Why do people believe in global warming, when the media said we had global cooling just a few years ago?

Question

Because its a bunch of c**p?

Answer 1

Educate yourself about climate change. There are some wonderful non-scientific books at your local public library that will help you understand exactly what is and has been going on with the climate since the origin of the planet. Here are some recommendations:

Science 101: Weather

The Long Summer

Weather Makers

Answer 2

People with edcuations believe in global warming because it is proven scientific fact.  The debate--among scientists and educated laypeople--was over a decade ago. The kooks who continue to argue the point don't have a case--they are of importance only because they have been part of tehe campaign by the special interests to block policy changes.  For starters--the media didn't say any such thing. And scientists certainly did not.  The whole "skeptics" fixation on their fantasy tha tscientists a few years ago said there was global cooling is based on a couple of pop science articles in the 1970s. In them, scientists pointed out that there could be another ice age at some point in the future. But--by that time--they were already becoming concerned about data that was showing the Earth might be warming, not cooling.

That's the science. YOu get that from scientists--not the popular media.  Skeptics--or rather, crackpots--are too ignorant to know there's a difference between a scientific journal and a popular magazine.

Answer 3

You believe the media????

Go research it for yourself from reputable sources

Go to University and get educated so you can make your informed opinions.  Make up your own mind

Look at the figures (the real ones not the ones the newspapers make up) and on the balance of probability work it out for yourself.

Don't be a lemming....

Answer 4

I don't know about you, but i don't see any statistical correlatives between what the media spouts and what the scientific consensus believes.

Answer 5

You mean in the early 1970s?  Over 30 years ago?  Back when the planet was at the end of a very small period of global cooling?

I'm guessing because at the time that's what was happening.

Answer 6

Money.  The same people who were sounding the alarm about global cooling are the same ones complaining about global warming.

Now these same people are warning us that temps are going down because of global dimming.

Soon they'll tell us wind power is a bad idea because it leads to global calming.

Answer 7

I don't know who in the media said we had cooling, but it's nonsense.  The data says so:

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2007/

It's not "people" who believe.  It's the scientific community.  Think your media guy could argue with these folks?

The National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute of Physics, the American Chemical Society, the American Meteorological Association, etc.

The bottom line:

"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

Answer 8

wth...is global cooling?...now that's a bunch of c**p...global warming is real, and it's happening right now.....if people were smarter than ma bey we could do something......

Even if you don't believe in global warming.....u should still know that one day pollution, garbage, and no more resourses will kill all of us.

Answer 9

They got rid of the other weather man.

Answer 10

Global warming is just another fad. It will go away just like all the other "sky is falling" fads have over the years. Some people are not happy unless they are whining and complaining. If global warming was real, China and India would not be exempted. The scientists have to keep reporting this to get grants which keep them from having to get a real job. The government sees this as a new excuse to increase revenues for more foolish spending. Business big shots like Al Gore and the Kennedy twit see this as a huge opportunity to make tons of money. And the only people to suffer will be the working and poor classes of the industrialized nations. But, it will go away soon enough. This winter kind of set the kooks back a little with record snow and cold. That is amusing.

Answer 11

“Some scientists were predicting an emerging Ice Age 30 years ago.  Why look, Newsweek even ran a cove story on this back in 1975.”

This statement is often repeated by global warming deniers.  It was even quoted by Sen. James Inhofe, Ranking Minority Member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, on the floor on the Senate last year.  This statement appeals to climate change deniers because the predictions have turned out to be so wrong.  Climate change deniers therefore conclude that the science of global warming remains unsettled.

A better conclusion, however, would be that one should not rely on the mass media for your science if you can find better sources.

Now, there is an ounce of truth that “some” scientists during the 1970's were predicting an emerging ice age, just as there are "some" scientists today that are predicting a global "deep freeze".[1]  Such speculations during the 1970's were the result of: (1) a newly proven existence of ice ages, and (2) the realization that pollution could block out sunlight and cool the environment.

(1)  Ice Ages consisting of glacial and interglacial cycles had long been theorized.  Firm evidence of an Ice Age consisting of warm and cool cycles and occurring over the past few million years finally came during the late 1960's and early 1970's in the form of sea sediment cores.  The beginning and end of Ice ages are thought to be related to Milankovitch cycles or small changes in Earth's orbit and axis tilt.  The orbit of Earth will eventually wobble again and a glacial ice age will begin; this should start to occur in approximately 10,000- 15,000 years or so.

(2) Global temperatures did not decrease during the 1970's, but they were no longer increasing at the same rate as they had been.  During the mid 1970's it became apparent that man-made pollution was affecting the climate.  Pollution, such as reflective sulfate aerosols in the atmosphere, tends to have a negative radiative forcing that cools the environment by reflecting energy back into space before it reaches the surface. Clean air legislation has reduced production of industrial pollution (manmade aerosols) in Europe and North America since the 1970's. These aerosols are also the cause of such things such as acid rain.

There is a vast difference between what we know today about global warming via the greenhouse effect and what we knew then. During the 1970's, an "emerging ice age" was just speculation by the mass media. There was no widespread scientific consensus. No daily headlines. No avalanche of scientific articles in peer-review magazines. No International treaties and commissions. No G8 summits or UN Security Council meetings on the dangers of Global Warming. No calls for immediate action. Today the science is better, the evidence startling, and the research conclusive. Today there is a near unanimous consensus among scientists that anthropogenic greenhouse gases cause of recent global warming.

Answer 12

Holy c**p, you need to start accepting the fact that it's happening. Who would you trust, the media or scientists? Because I'm pretty sure I would trust the scientists. Global Warming is real.

Answer 13

Hint: Global warming is real.  And yeah, I heard of global cooling, but it was made up by some high schooler.  They said they were trying to do a project, but they were trying to get out of it by prooving that it was false so they wouldn't have to do a project on all the evidence.  They found this out when they discovered his stastistics were way off base.  Not very bright if you ask me.

Answer 14

Global cooling?  Did you get that from fox entertainment?

Any human knows that global warming is real; you can feel it.  Ask a parent if they remember how cold it got when they were a kid.  People who deny global warming are idiots.  It's so obvious they should be embarrassed.