Why do I get the feeling that global warming isn't an imminent substantiated threat?

Question

Ok let me clarify. Perhaps I used the wrong word. IMMINENT in this case means something I don't feel I have to be worried about cause it won't effect me in my lifetime, and whose threat is overexxagerated.

Answer 1

Because it isn't. It is common sense.

Answer 2

The data doesn't show how the green house gas is doing its terrible job ,It will be much worse on the poor as they will not be able to afford transportation. The G. W. has already raised the cost of gasoline about 1 dollar . That will affect every thing. Very soon the demand will go out of sight for the working people.

Answer 3

Define imminent.  Already people in the Ganges Delta and some island nations have been forced to move because of rising sea levels.  Already drought conditions have hit the American Southwest and parts of Australia.

Is there an imminent threat to you personally, meaning in the next few weeks?  Probably not.  But think what a significant climate change to your home-- or the source of your food-- would mean in terms of changing your life.

Why do people think it isn't an imminent threat?  We don't want to think about it, because that would mean making changes in the way we live.  Our politicians don't want to talk about it because then they'd have to talk about difficult choices (and no politician wants to do that).

Kurt Vonnegut wrote, "We probably could have saved ourselves, but we were too damned lazy to try very hard ... and too d**n cheap."  Much like smoking, if we wait until the threat is imminent, it will be too late.

Answer 4

because you subconciously/conciously have come to grasp the comparison of reality and mass hysteria. and with that you've realized, that with global warming, although it is a problem it won't mean the end of the world in 10 years, or whatever the prediction that has been thrown out there says.

Answer 5

Because you aren't paying attention to the hard scientific data that's readily available on the web, tv and elsewhere.  Or perhaps you're listening too much to the skeptics and politicians that have their heads stuck in the sand hoping it will all go away.  Most scientists that disagree with the current research have been paid by oil companies and other special interest groups to try and refute the research.  Nevertheless, the vast majority of the scientific community supports the current findings and the science is solid.

Now, as to "imminent"... if you mean will it have a major adverse effect on you personally in the next several weeks, then no, it probably isn't imminent.  However, you must look at the larger scale of things... everything is connected in some way on this planet.

For example, the polar ice caps are melting at a much faster rate than expected.  This not only causes a rise in sea levels around the world, resulting in coastal cities and villages having to see higher ground, but it also cools the oceans.  That cooling changes the weather patterns and causes more extremes in weather conditions.  That can mean more and stronger hurricanes, more and stronger tornadoes, little or no rain in some areas and too much in others.  Remember that the weather directly affects growing cycles, which can make it harder to grow food and rising sea levels are a direct threat to coastal communities... and over half the world's population lives within 50 miles of a coastline.

Melting polar ice caps are also bringing polar bears and other arctic wildlife to the brink of extinction... and are threatening indigenous peoples of the area, such as the Inuit tribes in Canada and Alaska.

Further, changes in climate affect all the various ecosystems around the world.  The earth is in its 6th mass extinction phase right now and we are loosing hundreds of species of plants and animals every day.  That changes the balance of nature and can have devastating consequences in all parts of the world.  I've included a link below for you to check out.

Everything on this Earth is connected.  What happens in one part of the world has consequences for the rest of it.

Answer 6

that is because you live in North America ,

In Mexico people have died because of intense heat and cold due to <Global warming ,

in Northern china thousands of people are running for their lives from the dust storms and 2 major desserts are merging

in India,France ,And Africa many people have died of unusual hot spells

in Mexico many people have died because of flash floods

so manythousands of people have died already and millions have lost everything ,

but this does not matter because they are not Americans ,and as long as Global warming is not an imediate threat to America ,we should not be concerned about it .

so you are absolutely correct Global warming is  joke ,for Americans ,and they are the only ones that count.

Answer 7

Because you are absolutely correct, and you are probably not a politician either.

Answer 8

Right--what is the threat of global warning when we have the threat of Alec Baldwin losing his custodial rights, the threat of Sanjaya no longer gracing out television sets, and the threat of Britney undergoing plastic surgery to keep us occupied? We certainly can't be expected to pay attention to global warming when so many much more pressing issues are bombarding us every single day!

Answer 9

You probably feel this way because it hasn't hit us hard yet. But we only have a few years to fix this problem. Global warming may seem like nothing but it can result in terrible storms. Glaciers melting. More water than we need.

Answer 10

Probably because you have intelligence and common sense.

Answer 11

you mean you believe it will EVER come? lol.

Answer 12

Because you haven't looked at the data or listened to the vast majority of scientists.

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

Science is quite good about exposing bad science or hoaxes:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/ATG/polywater...

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...

Good website for more info:

http://www.realclimate.org

"climate science from climate scientists"

Finally -

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

Jerry Mahlman, NOAA