Global Warming

[AverageJoe]

I have begun the whole evolution section in my biology class. It has created a lot of discussion on peoples beliefs, but one thing I found astonishing is that some people don't even believe that global warming is true. They think the Earth will remain the same for forever, even if we continue to use oil in the rate we are. I found this disturbing.

 

 

My question is do you believe in Global Warming, and what do you think about it?

Is it some big conspiracy, or should we be bundling up for the day after tomorrow?

 

[Kelso]

My professor has run models for years on global warming, and the error rate is less than one percent. Less that one percent! And that's just for being one degree off!

 

 

Sorry. This is a big deal for me.

[Undr]

Even though there is warming, if you look at the temperatures from the past 450,000 years to the present, you will see that they rise quite a few degrees above our current average, then plunge back down. Even if the temperatures keep rising, it won't stop the next ice age from descending upon the Earth.

[Kelso]

Look. The european "little ice age", in which there were glaciers around England was three degrees above the european normal average. Three degrees! So far, climatologists imagine that the WORLD has gone up one degree since the 1920s, and is continually speeding up.

 

 

 

Even though there is warming, if you look at the temperatures from the past 450,000 years to the present, you will see that they rise quite a few degrees above our current average, then plunge back down. Even if the temperatures keep rising, it won't stop the next ice age from descending upon the Earth.

 

 

Okay, so 450,000 years from now we'll have another ice age. Big whop. At the present rate, we should be in the exact opposite of an ice age in just a hundred years... or less!

[infinity]

Definitely reality. However the most disturbing thing to me, is the fact that some people still think that global warming happens when you use spray paint and the hole in the ozone gets bigger... Someone needs an update.

[AverageJoe]

Definitely reality. However the most disturbing thing to me, is the fact that some people still think that global warming happens when you use spray paint and the hole in the ozone gets bigger... Someone needs an update.

If enough people do it, it can contribute to global warming.

 

Even though there is warming, if you look at the temperatures from the past 450,000 years to the present, you will see that they rise quite a few degrees above our current average, then plunge back down. Even if the temperatures keep rising, it won't stop the next ice age from descending upon the Earth.

 

Yes that is Earth's natural cycle. The concern is that we are shortening the time between cycles in a large rate. Instead of 450,00 years it may be 100,000 or 50,00 at the rate we are going.

 

Okay, so 450,000 years from now we'll have another ice age. Big whop. At the present rate, we should be in the exact opposite of an ice age in just a hundred years... or less!

 

I wouldn't say 100 years, but a change in climate is closer on the horizon already due to our affect on the environment. We are not sure if we continue at the rate we are, if we will have an ice age, or simply disrupt the natural cycle the Earth goes through, and turn the Earth into a desolate planet in which is hardly habitable.

[Kyougi]

The scientific research over global warming is rather inconclusive. Global warming itself could just be a natural thing because of the sun's cycles. I've read somewhere that the mean surface temperatures of other planets in this solar system have also inscreased.

 

Can't see what Kelso means by that we'll have the opposite of an ice age in a hundred years. Kelso's graph kind of makes my point. It's similar to the graph of a sine function. It just goes up and down. You can see the curve of the mean temperatures from 1880 to present and that it just looks like a cycle. It starts getting colder, at it's peak of cold, then goes back up. We're still a while before the peak of warming though. The graph has a slight bump at 1940 though, which is when gas-powered machines became more common. At this rate, it's should be back to the zero on that graph in another thirty to fourty years.

[AverageJoe]

That all global warming is, is the theory that we are speeding up the Earths natural cycle. The concern is that we might upset this process, and make it so that the graph does not go down, but rather keeps going up(or maybe keep going down). We know that we are affecting the Earths temperatures, we are just unsure how if any irreversible effects will result from it.

[Kyougi]

By being alive, we affect the temperature. Carbon Dioxide and water vapor are two of the four major greenhouse gasses.

[infinity]

If enough people do it, it can contribute to global warming.

 

I'm pretty sure they fixed that already by changing the compressed gas type...

[AverageJoe]

Yes exposing corbondioxide contributes to global warming, but it is recycled by plants and trees that convert it to oxygen. The problem is that we are releasing much more carbodioxide than we would if we were just breathing. So much that the plants can't absorb it and convert it to oxygen faster than we are producing it. I know that we naturally contribute to global warming, but it's simply that we are contributing more than we naturally do. Thats what we think will speed up global warming.

 

 

[euler]

We have the solution, but we are BLIND

[Azgar]

I believe we have global warming but from what I have heard before the Little Ice age that ended in the 1800's it was 8 degrees warmer than during the Little Ice Age we are now 4 degrees warmer than in the Little Ice Age. (From a History Channal show on the Little Ice Age).

I could care less if we are causing a reduction in the cycle or not what I say is you don't pee in your own pool. We need to always get more effecent because we have a larger population and we have limited resources and I don't want to breath bad air. The thing is in the US non CO2 pollutin is lower than it has been since 1970 we have a long way to go even on this but it is a start. I China they have 20 of the 30 most polluted cities. I feel the countrys of America and Europe need to help China do better and work on cutting ourselves. In my state if Illinios we have 3 new wind farms being started and they are not small ones. Off of the west cost of the US they are putting in a small wave farm which will expand later. In Matton Illinios they are building a zero emission coal fire power plant.

We need to use more effecent lights and applicances ect and build eco friendly power plants.

[teh silly]

Never been a big fan of the global warming scare. I figure, what's going to happen'll happen, and people will adapt. Anyway, there's scientists all over the world claiming a bunch of different things in this regard, many with very conclusive proof and great assurity that what they say is as good as law (*ahem* ...Al Gore...). I don't mind being conscious of what might happen, but I think it's very silly to spend billions of dollars on something that, in perspective, we really have absolutely no idea about. However, I do get peeved when certain people who almost got in the position of great trust and reverence that is the President of the United States (ha! trust and reverence, what a joke ... or is it?) win a Nobel Prize for this kind of thing.

 

(Quick, get off the politics, that's in a different forum!)

Anyway, yes, I think being mindful of our environment and atmosphere and whatnot is a good thing, but it's a tad proactive to try and force everyone to be environmentally friendly (or "green"), when we don't even have a good grasp on the situation.

[Everlast7]

I do believe global warming is happening, but slowly, and shouldn't be worried about too much. However, there is nothing that shows me for sure that it is not just some huge conspiracy.