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  • 10

    Opinionhated

    The question should ask: Man-made global warming, fact or fiction?

  • 1

    johninnaha

    Is there any doubt?

    We're screwing up the environment, global warming is one result. There are many more.

    "Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."

    I believe this is a Native American quotation. I don't know the author.

  • 5

    Geoff Gillespie

    As Opinionhated was quick enough to say - beat me to it, dammit! - the only real question is why, not whether or not the global warming phenomenon exits.

  • 2

    jojo_in_japan

    Watch Al Gore's 'An inconvenient Truth'. Shocking ...

  • 3

    American Devil

    I agree with Opinionhated.

    The question of Global Warming reminds me of the ancient Europeans debating whether the sun rotated around the Earth, or the Earth rotated around the Sun.

    We can all see that there is a lot of strange weather phenomena but the question is whether this is Man-Made or naturally occurring. That is where the debate lies.

  • 1

    SimondB

    I think that the term global warming is a little misleading. Where I live it very rarely snows. Yet for the last three winters we have had heavy snowfalls to the extent the city stops. Long term residents tell me that prior to the 3 previous years that in living memory it had never snowed in consecutive years and most years no snow at all.

    Yes, the weather is definitely changing radically.

  • 1

    It"S ME

    People tend to think that "Global Warming" will turn the world into a post-apocalyptic desert or similar.

    Not really with the warming the weather patterns and local climates change it also affects the oceans and modifies where warm and cold water streams travel. West of europe and most of it is affect by the gulf-stream and it turning away will make europe colder no warmer(Been known for decades).

    Same way the changing weather pattern will affect and animal migration and habitat zones, tornado development/frequency, etc.

    Yes, overall the temp is rising but local cold and hot climates will still exist just in new locations.

  • 7

    borscht

    SimondB,

    That's why other news agencies call it climate change.

    I agree with Opinionhated, too. The question is not are glaciers, ice floes, and chunks of Antarctica disappearing at a faster rate than 50~60 years ago (which is obvious to even the most casual observer) but why. Are 7 billion humans having an affect on the earth or is it that time of the epoch for Mother Earth?

    And if 7 billion humans are one of the causes, how much of a cause? If humans are one of the causes or even the major cause, how should humans alter their behavior in order to reduce their impact? Those are the questions.

  • 2

    Wolfpack

    Global Warming is a fact. Global Cooling is also a fact. The earth has always warmed and cooled and it will for eons more until our Sun explodes into a supernova. Don't freak out; adapt and get on with life. These is no use worrying yourself to death about something we have virtually no control over.

  • 3

    Thomas Anderson

    Global Warming is a fact. Global Cooling is also a fact. The earth has always warmed and cooled and it will for eons more until our Sun explodes into a supernova. Don't freak out; adapt and get on with life. These is no use worrying yourself to death about something we have virtually no control over.

    This is irrelevant because the man-made global warming (which is also a fact) overrides the effects of global cooling.

    Science agrees that global warming is caused by man. Thumb down all you want but all I'm stating are facts and you will not change a thing.

  • 3

    Thomas Anderson

    I think that some of you are confused. There is no argument whether climate change is natural or it is caused by man. The scientific conclusion is that man-made climate change is currently the dominant force.

    "A common skeptic argument is that climate has changed naturally in the past, long before SUVs and coal-fired power plants, so therefore humans cannot be causing global warming now. Interestingly, the peer-reviewed research into past climate change comes to the opposite conclusion. To understand this, first you have to ask why climate has changed in the past. It doesn't happen by magic. Climate changes when it’s forced to change. When our planet suffers an energy imbalance and gains or loses heat, global temperature changes.

    It is obviously true that past climate change was caused by natural forcings. However, to argue that this means we can’t cause climate change is like arguing that humans can’t start bushfires because in the past they’ve happened naturally. Greenhouse gas increases have caused climate change many times in Earth’s history, and we are now adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere at a increasingly rapid rate."

    http://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-change-little-ice-age-medieval-warm-period.htm

  • 0

    Thomas Anderson

    I think that the term global warming is a little misleading. Where I live it very rarely snows. Yet for the last three winters we have had heavy snowfalls to the extent the city stops. Long term residents tell me that prior to the 3 previous years that in living memory it had never snowed in consecutive years and most years no snow at all. Yes, the weather is definitely changing radically.

    Warming leads to increased evaporation and precipitation, which falls as increased snow in winter.

    "To claim that record snowfall is inconsistent with a warming world betrays a lack of understanding of the link between global warming and extreme precipitation. Warming causes more moisture in the air which leads to more extreme precipitation events. This includes more heavy snowstorms in regions where snowfall conditions are favourable. Far from contradicting global warming, record snowfall is predicted by climate models and consistent with our expectation of more extreme precipitation events."

    http://www.skepticalscience.com/Record-snowfall-disproves-global-warming.htm

  • 4

    irishosaru

    "Climate change", not "global warming".

    And yes, I believe it to be fact.

  • 0

    Thomas Anderson

    "Climate change", not "global warming". And yes, I believe it to be fact.

    Actually you can not disprove that the Earth is warming since we've consistently had the hottest recorded summers consecutively in the last 15 years. The globe is warming, and it is a fact.

  • -2

    USNinJapan2

    Last time I checked man-made climate change was still a scientific theory. If it was fact there would be no need for this poll.

  • 3

    tsukki

    Those who answered fiction may just be wishful thinkers.

  • 8

    lucabrasi

    Those who answered fiction may just be wishful thinkers.

    That or gut-wrenchingly selfish, lazy, fat SUV drivers with no intention of giving up the slightest of the trappings of their blinkered, overfed lifestyle for the sake of a few brown-skinned islanders in the Pacific. Because hell, it's a free world ain't it? and I ain't gonna listen to no commie so-called scientist telling me what to do, no Sir!!

  • 2

    LFRAgain

    Lucabrasi,

    You nailed the naysayers' motivations for denying global warming squarely on the head. Unmitigated selfishness and raw greed pretty much sums it up.

  • 0

    zichi

    The major polluters America, India and China need to step up to plate.

  • -4

    SquidBert

    I answered fiction, because I assumed that what they really meant was "Global warming as a result of human Co2 release" which I do not consider to be a scientifically proven fact. And the only other option was fiction.

    I do believe that human activities can affect weather and climate and I do think that humans should always try to minimize their footprint on earth. I just think the situation is much more complex than just changing atmospheric Co2 concentration.

  • -1

    Thomas Anderson

    @USNinJapan2

    Last time I checked man-made climate change was still a scientific theory. If it was fact there would be no need for this poll.

    Last time I checked gravity was still a scientific theory. Should we ignore gravity now? Models like these can accurately predict something and have accurately predicted in the past, so even if it's a "theory", it can still be reasonably correct.

    To "test" that the climate model is correct, we'd have to wait another 30 years. But the question is, can we afford to wait for another 30 years? The answer is obviously no.

    Models successfully reproduce temperatures since 1900 globally, by land, in the air and the ocean.

    http://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-models.htm

    So all models are first tested in a process called Hindcasting. The models used to predict future global warming can accurately map past climate changes. If they get the past right, there is no reason to think their predictions would be wrong. Testing models against the existing instrumental record suggested CO2 must cause global warming, because the models could not simulate what had already happened unless the extra CO2 was added to the model. All other known forcings are adequate in explaining temperature variations prior to the rise in temperature over the last thirty years, while none of them are capable of explaining the rise in the past thirty years. CO2 does explain that rise, and explains it completely without any need for additional, as yet unknown forcings.

    @SquidBert

    I answered fiction, because I assumed that what they really meant was "Global warming as a result of human Co2 release" which I do not consider to be a scientifically proven fact. And the only other option was fiction.

    It is scientifically proven. The climate change model shows it.

    http://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-models.htm

    I do believe that human activities can affect weather and climate and I do think that humans should always try to minimize their footprint on earth. I just think the situation is much more complex than just changing atmospheric Co2 concentration.

    It is obviously complex, but climate models show that it's the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere that is the most prominent driving force behind global warming.

    The REAL question is, why do people ignore science and scientific data, just because it's inconvenient?

  • 6

    nec123a

    wow! 25% of you don't believe that the world is getting warmer....? The issue isn't that there is climate change - it is the extent of man's impact on that change. That, like any scientific model, is subject to refinement, testing and falsification. Simple 'facts' like: "average warming over a period of time"( once established through peer review) are only denied by the lunatic fringe (religious types, creationists, fundamentalist... assorted crazies).

  • 1

    Farmboy

    Fact, unless I'm holding this upside down: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2011/Fig2.gif

    Or read all about it: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2011/

    And yes, just this is the issue for a surprising number of people.

  • 1

    USNinJapan2

    Thomas Anderson

    You spent a page to say what I did in one line, that it's indeed a theory, regardless of how convincing the evidence supporting it may be. This poll, which asks whether or not global warming (man-made climate change) is a FACT, is not a valid question. Do you not agree?

  • 0

    Thomas Anderson

    You spent a page to say what I did in one line, that it's indeed a theory, regardless of how convincing the evidence supporting it may be. This poll, which asks whether or not global warming (man-made climate change) is a FACT, is not a valid question. Do you not agree?

    The theory is predicting the amount of climate change caused by man. I don't think there's any doubt that the concentration of CO2 which is made by man is causing global warming. So yes, it's a fact.

  • 0

    Thomas Anderson

    Actually the poll does not even ask whether it's man-made or not... just global warming. So yes, it's a fact that the globe is warming.

  • -2

    Cletus

    What a loaded question this is. Is it fact or fiction? Well data would say its fact. What is more relevant is whether its man made, natural or cyclical? That is l believe the more important question, that is unless you live in Australia and its a given that its your fault hence you are now taxed for carbon usage as well....

  • -2

    JapanGal

    The hotter the better for me. More surfing in the winter!

  • 0

    Disillusioned

    Hmmm, this question is not definite enough. The earth has gone through many natural warming stages and the jury is still out on whether this current warming trend is natural or from fossil fuels and carbon emissions. Most scientists concur that a major part of the current warming trend is from natural methane gas escaping from the ocean floor. However, the burning of fossil fuels is not the major concern for the immediate future. The biggest issue is the destruction of forests. While this does not contribute directly to global warming it does, and is altering the atmospheric balance of oxygen and CO2, which is slowly, but surely, killing the planet as we know it.

  • 3

    Thunderbird2

    I doubt anyone denies it's really happening... it's the cause we have problems with. I think it's natural: a combination of the sun's activity (it goes in cycles) and the fact that the Earth has always been warming and cooling. I don't believe we are to blame.

  • 0

    Jimizo

    We should be doing better to make our environment more liveable anyway. Whether we accept our pollution is contributing to global warming or not, it is in our health interests to live on a cleaner planet.

  • -2

    Yaklut

    The UEA emails settled this for me. "Global Warming" is the means by which researchers get grants and funds to self-perpetuate their research into something that doesn't exist, cannot be proven and offers no benefit to humans - other than Al Gore and his investment portfolio. It is truly the ultimate scam.

    Thunderbird2, I deny that it's really happening.

  • 0

    Thunderbird2

    Thunderbird2, I deny that it's really happening.

    Fair enough ^_^

  • 2

    Johannes Weber

    Climate change on short time scales is an observed fact. How this climate change is exactly caused is an extremely complex question, which is still not understood properly by scientists. Their research makes far better use of ressources than another space or weapons program. Different mechanisms of forcing are understood thoroughly and CO2 is definitely an agent which forces atmospheric heating. That is basic science on the high school level. The extent of its impact remains yet unclear. There is no question if human action amplifies climate change in an unfavorable direction - the only questions remaining are how irregular climate phenomena will become.

    The planet will not die from that. First and foremost, climate change will remove the unbalanced civilization of homo sapiens from the planet, because it will break down, since our food supply will perish. The planet will recover in a few millenia once we are gone. The removal of mankind might be a good thing for the eco system.

  • 1

    nandakandamanda

    Excuse me for trotting this out again, but Mars is also warming up.

    Now, I think the question can be seen more clearly.

  • -2

    Thomas Anderson

    I'm not sure why do people think that their mere opinions count. They always say something like "I think"... or "I believe". You BELIEVE? Sorry, but that is not good enough... you'd have to present some proper data.

    @Thunderbird2

    I doubt anyone denies it's really happening... it's the cause we have problems with. I think it's natural: a combination of the sun's activity (it goes in cycles) and the fact that the Earth has always been warming and cooling. I don't believe we are to blame.

    Climate reacts to whatever forces it to change at the time; humans are now the dominant forcing.

    http://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-change-little-ice-age-medieval-warm-period.htm

    @Johannes Weber

    How this climate change is exactly caused is an extremely complex question, which is still not understood properly by scientists.

    97% of climate experts agree humans are causing global warming.

    http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-scientific-consensus.htm

    The planet will not die from that. First and foremost, climate change will remove the unbalanced civilization of homo sapiens from the planet, because it will break down, since our food supply will perish. The planet will recover in a few millenia once we are gone. The removal of mankind might be a good thing for the eco system.

    Wow... I guess you're some kind of an eco-terrorist.

    @nandakandamanda

    Excuse me for trotting this out again, but Mars is also warming up.

    Mars is not warming globally.

    http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-on-mars.htm

  • -1

    Thomas Anderson

    This is ridiculous... people are merely disagreeing on the ground that they may have to change their lifestyles. It's just like gay marriage, or whatever... People don't usually disagree this much with any other scientific findings. I wonder why?

  • 2

    Bazza

    Shame on JT for asking such an obvious question. Have you been taken over by Fox News?

    All the credible scientific opinion supports the view that we are currently undergoing a period of rapid climate change- although this is manifesting itself as heating and drying in some areas and cooling in others. The only people that oppose this view are (some) oil companies and idiots.

    Some of the science is uncertain as the biosphere is a big laboratory, but the examples are too numerous to ignore: remember Hitler's invasion of Russia was bogged down in snow and ice at the end of October? He would not have had that problem these days. Try telling the people of sub-saharan Africa or the Arctic that there is no climate change.

  • -1

    Serrano

    "Those who answered fiction may be just wishful thinkers"

    The majority of those who answered fact contend that humans are causing the Earth's temperature to rise, but they don't have the facts to support that.

  • -1

    Opinionhated

    You spent a page to say what I did in one line

    No he didn't. The layman's term theory and the term scientific theory are not the same thing. The layman use of the word theory is something that is completely untested. A scientific theory has been highly tested, and we can be sure that if it is not 100 percent true, it is 90 percent true, at least.

    Global warming is a fact. Our understanding of global warming is scientific theory, which means it is 90 percent fact or more to put it simply. Human activity does affect the climate. Doubting it is the same as doubting germ theory; ignorant in the extreme. And yes, even the guy who came up with the idea of doctors washing their hands before examining pregnant women, using the principles of germ theory, was derided and attacked by ignorants even in his own profession, despite reducing death in childbirth from 18 percent to 2.2 percent. There is a thing called cognitive dissonance and when people have it, and they will deny anything, for example the existence of a brick, and even smacking them over the head with said brick won't change their minds, but just make it jiggle!

    We don't know everything about global warming. But acting like we know nothing is a fool's errand.

  • -1

    Opinionhated

    The question of Global Warming reminds me of the ancient Europeans debating whether the sun rotated around the Earth, or the Earth rotated around the Sun.

    Its an excellent example. But do you know what finding the truth changed? Essentially nothing! Predictions of planetary locations and other astronomical phenomenon was still highly accurate and mostly unaffected by that single truth. And the whole point was getting the predictions right. So whichever you believed, you still mostly got the truth you wanted.

  • -2

    Thunderbird2

    Thomas Anderson - those links are to a site where they have a fixed viewpoint.

    This subject polarises opinions and as such we'll never get agreement. I don't think we are to blame, and neither do I believe, as was said in "Star Trek: The Motion(less) Picture" that we are carbon-based life forms infesting USS Enterprise - the Earth being the starship in Johannes Webber's paragraph.

    I mean it could be methane from all the farting farm animals and veggies heating up the atmosphere, lol http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0816_050816_cowpollution_2.html

  • 0

    Johannes Weber

    97% of climate experts agree humans are causing global warming.

    I don't argue on the newspaper level here, but on the level of real science. The specific details of how to counter climate change are not understood very well. E.g. take aerosoles. It has been discovered as a surprise that emission of aerosoles slows down atmospheric heating locally. The reason is that aerosole clouds cause increased reflection already in higher layers of the atmosphere and therefore, they slow down local heating. Of course, they are often toxic and have many bad side effects, but this example illustrates that "scientific understanding of atmospheric heating" is still in an infant stage (even though the kid is extremely clever). The question "IF" has been answered already two or three decades ago. The question "HOW" is still an open research field.

    that we are carbon-based life forms infesting USS Enterprise

    Don't interpret too much. The end of human existence is neither good nor bad (from a scientific point of view). Beyond our petty egos, humanity is rather irrelevant.

    I mean it could be methane from all the farting farm animals and veggies heating up the atmosphere, lol

    Yes, meat production bears a very important contribution to worsening the state of the atmosphere, the global water quality and the global hunger problem. However, before wealthy countries will reduce their consumption of meat on their own volition, we'll see either the end of humanity or an evolutionary surge in intelligence. The last option is quite improbable.

  • 0

    lucabrasi

    The question of Global Warming reminds me of the ancient Europeans debating whether the sun rotated around the Earth, or the Earth rotated around the Sun.

    Well, they each rotate around the other to be strictly accurate. But man-made global warming's as true as death and taxes, and no right-wing/libertarian fantasy can do anything to change that fact.**

  • 0

    Thunderbird2

    But man-made global warming's as true as death and taxes, and no right-wing/libertarian fantasy can do anything to change that fact.

    I'm not right wing nor am I a Libertarian (had to look that up), I just have a mind and a will of my own.
    If I choose to believe that Mankind is not the sole driver of climate change, then that's what I will believe. You may call it a fantasy, but until I see concrete evidence, showing changes since the industrial revolution (and before for comparison) then I won't accept it. If someone presents irrefutable evidence of rising temperatures since, say, 1800 then I'll believe Man is to blame.

  • 2

    lucabrasi

    @Thunderbird

    You talk very reasonably and I've got absolutely no wish to lump you in with the crazy climate-change deniers. But just consider the following from a completely neutral, scientific point of view:

    1) The more carbon dioxide there is in the atmosphere, the greater the greenhouse effect and the more temperatures increase.

    2) Carbon dioxide levels have been increasing in the atmosphere ever since mankind learnt to industrialise.

    These are both facts. There's no opinion of mine involved.

    But I think the conclusions we ought to be drawing are pretty obvious.

  • 1

    mrmalice

    opinionhated said what i had to say on this so i'm not gonna repeat it just read his post :)

  • -3

    SquidBert

    2) Carbon dioxide levels have been increasing in the atmosphere ever since mankind learnt to industrialise. These are both facts. There's no opinion of mine involved.

    Actually, they have been increasing continuously since some time before the birth of Christ. The main worry as I see it is that they have now increased beyond the peak which was seen before the previous ice age (based on ice core data).

  • 0

    Vesperto

    since some time before the birth of Christ

    Wait, is that a fact? 'Cos if it's not, whatever you claim afterwards goes down the drain. I suggest JT should place an equally silly question and ask Was Christ ever born?. It'll get the same amount of polarized posts and the result will yield to just about the same: nothing.

    Yes the globe is warming, yes it has warmed and cooled before. It's been warming faster this time around, and we're here now - are we hasting it? I think so. Regardless of that, i'd rather drive an electric car, less pollution is always healthier, regardless whether or not you "believe" in global warming.

    Why is it that anyone connected to oil companies thinks global warming is a myth?

  • -4

    Foxie

    Global warming only exists because we got the technology now to measure everything. It is global freezing this year anyway.

  • -3

    Thomas Anderson

    @Thunderbird2

    Thomas Anderson - those links are to a site where they have a fixed viewpoint.

    The site is clearly based on science. You can check the science and data yourself to see if they are correct. You say that it has a fixed viewpoint because you happen to disagree with the conclusion, when in fact science only leads to where the truth lies.

    This subject polarises opinions and as such we'll never get agreement. I don't think we are to blame, and neither do I believe, as was said in "Star Trek: The Motion(less) Picture" that we are carbon-based life forms infesting USS Enterprise - the Earth being the starship in Johannes Webber's paragraph.

    Again, why do you think that your OPINIONS count? This is not about sharing opinions... this is about SCIENCE! This is about seeking the truth no matter where it lies!

    You say "I think, I believe..." on and on, but where is your data? How can you prove global warming wrong?

    I mean it could be methane from all the farting farm animals and veggies heating up the atmosphere, lol

    Wrong and wrong because animals are a part of the CO2 cycle just as we are a part of the cycle. We as animals don't add any more CO2 to what was already there to begin with.

    Multiple sets of independent observations find a human fingerprint on climate change.

    http://www.skepticalscience.com/its-not-us.htm

  • -4

    Thomas Anderson

    @Johannes Weber

    I don't argue on the newspaper level here, but on the level of real science.

    Wait, so how is saying 97% of climate scientists agreeing with man-made global warming (which is a fact) not science?

    The specific details of how to counter climate change are not understood very well. E.g. take aerosoles. It has been discovered as a surprise that emission of aerosoles slows down atmospheric heating locally. The reason is that aerosole clouds cause increased reflection already in higher layers of the atmosphere and therefore, they slow down local heating. Of course, they are often toxic and have many bad side effects, but this example illustrates that "scientific understanding of atmospheric heating" is still in an infant stage (even though the kid is extremely clever). The question "IF" has been answered already two or three decades ago. The question "HOW" is still an open research field.

    Aerosols have been masking global warming, which would be worse otherwise.

    http://www.skepticalscience.com/aerosols-global-warming.htm

  • -4

    Thomas Anderson

    @Thunderbird2

    I'm not right wing nor am I a Libertarian (had to look that up), I just have a mind and a will of my own. If I choose to believe that Mankind is not the sole driver of climate change, then that's what I will believe. You may call it a fantasy, but until I see concrete evidence, showing changes since the industrial revolution (and before for comparison) then I won't accept it.

    So you're ignoring concrete, scientific proof and evidence to go with your own iconoclastic "gut feeling" and "intuition" on the level of religious faith. Awesome.

    If someone presents irrefutable evidence of rising temperatures since, say, 1800 then I'll believe Man is to blame.

    There already is plenty of irrefutable evidence. You just have to look it up.

  • 3

    Johannes Weber

    Wait, so how is saying 97% of climate scientists agreeing with man-made global warming (which is a fact) not science?

    "Global warming" is a catchall phrase, which doesn't get to the point. Cloud albedo effects, which generate forcing in different directions depending on the surface upon which the clouds are floating are just another example where climate science is still full of surprises.

    Saying that 97% of climate scientists agreeing with man-made global warming is as useful as saying that 99.999% of all scientists agree with the existence of gravitation. The question becomes a lot more difficult, once You quantize the theory, because then even two physicists have at least three different opinions. Admitting the existence of an effect doesn't mean that it is understood well.

    All the things which professional climate change laymen take as a given were once the product of hard work of scientists. There is still a lot of research necessary to properly understand climate change, since there might well be aspects of forcing, which originate in yet unknown man-made effects or even completely unrelated things. Climate change is more complex and more real than anything else discussed on such blogs.

  • 0

    Ah_so

    Again, why do you think that your OPINIONS count? This is not about sharing opinions... this is about SCIENCE!

    Thomas Anderson, thank you. The problem with these polls is that you get get a bunch of people who know nothing about a topic but who seem to think that their opinions count in some way, when we are talking about an extremely complex scientific topic.

    The attitude is often, "I don't believe in it until you prove that it exists and until you do I will presume that it does not and will not change my lifestyle, but I will probably not listen anyway", safe in the knowledge that it is not something that can be demonstrated scientifically demonstrated.

    Here is the way I look at it:

    1) I believe that the greenhouse effect exists in a scientific sense, as demonstrated by surface temperatures on Venus. 2) Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and we are producing more; 3) Therefore, I will believe that earth will trend warmer due to mankind's actions unless the sceptic camp can produce evidence to the contrary.

    The planet may be warming naturally, but if it is, our actions are accelerating the process.

  • 0

    ka_chan

    As with any biological systems, things move on an S curve. You are not going notice much change until it reach a critical point. I would say the critical point is when the permafrost melts. Probably you will also large releases of Methane from the oceans. Since methane is 10 times more powerful greenhouse gas, then you will notice the real climate change. Sea levels will rise probably more than what they are predicting, One thing that global warming does do is to create more intense and powerful storms. The pattern has been for more intense storms, not more storms. Not sure what the fate of people living near the oceans as in Akita and California where they have found large deposits of frozen methane. It does have the potential to kill a lot of people since the methane will displace the current mixture in air. If you want to know what it feels like, be down wind of racetrack stables and try running. But since I believe it is too late to do anything about global warming, enjoy slightly hotter summers and slightly stormier weather while it lasts.

  • 0

    ka_chan

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB0aFPXr4n4&feature=related

  • 0

    pointofview

    I think the real question is "Why is there always a tax or a money penalty used as the remedy to global warming?"

  • 0

    GyGene

    I also think the first poster (Opinion...) got it right. Some people who live in Ohamishirasato Machi, near Kujukuri beach, told me that the ocean used to come all the way to the steep hill going into town - right, they said about 400 years ago, the beach was at the foot of the hills there. Point is the world has changed back and forth over the years, but how much do WE have to do with it? We must be good stewards of our earth, but I think we have to be careful how we interpret this and make laws to change behavior.

  • 0

    cwhite

    should be called Global Changing. When it gets warmer in one location it creates high pressure which will change other area to a colder climate. Ice melting in one place may create more cold weather in another. The real question is how much are we polluting the environment and atmosphere. Regardless of destroying the ozone it cannot be good to change weather patterns against what mother nature might have in for us. One day we will control the weather, but we need to understand the consequences first.

  • -3

    anju549

    should be called Global Changing. When it gets warmer in one location it creates high pressure which will change other area to a colder climate. Ice melting in one place may create more cold weather in another. The real question is how much are we polluting the environment and atmosphere. Regardless of destroying the ozone it cannot be good to change weather patterns against what mother nature might have in for us. One day we will control the weather, but we need to understand the consequences first.

    What a clueless statement. Please just consume drano.

  • 1

    Robert Dykes

    "I think that the term global warming is a little misleading. Where I live it very rarely snows. Yet for the last three winters we have had heavy snowfalls to the extent the city stops. Long term residents tell me that prior to the 3 previous years that in living memory it had never snowed in consecutive years and most years no snow at all." people need to understand this IS BECAUSE of global warming. For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. It's not quite so easy to explain it like that, but yes thats the jist of it. The last few winters where I live have also been some of the harshest ever, but it is becuae of global warming.

  • 2

    Fadamor

    For all the voters who answered "no", you're confusing the issues. EVERY SCIENTIST ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET agrees that the Earth is in a warming trend right now. Where the debate surrounds is whether man is contributing to this warming trend or whether it is part of the planet's normal cyclical temperature swings. The question specifically asks whether global warming is fact or fiction, which means if you properly read the question, you should have answered "Yes" (which I guess is the stand-in for "Fact").

  • 1

    JTDanMan

    The people who actually study this -- y'know, scientist -- seem to think so. Overwhelmingly.

    Scientist are funny people. They have a certain way of doing things, a certain method of inquiry with a certain way of reaching conclusions and coming to results.

    It seems to me that anyone who disagrees with the scientific consensus on climate change needs to do so on *their *terms. Anyone here who simply disagrees without falsifying their conclusion are being silly, at best.

  • 0

    T-Mack

    Not "Man Made" Global warming! Normal for earth to go through Ice-Age, and Warming period's. Just ask the people who look at rock's and drill our polar cap's and seabed's....

  • 0

    Fadamor

    Just ask the people who look at rock's and drill our polar cap's and seabed's....

    Interestingly enough, they're the ones providing the most proof that this current warming cycle isn't part of the Earth's normal fluctuation. The following chart shows the estimates from 10 different models of global temperatures over the last 2000 years. Note the gradual rise and fall until the current phase. The start of that sharp increase roughly corresponds to the Industrial Revolution. Coincidence? Possibly. But then again...:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2000YearTemperature_Comparison.png

  • 0

    Fadamor

    Grrr. Here it is as a link.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2000_Year_Temperature_Comparison.png

  • 0

    caribjustice

    As several have said before. Better question is "why" not "whether".

  • -2

    sawas

    I vote with the fiction. It is likely that human activities may cause the global warming, their population increasing to 7 billion, however, in terms of a long earth history, some say that the earth must be moving to ICE AGE.

    I have no idea to the global warming. The critical prudence is needed, but i don't know...

  • -1

    Stephen Jez

    I think it's funny (and kind of sad) that there are even people who think it's fiction.

  • -2

    theFu

    The Earth goes through climate changes all the time. There are records proving this from all around the world in ice cores taken north, south and even around the equator (Chile mtns) provide the proof. Further, tree rings also provide data for thousands of years which confirm the ice core results.

    A few truths backed up by real climate science include: * Earth has been much cooler than it is now. * Earth has been much hotter than it is now. * Earth climates are always changing. * Earth's orbit is moving farther away from the Sun. This causes a slightly cooler climate, assuming everything else remains the same. * In the 1970s, increased CO2 was seen as desirable, since plants grow better.

    During Roman and medieval times, it was hotter than it is now. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/10/globalwarmingunderminedbystudyofclimate_change/ Did you think togas were just for fashion?

    In the end, the Earth will become so hot that all water will be boiled away. This end will come and there is nothing anyone can do about it. The Sun will expand to encompass the Earth completely.

    I have no proof for this, but I believe that the Earth will regulate the overall climate automatically until the Sun swallows it or a burst of gamma or x-ray radiation fries all life or some huge rock from space hits us. The gamma or X-ray burst may have already happened with the particles speeding towards us at the speed of light. It can take 10 or many thousands of years for those to reach us. There will be no warning.

    The Earth is a death trap for all life that remains. Every planet everywhere has this issue. The only hope for human-kind to continue is to spread into space as far as possible to reduce the chance that any single disaster kills every outpost. Staying in this part of our galaxy is still a death trap.

    If I lived within 20m of sea level, I'd move. Darwin is calling at you now. Are you paying attention?

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