I have been debating this issue with my colleagues for a few days now. I admit to NOT being either a scientist or an expert on the global warming controversy. I am interested, however, in arriving at a greater approximation of truth. My understanding of global warming and global cooling is that they are entirely natural events. The planet has been much warmer and also much cooler than it is today, correct? I am not arguing that humans should start polluting more and disregard the environment. I think we can see clear connections between pollution and health. However, I remain unconvinced that humans have a significant amount of control over the planet’s temperature, one way or another. Is there any way to prove that the planet would not become warmer if no humans existed? If this is true, would attempts to cool the planet actually interfere with the natural process? Please only respond if you are reasonable. I don’t want replies from extremist tree huggers or oil barrons.
the earth is geneerally agreed to be one degree warmer than it was 100 years ago, i dont think there is any disagreement on that. there are a lot of misconceptions about what has happened because of this, or what has caused this.
one example is ice cap melting. it is generally agreed that the oceans would rise by about 200-250 feet if the ice caps melted completely. hype would tell you that the icebergs are all melting, or that nothing is happening. if the ice caps have melted, why are all coastal cities unchanged over the last 100 years? new york, la, sfo, miami, barcelona, rome, mumbai-look at pictures from 100 years ago and you will see that the water level is the same. in actuality, the oceans have risen 5 inches during that time, meaning that about 0.2% of the ice caps have melted in the last 100 years.
this is one example of using real facts to make decisions about what is true, there are many more. dont believe in lies by al gore. dont believe in lies by rush limbaugh. use your brain and look at facts to understand the world around you. also dont go based on anecdotal evidence like there were two typhoons in one week, or hurricane katrina, or any other anecdotal evidence, you must look at stastics over the long term to make real determinations.
co2 levels have increased from about 300 ppm to about 380 ppm over the last 100 years, all the data supports this, so we know that it has happened, what does it mean, and what have we done, if anything to cause this? what can we do to stop or prevent this? or do we even want to? or is it even possible?
also dont listen to propaganda like "any real scientist says this or says that", to say that "all scientists agree on this" is a lie, look at the facts. also dont listen to lies like "oil companies say this, so its not true", once again, look at statistics and facts.
my opinion is that our activities have caused the earth to warm faster than it would have if we werent around. it is also my opinion that there will be a nuclear bomb blast in an american city in the next decade. the effects of even one blast will be about 1000 times worse than the effects of the one degree increase in global temps and 5 inch rise in the oceans. if you think about saving the environment, we should raise the gas tax by about 5-10 dollars a gallon to stop paying people that want to kill us so much money. the price of using gasoline is really about $10/gallon in america, that money is paid through income tax to pay for things like roads, military, etc. we should stop subsidizing the use of gasoline.
the earth is geneerally agreed to be one degree warmer than it was 100 years ago, i dont think there is any disagreement on that. there are a lot of misconceptions about what has happened because of this, or what has caused this.
one example is ice cap melting. it is generally agreed that the oceans would rise by about 200-250 feet if the ice caps melted completely. hype would tell you that the icebergs are all melting, or that nothing is happening. if the ice caps have melted, why are all coastal cities unchanged over the last 100 years? new york, la, sfo, miami, barcelona, rome, mumbai-look at pictures from 100 years ago and you will see that the water level is the same. in actuality, the oceans have risen 5 inches during that time, meaning that about 0.2% of the ice caps have melted in the last 100 years.
this is one example of using real facts to make decisions about what is true, there are many more. dont believe in lies by al gore. dont believe in lies by rush limbaugh. use your brain and look at facts to understand the world around you. also dont go based on anecdotal evidence like there were two typhoons in one week, or hurricane katrina, or any other anecdotal evidence, you must look at stastics over the long term to make real determinations.
co2 levels have increased from about 300 ppm to about 380 ppm over the last 100 years, all the data supports this, so we know that it has happened, what does it mean, and what have we done, if anything to cause this? what can we do to stop or prevent this? or do we even want to? or is it even possible?
also dont listen to propaganda like "any real scientist says this or says that", to say that "all scientists agree on this" is a lie, look at the facts. also dont listen to lies like "oil companies say this, so its not true", once again, look at statistics and facts.
my opinion is that our activities have caused the earth to warm faster than it would have if we werent around. it is also my opinion that there will be a nuclear bomb blast in an american city in the next decade. the effects of even one blast will be about 1000 times worse than the effects of the one degree increase in global temps and 5 inch rise in the oceans. if you think about saving the environment, we should raise the gas tax by about 5-10 dollars a gallon to stop paying people that want to kill us so much money. the price of using gasoline is really about $10/gallon in america, that money is paid through income tax to pay for things like roads, military, etc. we should stop subsidizing the use of gasoline.
References :
It has been said that there was natural global warming and cooling, but through the last 50-100 years, temperatures have gone up higher than the natural warming/cooling trend, because of global warming. I think that attempting to cool the planet wouldn’t interfere with the natural process,
as we have gone up much higher than the trends support.
References :
Al Gore – An inconvinient truth
Yes our climate has natural cool and warm trends, it has even had natural super hot and frozen stages, all without any influence by humans and far before we were a presence or a significant presence of any kind. Is "global warming" a natural state, a natural state augmented by industrial chemicals or entirely caused by human industry…I suppose that depends on who you believe. We’ve known, as you point out that we needed to clean up our pollution for a long time, maybe "global warming" is the scare to make us be serious (will some one tell the Chinese?). Is it a super political issue? That always makes me suspicious…..does it sell books and movies….are a lot of people making a lot of money about it? When money, publicity and power come together facts tend to go by the wayside. Notice, few are talking about zero polulation growth….not a very politically safe issue…at a certain level of population our own exhalations will disrupt the chemical balance……
I’m with you, not an alarmist….I’m more concerned about our galaxy colliding with Andromeda in some billions of years
References :
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/galaxy_collides_020507-1.html