Why do people freak-out over global warming?

Question

Global warming is just a cycle abnd this has happend befor and it will happen again.

Answer 1

your right

Answer 2

You are incorrect.  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...

A recent study concluded:

“the range of  [Northern Hemisphere]-temperature reconstructions and natural forcing histories…constrain the natural contribution to 20th century warming to be <0.2°C [less than one-third of the total warming].  Anthropogenic forcing must account for the difference between a small natural temperature signal and the observed warming in the late 20th century.”

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/104...

You can see this in the third graph here, where the dotted lines are just from natural causes, and the full lines are natural + human causes:

http://www.pnas.org/content/vol104/issue...

If that’s not enough to convince you the Sun isn’t responsible, consider the fact that no scientific study has ever attributed more than one-third of the warming over the past 30 years to the Sun, and most attribute just 0-10% to the Sun.

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

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 3

Yes, it has happened before, yes it will happen again. But we may have set in motion a condition that enhances both the rate of development and the final temperatures likely to be reached.

That is, a high level of CO2 in the atmosphere always occurs as a result of global warming, but this time we are going into the end game with an extra source of CO2. This appears to be accelerating global warming. Now the argument that it will also result in higher final temperatures is based on what we see as limiting our temperature rise... outbound radiation.

If we  are getting accelerated increase in temperatures, it is mostly because we are radiating less heat into the atmosphere.

Our CO2 from fossil fuel is not the only cause of that. It is an extra cause. a cause on top of what earth has enjoyed in the past.

But, even if we can not stop global warming, we would like to reduce its severity. We would like to make sure this warming cycle is no worse than preceding cycles, not because we know we would all die, just because we have not previously lived through an enhanced global warming cycle... we do not have supreme confidence that we can.

A significant extra concern, we do not wish to allow our fossil fuels to be wasted and then discover that we urgently need them. So our objective is to conserve fossil fuel reserves and avoid enhancing the global warming process.

Answer 4

That is incorrect. You should watch the movie An Incovient Truth By Al Gore. I know what your thinking I know I hate Al Gore too but just watch the movie it will change your mind republican or democrat white or black Global warming is happening and if we do nothing about we are in trouble. So turn of that water while your bushing take shorter showers if we make these little changes come true the enviorment will truly be the worlds friend.

Answer 5

lol, the funny thing about this is that you're right, global warming has happened before, about 50-55 million years ago.  I think you were thinking more that climate change in general is what is cyclical.

What scientists are now beginning to understand about what happened to the dinosaurs and gave way for mammals to flourish was attributed to global warming, but that time it occurred steadily over thousands of years due to over a thousand years of constant and extreme volcanism activities.  

The temperature which ultimately eliminated dinosaurs was about 10 degrees warmer globally than it is today.  Large land animals couldn't hide from the heat and their sources of food was greatly exhausted.  Smaller animals could burrow, swim, find shelter and so on.

What's different today from then is that there is nothing natural like extreme volcanism which can explain the recent abrupt warming, yet we can prove that C02 levels for example have climbed sharply risen over the past 200 years and we can prove things like there is now a much lower percentage of forests than there were 200 years ago.  This is where the human factor comes into play for the first time in history.

The reason people 'freak out' is because if what the data is showing us is accurate, the global warming is only just beginning and is only going to get exponentially worse, and yet no one is really doing anything about it.

If it is true and C02 is a culprit... then why are anthropogenic C02 increases still rising every year?  Because we have no choice in the matter?  Or because maybe, not enough of us are concerned enough about it.  Therefore this might explain why people are frustrated about this problem.  

We could spend a trillion dollars on solar and wind farms and likely be rid of our dependence on oil for example... but our government is still more focused on spending that money on a war most of us were duped into think was even necessary in the first place.

It's all frustrating and sad really.

I hope that somehow the data changes and we learn that we can't alter the climate no matter what we do, that would be nice.  But where it stands, unfortunately, enough science still supports that this problem is real, and it's only going to get worse as time goes on.

Anyone accepting the reality of that conclusion might be uncomfortable by it.  That's what I think may be the reason people freak out over it, especially when they consider so many people are only going to continue to not care one way or the other.

Answer 6

Because it's not a natural cycle.

Do you think thousands of climatologists don't understand that there were natural cycles before?  Or that they're involved in a giant conspiracy?

The data clearly shows that this time, it's not natural.

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

Answer 7

I freak out more about the abuse on nature. pollution greed and just plain stupidity. It is a natural occurrence{global warming} but when we help speed up the process it does put us at fault.

Answer 8

Cool News About Global Warming  

By Bill Steigerwald

FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, March 03, 2008

You've no doubt seen the stories about strange snowfalls in Saudi Arabia. A brutal winter in China. The heaviest snow cover in North America, Siberia and elsewhere since 1966.

And if you are a vigilant observer of the global warming debate, you know how inconveniently cold it is in the Arctic this winter for Al Gore and his army of climate alarmists.

But how cold is it, Johnny?

Well, NASA says recent satellite images show that the allegedly endangered polar ice cap -- which will melt completely one of these summers and kill off all the polar bears if we don't slash our greedy carbon footprints and revert to the lifestyles of medieval peasants -- has recovered to near normal coverage levels.

That's what Josefino Comiso, a senior research scientist with the Cryospheric Sciences Branch of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, told Canada's CBC News -- the Canadian government's version of NPR/PBS - on Feb. 12.

As far as Google's search engine knows, Comiso's comforting report has appeared nowhere but in Canada.

There's even better news for polar ice-pack lovers from ice expert Gilles Langis, who says Arctic ice is now even thicker than usual in spots. A senior ice forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service in Ottawa, he's another scientist you shouldn't expect to see talking to Anderson Cooper on the next episode of CNN's "Galaxy in Peril."

Meanwhile, in other news too climatically incorrect for U.S. mainstream media to touch, California meteorologist Anthony Watts says January 2008 was the planet's second-coldest January in 15 years.

Even more shocking, the average temperature of Earth dropped significantly from January 2007 to January 2008. As Watts explains on his Web site wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com, he determined the lower figure by crunching data from four major public and private global tracking sources.

You may remember Watts from last summer. He popped up in this paper and on Fox News because of his self-funded project to quality-check 1,221 ground weather stations around the country that are used by NASA to measure the "official" average annual temperature of the United States.

So far, Watts and his volunteers have checked out more than 500 weather stations (none in Western Pennsylvania) to see if their temperature data can be considered credible. As he details on his other Web site, weatherstation.org, nearly 70 percent of the sites fail to meet the government's own standards because they are not 100 feet from a building, are on blazing rooftops, sit next to air-conditioner exhaust fans, etc.

Watts was shocked and surprised to find such unequivocal proof that Earth's temperature has cooled in the last year, he said to me Wednesday. But he's very cautious about what it means in either the short or long run.

Calling it a "fluctuation" and "a large anomaly" compared to the 30-year running temperature average that climatologists use, he emphasized that the cold spell is "no indication that global warming is over" but does "illustrate that the driving mechanisms behind our planet's climate are still very much in control of changing the climate and that the planet's not in the death grip of CO2 just yet."

A careful, honest man of science, all Watts would say for sure was that his findings and all the strange cold-weather events of this winter prove only one thing so far -- that "Mother Nature is still in control of things, not us."

--------------------------------------...

Bill Steigerwald is the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's associate editor. Call him at [phone]. E-mail him at: [e-mail].

Answer 9

As others have explained the evidence points to present warming caused by man's activities.  In the past we did not have a population of over six billion to support and many millions living on low lying coastal land.  Tackling this is a huge issue which cannot be wished away by saying it "has happened in the past and will happen again".

Answer 10

Global warming, CO2 production and the Bio fuels craze are what is called “Bias Science” Taking statistical data from a narrow set to prove their point.

   A good example of this is the increase CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere. After H20

(Water vapor) CO2 is produced by volcanic and tectonic action in vast amounts.  Mt St Helens during her last eruption Emitted 22,000,000 Kg per day of CO2 during her last eruption cycle. That went on for MONTHS.  Now times this by all the other volcanic eruptions, all the CO2 produced by other geologic events (Hot springs oil and natural gas seeps) plate tectonics’ you start seeing that mother earth is the biggest CO2 offender out there.

   By the way did you know that one of the biggest reasons why they say there is global warming is because the amount of CO2 seen in the Hawaii islands on top of Mona Loa?

  What they forget to tell you is that Mona Loa is an active volcanic mountain with 3 volcanic ranges!

They also forget to tell you that unless someone funds a study they won’t do it. That is why you don’t see CO2 sensors on all these active volcanos’s because the money is not there to pay for the scientists to show how much CO2 is being produced.

   Man’s only effect on global warming is being caused by the reckless destruction of the rain forests to produce bio-fuel.  Bio fuel produces CO2 in its process and uses about 30 gallons of pure fresh water to make 5 gallons. The waste emits CO2 and is a bio hazard.

  If you want to stop mans effect on CO2  production, stop cutting down the rain forests and go nuclear, boycott China because the use dirty coal to produce energy and have no emissions standards in place.

   Do some studying on the 1970’s and global cooling, you will find out that they are using the same science for different reasons.

    As for the temperature changes that are being seen in the cities, try this out

http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/200...

All those Bias statistics are based on these stations.

  The hype over global warming is just that, hype. Ask yourself why the global warming crowd never has any conferences’ where it is cold? Like New York? St. Paul?. Maybe because with this winter being on the record books (Statistically) for the most cold days and snowfall in since the 1980’s they just may have to narrow their data set to exclude it!

Answer 11

It's not that they freak out over global warming. They freak out over not being able to collect tax money and redistribute wealth. All the doom and gloom prophesies have been over blown. But that is what desperate people do. They make crazy c**p up in the hopes the gullible will pay money form someone to save them.

Answer 12

Pentagon officials warn that abrupt climate change over the next 20 years could throw the world into a state of anarchy -- dwarfing the current threat of terrorism.  In this doomsday scenario, large-scale droughts, famine brought on by food shortages and reduced energy supplies could cause riots around the globe that could culminate in nuclear warfare.

http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord/articles/...

Lake Mead may be dry by 2014 (10% chance) or 2021 (50/50 chance).  That lake behind Hoover Dam supplies water and power to states from Wyoming and New Mexico to California.  Today 25 million people rely on it, but by 2021 35 million people will.  As American food production is seriously affected, food prices will skyrocket nationally, then globally as the U.S. seeks other sources.

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

The last time we had moderate warming, the Medieval Warm period, temperatures were similar to today and the planet supported 350 million people.  It is forecasted that by 2100 temperatures could climb another 11 degrees.  That has not happened while humans lived on the planet, and during multiple past warmings a large percentage of all species on the planet went extinct.

People are not freaking out nearly enough.  With neither of the major contributors, the U.S. and China, severely cutting back on emissions, we're heading towards a very uncertain future.

If Lake Mead becomes unusable in 6 years, everyone reading this site today will be affected, and as the Pentagon report points out, things may go downhill rapidly from there.