Why do some people honestly believe that Global Warming is a scam?

Question

So maybe you don't like Al Gore. That's besides the point. The fact that Global Warming is happening now is a fact. Yes, it is a natural process, but we're speeding it up. Countless scientists at NASA and JPL have confirmed this via satellites. They say that on average, by the end of the century, the average temperature worldwide will have risen 3 degrees and the oceans will have risen 20 feet. That covers most of the southern half of Florida. Google Antarcticas "Larsen B" and see how an entire ice sheet slipped into the ocean. Don't these people care what happens to this planet, or what kind of world their children, grandchildren and great-children will have to live in? We're s******g up their futures.

Answer 1

The thing that people are most likely to believe to be true (and most likely to remember) is the thing they most want to be true.  Also there is something called "anchoring", which says that the thing we learn first is the one likely to be believed and remembered, regardless of whether it is true or not, and regardless of how much later information contradicts it.

Answer 2

It is a scam and it has been proven to be a scam.

Answer 3

Well,,,, There is a chance that they are right.....BUT don't want to hear about the other Possibility....MIND'S made up!....

Answer 4

because it is a scam.

it is being used by individuals and governments to force citizens to give up rights/luxuries and to have to pay more for products and to pay more in taxes and fees.

the climate may be changing, maybe even warming, but mankind/humanity has nothing to do with it.

there was a greater increase in the temperature of the world in the 1800's to the early 1900's than there has been between the early 1900's and the 2000's. This contradicts the concept that increased CO2 causes increased temperatures. The global production of CO2 skyrocketed in the 1920's compared to any previous century, but the temp has not increased, actually it decreased for the better part of the 1900's and currently is not up to previous high levels (the range for the change is less than 2 degrees C...miniscule! and hardly noticable.

the data that appears to show 'global warming' is not the most accurate data available. It is skewed in a few ways.

#1 it is gathered using land based thermometers. (warming would occur in the atmosphere 1st and satellite measurements of atmospheric temperatures show no statistically significant changes since the satellites have been in orbit (the 1980s) --the earth's land surface is only about 25% of the entire surface area of the earth);

#2 the land based thermometers used are almost entirely located at airports. (when the thermometers were placed, the airports were generally located some distance from the city centers, as time has passed the cities have grown outward and often around the airports. cities retain heat due to all the dense surfaces, large amounts of surface areas exposed to the sun, and limited air direction movement (as compared to rural areas). Or simply put the way we use land around the thermometers had changed in a way that increases the local temperature and thus does not provide an accurate climatological temperature.);

#3 the data is often cropped at the beginning and end in order to show people the 'hockey stick' progression, but if they showed all the data, you would be able to see a wide fluctuation before the start of the 'stick' and a drop where they would have you believe the 'stick' is continuing to grow upward.)

#4 the air today is cleaner than it was in 1970, despite the fear and scare tactics used by the 'eco-friendly' crowd. (airborne lead has decreased by 93%, CO by 50%, Ground level ozone by 25%, sulfer oxides by 70%)

#5 computer models (GCMs) are often used to support predictions of Global Warming, BUT these models, when given the actual data from the past 25 years, cannot accurately predict the climate for the next year (ie: if we entered the data for 1970-1995 the model would provide wildly inaccurate data for 1996. study done by International Journal of Climatology Dec 2007 issue) Both the current and past president of the American Association of State Climatologists have made statements denigrating the accuracy and usefulness of current GCMs)

From January 2004 through February 2007 there were 528 papers published on climate change. There were 7% that explicitly endorsed humanity as the cause of global warming, there were 6% that explicitly denied humanity as a cause, 48% remained entirely neutral in their findings, the remainder did not address humanity at all in their conclusions/summary, and out of the original 528 papers only 1 made any reference to 'catastrophic' climate change being possible.

The UN Global Warming/Climate Change 2007 IPCC statement has been panned by professionals (ie: Dr. Pielke Director of Environmental Studies at University of Colorado, Dr. Gray Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, Dr Lindzen Professor of Meteorology at MIT - all of these schools require individual to be doing original research into their areas of professorship in order to remain on staff) as being untrue, politically motivated, containing errors, using data selectively, and not based on observational evidence.

After all of the above, i do believe that we need to take care of our planet, through using efficient means of energy production (nuclear currently leads the way), by recycling (individuals recycling really does not make much of a difference, but business' recycling can make a HUGE difference...the waste created in 1 small to medium business in a single day is more than a family of 5 will create in a month), planting trees/flowers/etc to beautify the scenery as well as for the environmental benefits, consuming home-grown produce (saves transportation costs x3 -from farm to distrib, from distrib to store, from store to home) and many other 'common' sense and not overly invasive lifestyle changes.

Answer 5

The Earths climate always changes.  The climate can never be static.  If it's not cooling, it's warming, and if it's not warming, it's cooling.  This is as natural as a spring rain.

And like a spring rain, people shouldn't go into panic mode when ever nature happens.  

Man isn't causing warming, we aren't that significant.

No one is saying that oceans 'will' rise, they use qualifiers like 'could', 'may', 'think', 'possible' as no one can predict the future.

For all anyone knows, it could be colder 5 years from now.

Answer 6

here's a good reason i found...

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

Answer 7

The scam is pretending that warming is necessarily bad.  The fact is, warming in the past has generally brought prosperity, and cooling has be disastrous.   Increased greenhouse gases should moderate the temperature, albeit slightly, by raising the coldest winter and night time temperatures.  Most of warming is actually from warming the coldest months.  Why is this so dangerous.  Obviously common sense tells you it isn't but alarmists still want you to believe it is.

Answer 8

Well, they think Al Gore invented global warming and thinks he's a hypocrite.

Then when walking outside a cold day they look at their thermometer and find it to be "unusual cold".

So, they "do some research" on the internet or listen to some talk show on TV/radio where some guy says global warming is a big conspiracy used by politicians to raise taxes.

They find that information very comforting because it means they can continue to drive their SUVs and don't need to feel any bad conscience about it. After all they're just being "smarter" than the rest of us who sheepishly follows our leader Al Gore in the church of global warming.

When being confronted with facts from the mislead, they "use their brains" and do some more research and find some obscure statement that "volcanoes emit more greenhouse gases than humans do" or some graph with cherry picked data and they feel even smarter and very proud of them selves. "Wow, I'm smarter than climate scientists because they didn't realize or calculate with this..."

Do you think I got close enough?

Answer 9

we are speeding up global warming you say, well, yes you are right but soo small. its like sticking your finger in a turtle pool full of water. change in earths temper is not usually and maybe in the next 100 years yes it would be bad but there is no need to make rash decisions. did you know 56 years ago they thougth we were going into the next ice age and they made a huge stink about that?

if anything we are damaging the animals ...

i would read all sides of the story because there is more prove that global warming is not caused by humans !

Answer 10

I love how everybody only wants to say Global Warming, it's not just global warming, it's the fact we are using all the natural resources the planet has to offer.  The planet has stored all these natural resources over the course of time, and we are depleting them at an alarming rate.  Granted, the planet has fluxed back and forth from hot and cold over the course of time, but that was way before the impact we have placed on it.  Those were natural results, these are our results.  We humans have caused these results we are seeing now.  The oil companies are making billions of dollars a quarter, and sucking this planet dry.  We kill millions of fish out of the ocean's each year, and dry land is a result of clear cutting trees away.  

I just don't see how anyone can assume the planet's biosphere doesn't have a limited amount of resources.  There was half as many people on the planet when Kennedy was in office.  So how can the individual not see we are using twice as much?  I just know the planet can only have a limited amount (cap) of natural resources in our biosphere, and our political economy is set to expand and grow.  Politics is what is limiting the results of accomplishing a green planet.  I also hear a lot of you complaining about changing your ways.  Just think about going back to a state of nature, where anarchy and chaos is a result, and this is where the idea of a leviathan came about; the ability to control, and place fear in the hearts of the weak, which our governments do, each in there own way.  It would be nice to see people come together, and place themselves in these ideas.  I have also heard a few people say, the planet will regenerate these resources.  How can this happen if we deplete them as fast as we do?  The planet has stored these through its course of time.  I just don't see some of the views some of you individuals have.  A lot of you people out there are only after your desires, and don't think about the greater good of things, and I'm not referring to all of you.

Answer 11

Easy,  the Global Warming hoax is just a way for people like Al Gump to get richer

Answer 12

The same reason some people don't believe in evolution, the moon landing (believe it was staged), and that the world is flat (a flat earth society still exists)?

In part the answer is their egos are in the way. They have for whatever reason come to believe certain things and to admit they were wrong and change their ways would be to much of a blow to humbly deal with.

Answer 13

Climate change is a money and power grab scheme by the bottom feeder politicians and power brokers. It's nothing to do with ecology and everything to do with money.

Con artists like Gore have enriched themselves on this issue, taking home Oscars, Nobel Prizes and millions of dollars. Meanwhile, evangelical leaders are setting up their flocks for extreme fleecing by leftist politicos like Barack Obama, who will appeal for Christian votes by talking in glowing, biblical-sounding terms about "being good stewards of God's creation."

Here is truth about global warming:

Global warming is one-half of the climatic cycle of warming and cooling.

The earth's mean temperature cycles around the freezing point of water.

This is a completely natural phenomenon which has been going on since

there has been water on this planet. It is driven by the sun.

Our planet is currently emerging from a 'mini ice age', so is

becoming warmer and may return to the point at which Greenland is again usable as farmland (as it has been in recorded history).

As the polar ice caps decrease, the amount of fresh water mixing with oceanic water will slow and perhaps stop the thermohaline cycle (the oceanic heat 'conveyor' which, among other things, keeps the U.S. east coast warm).

When this cycle slows/stops, the planet will cool again and begin to enter another ice age.

It's been happening for millions of years.

The worrisome and brutal predictions of drastic climate effects are based on computer models, NOT CLIMATE HISTORY.

As you probably know, computer models are not the most reliable of sources, especially when used to 'predict' chaotic systems such as weather.

Global warming/cooling, AKA 'climate change':

Humans did not cause it.

Humans cannot stop it.

Answer 14

First of all, check the facts you cited in your question.  The data from NASA and JPL actually shows a COOLING trend, with this winter being one of the coldest on record.

Now for the scam part:  Al Gore and his partners own a company that engages in "carbon trading", wherein companies that emit CO2 pay money to companies that don't (kind of like going on a diet by paying someone else to stop eating), with Al Gore's firm taking a percentage of the money that changes hands.  This scheme has made him $100 million so far but it would collapse if people realized that it's pointless.

Answer 15

Your question is full of the same "facts" that lead the gullible to believe in global warming in the first place.  The projection of a rise in ocean level of 20 feet is clearly wrong.  The projection by the IPCC ( if you don't know who they are, look it up) is that a maximum rise of 590 mm (about 2 feet, not 20) could occur by 2100.

Imagine a rise in sea level of 400 feet.  Surely that would wipe out humankind!  But no!  Oceans rose 400 feet over the last 18000 years.  Our prehistoric ancestors survived and thrived that period through 1000 generations.   And here we are on Yahoo!Answers talking about it.  We should be proud of them!

Isn't it a bit lame for us, blessed with all our technology, to be terrified of an ocean rise of 2 feet, when our ancestors did just fine with nothing but a few animal skins to keep them warm in a 15000 year Ice Age?  Please!

One more thing.  A large ice sheet has slipped into the ocean.  It is floating on the ocean, so it has already caused all of the ocean rise that it ever will.  Why, because the water displacement is the same now whether it melts or stays frozen.

The science is clear.  The conclusions of the gurus of climate change are NOT based on science.

And that is why intelligent people, and real scientists, honestly believe that "Global Warming" (now known as "Climate Change" - which could mean anything!) is a big fraud.

Answer 16

Because this winter and spring are cooler than many years before.  Because Global Warming is a big money making scam.  Because the Earth cools and heats in its own natural cycle.  Because some scientists believe we're heading for another Ice Age.  Because the environment is too big and we'd be arrogant to think we can control or change it.  Because all the ice that was said to have disappeared is back, and was added to this last winter.

The antarctic and the arctic region have more snow and ice than they have had in years.

I could go on and on with reasons, but people like you who've let the main stream media blind you to the truth, will never believe what is right before your eyes.

Actually, I think it's the other way around Love of Truth.  People who believe in global warming have huge ego's.  They actually think they're powerful enough to effect the environment and mother nature.  That is arrogance incarnate.

You should also be made aware that Greenland used to be farming land when the Vikings settled on it.  It was lush and fertile.  It was warmer then than it is now.  Look into the past, further than 50 or 100 years, and you'll see.

Ingela is insulting and wrong.  Yay for her.

Answer 17

No, it isn't a scam...I don't believe that for one second.  

BUT, it isn't nearly to the scale that the propaganda would like us to believe that it is.

I'm all for living 'greener' and being responsible with our resources....but I honestly do not buy into all of the propaganda.  I choose to live 'green' because it's a good choice, not because an environmentalist is breathing down my neck about global warming.