What are your thoughts and views on global warming? This is a very hot issue at the moment and will be for the next 10 or so years, however global warming is only a theory and although it is most probably true. Anyway I am reading a book on it at the moment so I will be sure to post my views at a later stage.
I'm still not convinced it's for real. And even if it is, I don't think there's much we can do about it.
The world has been heating up and cooling off since the beginning of it's existance. I don't see why we should start to freak out about that right now. Although, Global Warming is a pretty thought raising topic, I had an idea that involved it for a short story once, but I decided against writing it.
Well its about time the world got hotter! I live in New Hampshire, its August and I'm wearing sweatshirts for crying out loud! But seriously, even if global warming is real, or its just that other theory that the world does this periodically, there's nothing we can do about it.
Thank you for your views, I know most of you have said that even if it global warming does exist, we cannot do anything about it. But if we had to do somthing, no matter how little what would you try and do? (General recycling, or going to the extreme and perhaps buying solar pannels?)
My town is forced to recycle (they only give us one trashbin for the week, so we have to) so we're doing that.
Very true, Kirk, the Earth has gone through incredibly dramatic temperature fluctuations since it's beginning. Unfortunately each one invariably caused mass extinctions across the entire planet. Hardly a comforting thought. As for global warming? Well, it's simple, we need to stop pumping out CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Although our planet can survive temperature fluctuations, the finely balanced life on it's surface is usually drastically affected by it. We need to cut emissions - simple as.
or we could just start over on one of Jupiter's moon's. I've heard rumors that theres a great possibility of life (thought it may be microorganisms) on there. Since theres water and all.
Although taking personal responsibility for recycling helps, it's industry we need to target to cut emissions. Emissions from industry in the USA alone account for 25% of the global total (despite the fact they only have 4% of the worlds population). But they're not the only culprits, the six major industrial nations are responsible for over half our species greenhouse gas output.
I like that idea. Maybe if we stop cutting funding to space exploration, we may get someplace like that, oneday.
It would totally screw up the world if we found life on other planets. Religions would just crumble...
It's my belief that global warming is bunk. Greenhouse gasses have been recorded and obsearved next to the temperature and for the past hundred years we've seen that they do SEEM to mirror each other for themost part. But that doesn't mean anything. Many things relate to the other quite often. And this begs the question: What man made greenhouse gasses were being caused 100 years ago? Next to none? There's all sorts of holes in this theory. People say that the hole in the Ozone Layer is getting bigger. It gets rather big and then it closes every year. It's just a mother nature sort of thing that doesn't make sense to us right now. Here's another bit of information for you. Although the temperature has gone up dramatically in spiratic places all over the world, if you measure the increase of the warming globally -- it's only gone up .01 degrees in the past 100 years. That's not enough to prove global warming to me.
Maybe Laimtoe, but I seriously wouldn't like to bank on Bush administration propaganda and take the chance with the only home we have. The fact is, CO2 is a trace element in our atmosphere, and I mean A TRACE element, yet it can have an awesome effect on our environment. If you tweak it's values either side just a little, you could plunge the Earth from an ice-locked snowball to a hellish Venus like existence. Earth has been to both of these extremes in its past due to CO2 levels. As I stated earlier, these fluctuations where very detrimental to life on Earth. Yes, proof is thin on the ground, but why wait until it's way too late when we already know how finely balanced life here is and how dependant that balance is on the CO2 cycle? I don't think short-sighted human meddling is excusable on the grounds that because it isn't hurting us now we can keep on doing it. It certainly isn't excusable when you consider that the main grounds for not effectively tackling the problem are to protect industrial profits.
Yes, it is highly possible that "global warming" is simply the next cycle, after all, the dinosaurs didnt create an ice age with Nuclear Plants.
Man didn't cuase the original intense heat, nor did we cause the Ice Age. We weren't burning any fuels nor were we much of anything other than primitive fools roaming about with sticks. If the Earth is going heat and cool, it's my belief that it's because of the greater solar bursts from the sun and gravitational oddities occuring in our Solar system... there so many variables dealing with this issue and I beleive none of them regard what man does at this point. And yes, it's the only home we have, however -- if we stopped burning as much fuel as we currently do then the price of gas would REALLY be high and nothing would stop other nations from burning their own fuel, so the planet would suffer just as badly if America stopped its oil enrichment considering the fact that America tends to clean up its messes in comparison to most countries and other countries such as China are begining to become quite industrialized -- using fossil fuels. I really don't depend on the Bush administration for my information on this regard.
Just worry about nuclear war for the time being and we will worry about one problem at a time. Global warming isn't on the top list as of now.
Sorry Laimtoe, I disagree. The sun is on a stable phase of the stellar main sequence, which, together with the Earth's current atmosphere, has allowed complex life to flourish. Fluctuations in solar output take place over billions of years, as they have done in the past, so that's not really a factor. Yes, Man did not cause past Earth temperature fluctuations, but changes in Earth's atmospheric inventory very likely did. Even if those changes have been natural (having taken place over millions of years) or man-made (over a few centruries) the results could well be the same. I also can't agree with your argument about 'if other countries are doing it, why can't we?' As I said earlier on the thread, it's the six major industrial nations that are responsible for over 50% of human CO2 emissions, with the USA contributing by far the most (over 25% of human total). These are the nations with the best ability to find an alternative and set an example to the rest of the world. We don't do that because the governments of those nations have major corporate powers pulling their strings. And no, we can't clean up CO2 levels, only nature can do that. How much are we going to ask of her and how much can she cope with before it's too late? Do you really want to put that to the test, or do we act more responsibly and curb those emissions until we truly know what damage we are doing?
I'll look into some of what you said, Murcury -- but I still say that greenhouse gases don't cause it. The biggest greenhouse gas on Earth happens to be water vapor. I would however agree that we need alternative fuels. Something cleaner. I don't agree that we should do it for the sake of the planet, but more-so for the sake of human health. It's not good for the human body to breath that crap in.
