Is global warming real?

[mustangdriver]

I think that humans have an affect on it, but I think most of it is natural. Remember we already had an ice age once, and that was long before Henry Ford.

[bdk]

Your first reply tells me enough to not even respond to the second one bdk.

Well that's taking the easy way out. I was only joking. Maybe I should give up comedy and stick to ?????

I would like to hear your rebuttal however.

The climate in the Netherlands is about the same as in northern US.

One of the reasons I moved from Chicago to southern California.

[mennie]

Ok bdk.
How much pollution comes from one volcanic eruption? I don't know but how many volcanic eruption are there world wide, in a year? Some people think that one large eruption could have killed all the dinosaurs.
We have forest fires being shown on TV ... We have had forest fires in the past month. But I don't think that a couple of forest fires a year relates to the CO2 exhaust of our cars and factories.

I'm just more of a person that's cautious. In my opinion, even in global warming is natural; I don't think we want to know what the outcome of it is. We don't want to accelerate it.
Our ancestors made small fires too for cooking and heating. But they knew how to survive, not to use up everything. So just as an example; why should I drive a car that uses a lot of fuel when I can drive one that does the same job on less fuel?
And besides that, earth is sometimes called "mother earth" well I think we should be good to our mother. She is strong; she can stand some pounding, but don't abuse her.

[Warbird Mechanic]

I think this Global Warming is a natural phenomenon and that we as human beings do not contribute to its existance at all. Scientist now believed the Earth's magnetic poles have changed their polarity, which they believe is the actual cause of global warming. The Earth natually goes through these polarity changes approximately every 50 years. Actually there is something that can be done to control global warming and has already been scientifically proven to do just that. Scientists have discovered that the earth naturally regulates itself temperaturewise by having volcanic eruptions around the world, which puts sulfer dioxide high up into the Earth's atmosphere. Sulfer dioxide actually is a good thing because scientists have discovered it actually reflects the majority of the sun's harmful rays away from the Earth and send these back into space, which helps cool the Earth and its greenhouse gasses as a result! Scientists are now looking at the possibility of delivering additional sulfer dioxide into the high atmosphere over the North and South Poles by using high flying aircraft and the same technology used to seed clouds as a means to deliver this stuff high into the atmosphere. So far in testing, its been proven to actually work and help cool the Earth! In reality, global warming is not nearly as big of a threat to our existance as some scientists would want us to believe it is. These "so called experts" are just trying to play politics by instilling fear in the Earth's population so they can get additional funding from world governments to help fund their bogus studies. Many of these scientists even thought Y2K was going to cause worldwide blackouts, etc. It never happened!

Jim

[bdk]

I'm just more of a person that's cautious. In my opinion, even in global warming is natural; I don't think we want to know what the outcome of it is. We don't want to accelerate it.
Our ancestors made small fires too for cooking and heating. But they knew how to survive, not to use up everything. So just as an example; why should I drive a car that uses a lot of fuel when I can drive one that does the same job on less fuel?
And besides that, earth is sometimes called "mother earth" well I think we should be good to our mother. She is strong; she can stand some pounding, but don't abuse her.

Well, with that attitude I'm sure you will want to outlaw my smoke belching T-6 when I get it flying. Surely a hybrid car would also get better fuel mileage than a T-6.

Those in the UK might enjoy global warming. They will save much on gas when the climate has once again improved to the point where they can grow wine grapes. Many trips to France will be saved and they can dispense with the Euro for good.

I have read that in China, hundreds of thousands are suffering from lung diseases due to the use of coal for cooking and home heating. I'm sure the same is true in many developing countries. Yet in the US, the air continues to get cleaner from when it was the worst in the 1950s and 1960s.

I am wasting resources ever time I drive. I could certianly ride to work with others or use public transportation, but what is my time worth? I can financially afford to squander a certain amount of resources. A hybrid car is not cost effective because if it's high purchase price. Some of our liberal politicians in the US buy "carbon credits" or "offsets" and claim that they are advocates of the environment. They basically pay someone else to pollute less to make up for their excessive use of resources.

The US could very quickly limit the use of resources and reduce pollution by dramatically increasing taxes on fuel. That would be very harmful to the economy however. The same politicians who complain that we use too much fossil fuel were the politicians who said nuclear power was too dangerous in the 1980s and nuclear accidents would cause the world to end. The result now is that we use fossil fuels to generate electricity which increases carbon dioxide levels which the alarmists attribute to global warming.

[Jesse C.]

Just got this from a friend of mine and it supports what I thought. Its not the end of the world! At least not by our hand.


Its about an hour long, but well worth watching.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... ng+swindle

Sorry if this has been posted already

[zebm1]

Anyone ever paid attention to what happens in an anthill or a termite hill? Tha larger tha population of tha insects, tha higher is tha rise in temperature. More people in tha world...so goes tha increase in temperature....as humans don't like being cold.

[rwdfresno]

I am curious what the "optimum" average temperature of the earth is supposed to be and what self anointed omnipotent person came up with this number. For all we know the Earth is supposed to be 5 degrees hotter and we are trying to stop it.

[mennie]

If it was natural, can we stop the rain? Can we stop snow? No! So... if it was natural, we cannot stop it from happening.
Can we stop it? Maybe. If we can stop it... we must have caused it too.

[rwdfresno]

If it was natural, can we stop the rain? Can we stop snow? No! So... if it was natural, we cannot stop it from happening.
Can we stop it? Maybe. If we can stop it... we must have caused it too.

Your incredibly thoughtful and philosophical argument looses quite a bit of steam considering the fact that we aren't stopping it, so with your logic that means we didn't cause it.

[mennie]

That is why I said maybe.

[zebm1]

I submit that the "Global Warming Question" is inter-dependently related to global population increases. As the world's population increases, so does all of tha supporting infrastructures necessary to support that self-same increase. As tha population increases more "temperate" land regions get paved over decreasing the planet's natural ability to "respirate", i.e. the conversion rates of Carbon-dioxide into Oxygen and water vapor. An ever increasing spiral into larger areas of arid landforms with less ability to sustain organic life-forms.

Eventually, given the overall direction of our species' tendencies toward "unchecked" population increase and our increasing reliance on technological solutions to provide comfortable living environs. There will be only one end, global wars to reduce tha population increases and reduce tha ever expanding reductions of natural resources to a "critical point" that is no longer sustainable. A microcosmic example of what happens when a region can no longer support its' population increase is already occuring in tha Central to Saharan Regions of Africa. Our World's Equatorial regions are being turned into deserts,......which will also increase tha global temperatures and decrease water vapors in tha atmosphere.

An interesting study was done some years ago, as the world's population increased and "world trade" expanded, so also did the need to expand domestic animal production (protein sources), to support humans. This has resulted in a measurable increase in naturally occuring methane, primarily from cattle. Anyone ever walked near a "feed lot"? Better take something with yall, like a handkerchief loaded with strong perfume to hold in front of your noses. Just ask a cowpuncher why they disliked riding "drag", it wasn't tha dust. A single cow leaks several Liters of gaseous methane everyday. Another "interdependency" example is the fishing industry to support human appetites. There are no more Codfish on tha "Grand Banks" off our Nation's east coast. The Cod have been fished into extinction and going by recent demographic studies of Tuna worldwide....that industry is also on the verge of collapse. It takes between 10 to 20 yrs for a tuna to mature enough to reproduce. The tuna are hunted by airplane and the tuna season in the Mediterranen has been reduced to less than a month/ a year. The oceans of the world are becoming deserts world-wide.


There are many common interdependencies to this "Global Warming" question, not just the burning (conversions) of hydrocarbons.

Iz just my opinion.
zeb

[Jesse C.]

The thought that us puny humans can kill this gigantic rock that can do what ever it wants and has been around with and without us is pretty self centered.

Great disasters have befallen this planet before us and they will after us. Everyone forgets of the amazing healing and cleansing powers of nature and that all of this doom and gloom has only really come about recently in human history and it is largely placed on a myth that has been blown way out of proportion.

Its politics, baby, just politics!

[zebm1]

I did not say that we humans were killing this rock, or perhaps you misread me. What I said is that as resources become scarcer as the total world-wide population continues to increase to levels that become unsupportable because of human indifference and wastage to the condtition of arable land and food resources. That these pressures effected on enviromental resources will, as they have done so many times before in human history, cause wars of anililation so as to ensure that they who consider themselves the strongest.....will survive.

Cites:

1) http://www.sustainablesettlement.co.za/ ... dloss.html
2) http://dieoff.org/page40.htm
3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arable_land
4) http://www.fao.org/ag/agL/swlwpnr/repor ... lcover.htm
5) http://www.china.org.cn/english/2006lh/160733.htm
Impacts of bio-fuels
6) http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/12/05/olmstead/
sea level rise and global impacts
7) http://www.unep.org/geo/yearbook/yb2006/063.asp

All of the above are interdependently related to the effects caused by global warming. All of these problems are in the main caused by the global population increases.

[Jesse C.]

Zeb, did you even view the documentary that I posted a link to?

First, lets stop the Global Warming lingo. The planet is not getting warmer than it has been or will be. It has been warmer before and it will be colder once again sometime in the future, its just cycles.

"I did not say that we humans were killing this rock, or perhaps you misread me. What I said is that as resources become scarcer as the total world-wide population continues to increase to levels that become unsupportable because of human indifference and wastage to the condtition of arable land and food resources."

This sounds like Catch 22 to me. I am sure you are a great guy, so please do not take any of this as a personal deal, just a discussion about a problem that has gripped the world around us.

With or without us, the climate will do its own thing thanks to forces beyond our control. We have a giant heater poited at us and other forces beyond our control that to blame it all on our gasses is too easy of a way out for this.

People should be asking and demanding hard facts before they get sucked in by the sexiness of Global Warming Inc.

Just my 2 crazy cents!