ashalt,concrete and desserts

what is gonna keep this planet habitable for us

We as humanity can behave in a less stressful manner as far as the Environment is concerned ,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,

Answer 9

Because people like Gore & the media shove it down our throats. They won't allow the facts to get in the way of their agenda. That is opposing views are not allowed.

Answer 10

Accepting GW means accepting responsibility for our actions as a species...Do you want to be responsible for the entire series?

Answer 11

It's denial, plain and simple. Not to mention a failure to care about the future. Some of those who would say "global warming doesn't exist",  would also argue that the end of days/ Armageddon is close at hand, so why bother planning for a future when it doesn't exist? So, yeah, denial and ignorance. Sad huh?