Is Global Warming happening?

[Kungfuzed]

I've been wondering why this is such a political subject. It seems to me that this is purely a scientific question yet the left seems to think we're all doomed and the right isn't even worried. Could it be that the blue states will be the first to be wiped out by the rising tides?

 

[Mercy Not Sacrifice]

Radio Frequency X, what is your reaction to this graph? If you deny its validity, can you please cite peer-reviewed scientific literature that refutes it, in order for your claim to rest as valid?

 

[Mercy Not Sacrifice]

I've been wondering why this is such a political subject. It seems to me that this is purely a scientific question yet the left seems to think we're all doomed and the right isn't even worried. Could it be that the blue states will be the first to be wiped out by the rising tides?

There does seem to be a modest correlation, although the Solid South seems to defy that convention. Of course, if half of Florida and Louisiana go underwater in a few decades, that trend may start to reverse, assuming that there is even anyone left in those states to vote....

 

[BUDDY]

Global warming exists, and I see no evidence that sonvinces me that man has anything to do with it. I do see plenty of evidence to suggest that the earth has been warming and cooling for quite some time though.

CO2

Of the 186 billion tons of CO2 that enter earth's atmosphere each year from all sources, only 6 billion tons are from human activity. Approximately 90 billion tons come from biologic activity in earth's oceans and another 90 billion tons from such sources as volcanoes and decaying land plants.
At 368 parts per million CO2 is a minor constituent of earth's atmosphere-- less than 4/100ths of 1% of all gases present. Compared to former geologic times, earth's current atmosphere is CO2- impoverished.
CO2 is odorless, colorless, and tasteless. Plants absorb CO2 and emit oxygen as a waste product. Humans and animals breathe oxygen and emit CO2 as a waste product. Carbon dioxide is a nutrient, not a pollutant, and all life-- plants and animals alike-- benefit from more of it. All life on earth is carbon-based and CO2 is an essential ingredient. When plant-growers want to stimulate plant growth, they introduce more carbon dioxide.
CO2 that goes into the atmosphere does not stay there but is continually recycled by terrestrial plant life and earth's oceans-- the great retirement home for most terrestrial carbon dioxide.

[SIZE=+1]If we are in a global warming crisis today, even the most aggressive and costly proposals for limiting industrial carbon dioxide emissions would have a negligible effect on global climate![/SIZE]

Using Proxy Data
Part of the problem with figuring out whether our currect earth temperature is normal or not and mapping out historic trends, is the lack of solid data. If we use proxy data though, the following historic perspective is what we see:

 

[Radio Frequency X]

Radio Frequency X, what is your reaction to this graph? If you deny its validity, can you please cite peer-reviewed scientific literature that refutes it, in order for your claim to rest as valid?

I don't have any evidence to deny the correlation, however, I'm quite sure you are aware that correlation does not prove causation. What that chart fails to show is the correlation with every other greenhouse gas (which would be interesting to see).

 

[Ryan2065]

Yes. Among real scientists human mediated global warming is as accepted as evolution or gravity. It's difficult to find even an Exxon or BP engineer that doesn't accept this.
Global warming is a hot scientific topic. There are tens of thousands of research papers in reputable journals on the topic and not a single one maintains that the warming isn't real or that man is not a significant contributor.

Many of them prove that global warming exists... You would be a fool to not believe this... But, uhh... Can you link the one that comes close to proving that man is the major cause of global warming?

Of course there are many other factors influencing climate, and climate has varied a lot in the past with no input from man, but the current trend correlates so closely with well understood warming factors clearly created by human activity that no-one who seriously examines the issue has any doubt.

So you agree that all we currently have are observations and no theory on the cause?

 

[may]

What’s Happening to the Weather?
Strange weather patterns have wreaked havoc on places throughout the world. Does this mean that something is wrong with the weather?.................. good link

 

[darkpenguin]

I'm with Becky on this one, I know global warming is happening, I see it everyday.
I also understand that the earth heats up and cools down as it has done for millions of years, but to use that as an excuse to try and brush off the reality of global warming is just stupididty in the highest degree.
We cannot deny that it is happening, however we can and some are very ignorant and selfish when it comes to accepting that we are responsible for it and that WE have to change our ways.
I cannot fathom how anybody can be so blind to the blatantly obvious, but like I said, despite being 'the most intelligent' animals, we are stupid, naive, selfish and blind.
Agent Smith had it right in the matrix, we are parasites, a disease. Feeding on our suroundings and bleeding it dry and moving on.
We will destroy ourselves.
Wow we really are intelligent arn't we?

 

[Mister Emu]

This graph seems to say many things...

A) the planet has been increasing in temperture for ~15,000 years.
B) Even though CO2 is at it's highest levels ever, by far, temperature is not.

Edit:
C) It looks like ~70,000 years ago CO2 was rising while temperature was falling
D) It appears to me that ~55,000 years ago CO2 was falling slightly while the temperature rose slightly
for C and D I admit I could be seeing it wrong.

 

[Kcnorwood]

I would have to say since the start of the industrial revolution the world had been pumping things into the air that started global warming. Despite what this or that chart says it does not take, a scientist to know that each year the weather around the world is getting more & more severe. Turn on your TV read the paper I live in the southeast on the United States & I have watched the weather here do some crazy things. This year we really did not have a summer what summer we did have only lasted for a month. We have not had a REAL winter in two years here. The first two years that I have lived here it snowed not like you get up north or out west but enough to scare the crap out of people here who can’t drive, when the sun is shining!

:help:

 

[may]

I would have to say since the start of the industrial revolution the world had been pumping things into the air that started global warming. Despite what this or that chart says it does not take, a scientist to know that each year the weather around the world is getting more & more severe. Turn on your TV read the paper I live in the southeast on the United States & I have watched the weather here do some crazy things. This year we really did not have a summer what summer we did have only lasted for a month. We have not had a REAL winter in two years here. The first two years that I have lived here it snowed not like you get up north or out west but enough to scare the crap out of people here who can’t drive, when the sun is shining!

:help:

humans think they are so clever but it is all trial and error. its no wonder that the Almighty is going to step into the affairs of humans .Daniel 2;44

 

[astarath]

Yes it's happening

 

[Kcnorwood]

humans think they are so clever but it is all trial and error. its no wonder that the Almighty is going to step into the affairs of humans .Daniel 2;44

Um.. if you say so.....:sarcastic

 

[BUDDY]

Yes, global warming is happening, but man is not the cause. Science cannot prove that man is the cause. I suggest everyone here read Michael Crichton's new book State of Fear. The science is being perverted by the scientists for profit. He did three years of research for the book and lays out exactly what is happening. Most people just become slaves to these theories because they don't want to do the work and research to discover for themselves that our planet goes through climate changes naturally.

 

[BUDDY]

p.s. - I should add that not only is man not the cause, but he can also do nothing to stop it. The earth is going to get warmer whether we want it too or not. It is also going to get cooler whether we want it too or not. Additionally, psuedi-scientists will be coming up with ridiculous theories concerning global warming and global cooling whther we want them too or not.

 

[BUDDY]

I'm with Becky on this one, I know global warming is happening, I see it everyday.
I also understand that the earth heats up and cools down as it has done for millions of years, but to use that as an excuse to try and brush off the reality of global warming is just stupididty in the highest degree.
We cannot deny that it is happening, however we can and some are very ignorant and selfish when it comes to accepting that we are responsible for it and that WE have to change our ways.
I cannot fathom how anybody can be so blind to the blatantly obvious, but like I said, despite being 'the most intelligent' animals, we are stupid, naive, selfish and blind.
Agent Smith had it right in the matrix, we are parasites, a disease. Feeding on our suroundings and bleeding it dry and moving on.
We will destroy ourselves.
Wow we really are intelligent arn't we?

No, we are not parasites, and the MAtrix was what is called science fiction. Just like the science that "proves" man is a major contributor. Why take such drastic measure the "change our ways" when our ways have nothing to do with, nor any effect on, global climate change? I do not feel guilty. If there is something that we can do that is more efficient, economical and protective, I am all for it, but to apologize for my existence because some environmentalist, hippy scientist tells me to....well, THAT is stupid, naive, selfish and blind.

 

[Buttons*]

global warming exists... so does the greenhouse effect, so does solar energy....

 

[ChrisP]

global warming exists... so does the greenhouse effect, so does solar energy....

The question that remains is it good, bad, or balanced.

 

[Booko]

Global Warming is happening, but we aren't causing it and we can't stop it.

I'd be interested to read any articles in peer-reviews journals related to climatology that actually support this idea.

I know of none, but maybe you do.

We will have a global cooling trend in the future too. The weather is always getting warmer or cooler in cycles. All we are doing is making the effects of Global Warming worse by depleating the Ozone.

Ozone is not the culprit. Aside from which, the ban on CFCs is showing some rather early fruit in that the southern ozone hole is shrinking.

And yes, it is different than normal warming cycles. Anyone who can read a simple graph can see how obvious it is. And funny how the warming coincides with graphs on greenhouse levels across time. It isn't trees putting out that much CO2, as much as some wishful thinker at Harvard may like to pretend.

Not to mention polar ice sheets that are now melting, and in some cases disappearing, that haven't melted in hundreds of thousands of years.

None of these events is part of a normal warming trend.

It would make more sense to listen to some qualified scientists on the topic rather than political hacks.

And on political subjects, I wouldn't ask scientists either.

 

[Booko]

Rush just doesn't like these silly pseudo-scientific nonsense about us somehow causing the earth to get hotter.

Yeah, it's very clear that Rush Limbaugh has more knowledge in these areas than the entire body of climatologists working in the field.

What a bunch of silly pseudo-scientists all those actual climatologists are!

Those peer reviewed scientific journals are obviously just part of some vast left-wing conspiracy.