Global Warming

[Blackwidow]

I have searched for a topic like this, and couldn't find one. So forgive me if there is one like this.

I want to know your thoughts on Global Warming. And I will share with you, my thoughts on Global Warming.

[DoomedDaphnia]

Well, first of all, I mean no offense, but "Global Warming" is a bit of an old term. I'd suggest using the phrase "Climate Change" instead

I feel that it is quite possible that humans are the cause of Global Warming. There is also a reason why it isn't getting as much attention as, say, the drive to eliminate CFCs, and that's mainly because the public honestly doesn't know what to believe. A lot of people don't trust the idea because of something called Climategate, and the way it's being reported is just poor.

I've heard people ask why the north pole is gaining so much attention as opposed to the south pole, and I'll say here what my teacher told us in class: it's because Antarctica is actually getting colder and experiencing more precipitation (the peninsula, on the other hand, may be melting due to a warm current coming off South America). While this might seem odd, you could compare it to adding increased rainfall to a desert (the poles experience Tundra climate, which is basically cold desert). The wildlife in both poles will probably suffer (in the case of the polar bears, they already are), but I'm not sure we can completely predict all of the effects of Climate change.

[Corvidae]

...Um, yes. If the overall temperature of the world goes up, then local weather becomes more erratic, meaning colder winters and hotter summers, as well as much stronger storms and ecology going haywire as cold-weather species try to adapt.

At least, that's how I understand it.

[Tortuga]

"Global Warming" is simply a media hype created by a politician to gain only for himself. He's caused hell for a lot of people. It's already been proven it was bullpucky....

It doesn't exist.


However, the planet does have a natural warming and cooling cycle. Back in the 80s is was global cooling, now they say warming...ah, no...it happens over hundreds of years, not a decade. We can't go by the 100 years or so of weather info we've been keeping.

[Corvidae]

"Global Warming" is simply a media hype created by a politician to gain only for himself. He's caused hell for a lot of people. It's already been proven it was bullpucky....

I'd like to see the resource that told you that global warming was nonexistent, as well as anything you can find to back that up.

[Blackwidow]

I don't want any fighting.

But yes, I would like to know that too.

[Serenova]

Well, there's "Global warming" and then there's "Climate Change".

My personal opinion is that there is a bit of both going on right now. The Earth, naturally, had a cycle of warm and cool as the axis of rotation tilts and it's orbit wobbles around the Sun. I won't, however, excuse human actions. We have changed and will continue to change the face of our world. If we all thought a bit more about the sustainability of our actions things like "global warming" wouldn't be the huge issues they are today.

I think that the Human Race should take responsibility for its actions and realize that what we do CAN and DOES affect our only home.

[wolfeyedangel]

A few geological facts: We have been a warming trend for roughly 20,000 years (since the last glacial maximum). We have been in a geological 'interglacial' period (that is a period of low to no glaciers) for approximately 10,000 years.

Good article that puts it in layman's terms: http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs2-00/

Note: A few things they don't explicitly mention: 'rapid sea level rise' can be measured in less than a meter per year as long as it's more than a few millimeter years. Remember a 'fast' moving tectonic plate moves at an 6-10cm/year. and a 'slow' moving one at .01-2cm/year. Sea level rise in millimeters isn't 'fast'. In cm per year is, in meters per year has only happened once of which I"m aware, and that's still under investigation. My Sedimentary geology/stratigraphy professor was going down to Antarctica to see if he could figure out where roughly 80m of sea level rise came from (there's a chunk of what we currently have that they can't figure out where it came from if their current calculations on the volume of the Antarctic icesheet is right and their backwards calculations are. And if they're right, it would have risen that 80, give or take, meters in less than a century which was part of why he was getting into the fight to get onto one of those antarctic survey vessels and willing to miss half a semester of teaching. It's an increase rate that is utterly unprecedented.)

~Wolf

[MistyoC]

I do believe the climate is changing. Such changes are inevitable on a living planet. I also think humans are affecting the change. We have cleared large areas of forest, paved large areas of land, and even irrigated areas of desert. All of these actions have some effect on the heating, cooling, and moisture levels in the local weather systems. Over time, these changes add up and affect larger systems and eventually the climate.