Why is everyone so quick to assume that global warming exists?

Question

A detailed look at recent climate change reveals that the temperature rose prior to 1940 but unexpectedly dropped in the post-war economic boom, when carbon dioxide emissions rose dramatically

Earth's 4.5 billion year history is one long story of climate change. This fact is pretty much accepted by those who think global warming is a natural process, and by those who think it's caused by man.

Those who think global warming is a natural process say that the troposphere is not heating up because man-made greenhouse gases are not causing the planet to heat up.

For some people, the final nail in the coffin of human-produced greenhouse gas theories is the fact that carbon dioxide is produced in far larger quantities by many natural means: human emissions are miniscule in comparison. Volcanic emissions and carbon dioxide from animals, bacteria, decaying vegetation and the ocean outweigh our own production several times over.

for more information check out http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/G/great_global_warming_swindle/arguments_4.html

Answer 1

i don't know.  my answer is who cares.  they come out with these d**n hydrid cars and everything but that don't mean everybody can or want to afford one.  i just don't know how we can really change wats going on anyway.

Answer 2

What are you, nuts? Ofcourse it exists, all of the smoke from the cars is destroying our atmosphere which is makeing a green house type effect where the heat gets trapped inside and our earth is getting warmer and warmer!!!! If we don't switch to hybrids and electric cars, then there is no future to this world.

Answer 3

Most evidence points to Man Made warming.

Answer 4

It's not an assumption.  We know that the planet is warming from the surface temperature station and satellite data.

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

That's like asking 'why do people assume it's 74 degrees out right now?'.  It's not an assumption - they read a thermometer.

As for your 'final nail in the coffin', human CO2 emissions dwarf volcanic CO2 emissions by at least 100 times.  See Myth #3 here:

http://greenhome.huddler.com/wiki/global...

And while it's true that natural CO2 sources dwarf human emissions, those natural sources are in equilibrium as part of the natural carbon cycle.  When we add new carbon to the system by burning fossil fuels which have trapped the carbon for millions of years, the  natural cyle can't absorb it all, so it accumulates in the atmosphere, increasing the greenhouse effect and causing global warming.

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

Answer 5

Because that's what the data proves.

Temperatures leveled off ( not dropped) from 1940-1970 because we were putting a lot of smoke into the air.  When we stopped doing that so much, they rose again.

The troposphere is heating up, there was an error in the earlier satellite data, corrected years ago,

Natural CO2 is recycled by the "carbon cycle".  That keeps it in balance.  When we dig up fossil fuels the carbon cycle buried, and burn them real fast, we mess up the balance, and cause global warming.  Scientists can prove the increase in CO2 is from fossil fuels, by using "isotopic ratios".

This is proven science.

Answer 6

Cause a judge in England and USA Today news paper says so.

Answer 7

I agree with you. Global warming likely doesn't exist, but climate change does. You are indeed correct about earth's history and indeed there is little evidence that directly links us to climate change. The temperature dropped during the post-war boom due to increased cloud cover. This was just cause back then while we were emitting more CO2 we were also emitting more sulfates cause the fossil fuels were were burning weren't as clean as today's (we hadn't figured out acid rain etc yet). The increased sulfates acted as nucleating agents for atmospheric moisture and more clouds formed which reflected more solar radiation and hence the temperature drop. Even looking at climate records for the past 3 million years the global temperature is decreasing. In the cretaceous CO2 levels were 3 times what they are today and were certainly weren't around. So as was said earlier, climate is going to change with or without us, and we have little or no say in it.

Answer 8

It seems to me that this global warming hysteria started after the clean air acts of the 1960s. Coincidence? I doubt it. The IPCC is now DELIBERATELY trying to tamper with the climate, Playing God, perhaps. These types will put us back into an ice age.

Answer 9

There's nothing "quick" about it.  Global warming has been a concern of scientists and studied extensively for over 100 years.

http://www.aip.org/history/climate/summa...

And the cooling that started in the 40's was caused by the huge amount of sulphate aerosol emissions (which reflect incoming solar energy back out into space) from the WW2 and post WW2 era.

http://environment.newscientist.com/chan...

http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-w...

Answer 10

quick? like 20 years?

assume? thats what you do when there is no evidence....

Answer 11

People are hard-wired to want to believe large scale preposterous things.  The bigger, more outlandish, and more far reaching the story the more people accept it.

It takes a certain disciplined mind to be skeptically in front of the kool-aid drinkers (my nickname for the G/W fanatics in response to them call me a denier)

Answer 12

I think climate change is happening but we cant stop it, the climate will change whether we like it or not, its just life and the way it is, we think we can stop it but thats c**p.

Answer 13

It is true that Earth has experienced a lot of climate change in the past, but that's not the issue. If you know that much about climate and the environment, you must know that even small changes can radically alter weather systems. It doesn't matter that nature produces much more carbon dioxide than we do; we are still ADDING to the previous natural amount, and if you think about it we are actually adding a lot. I mean, humans cover pretty much six of the seven continents. All you need to do is look at a picture of the continents lit up during the night and think about how many power plants and cars must be down there. It is a well-established fact that the creatures living on a planet's surface can affect it's climate, although long-term climate affects often take 100s or 1000s of years to show up.

"Detailed" look at recent climate records can be dangerous, because there are many natural happenings (sun cycles, volcanic events, etc.) that can noticably affect weather patterns for a few years but not last for the long-term. This makes long-term trends difficult to determine.

What we DO know is that Spring now arrives earlier across the northern hemisphere, almost a week earlier than it did ten years ago! My home state has been experiencing warmer winters as well.

Climate is a very complicated picture and a chaotic system. Almost any scientist will tell you, though, that it's incredibly foolish to assume that the dominant species on a planet will not affect the planet's climate. And whether the changes we help bring about are thought of as "natural" or "unnatural," they still pose a danger to us in the future, and we need to learn how to live on Earth without drastically altering the climate that allowed us to evolve.

Answer 14

Global warming may not be man made but there is tons of evidence to say that we have spend up the process. There is no doubt that global warming exists. The people who say it doesn't are just hearing and seeing what they want to and not the truth. There may be natural explanations as to global warming, but HUMANS have made the earth warm at an exponentially faster rate.

Answer 15

Why were you so quick to assume that global warming does not exist?   You said its natural, so why can't it be happening now?  

   A bucket can have 4.99999999 gallons of water in it.   If 0.00000002 gallons are added to it, it will overflow.   Thats kinda like what is happening with earth and CO2.   The earths systems can handle what it puts out, or life would never have evolved here.   When we add that little bit that the earth cannot handle, it builds up and does damage.    Ever hear of the straw that broke the camels back?

Answer 16

It is also the reason the oil Co. can rob us.

Answer 17

the only big named scientist all agree that global warming is a fact and the only people WHO disagree are employees of energy companies

Answer 18

I don't believe people have been "so quick to assume that global warming exists". It's taken decades of warnings from prestigious publications such as "National Geographic" and prominent members of the scientific community to persuade us that global warming is, indeed, a serious threat to our world.   -RKO-  04/06/08