20 replies to this topic

[guest_7314]

What do you think about climate change? Is man causing it? Or is it something like the Ice Age?

[unreality]

I didn't vote because it's clearly a mix of both. There's solid evidence that man-made emissions are speeding up atmospheric heat, but it's not just us because the Earth goes through natural cycles and whatnot. We need to reduce emissions, at a minimum

[Izzy]

I think it's more of an Ice Age thing than anything. Mankind isn't doing much to help (with all the pollution and whatnot), but Global Warming would be happening right now whether mankind existed or not.

[Prof. Templeton]

While Global warming may be a real occurance, I think it's attributation to Carbon Dioxide is dubious. CO2 is one of the most ineffectual of greenhouse gases. I want to get into the Carbon Credit selling business, it seems like a money maker.

[Lost in space]

first i will say that the Dutch and the english have had a 'good time' of the warm global effect, though short term obviously.
Sure Global warming, cooling is a natural cycle and there will be another iceage. Nature will take back all that man has ruined and in half the time if not sooner, it has a way of balancing it's self. man has affected it with industry clear cutting and open mining, as well as over fishing and hunting in general. So I dont think the problem is one the earth faces, we will face it and live through it
It's more complicated than that but I have too little time

[itachi-san]

Well I can't vote for this for the reasons unreality stated. Man-made global warming is nothing compared to natural forces. The sun's current heating causes most of it. There are actually cases of cooling in certain Arctic areas. I feel like we should live as clean as possible. But that aside, we don't really account for much as far as climate change. IMO we should be more concerned with how we're hurting our own health with toxins and pollution. Climate change will happen with or without us.

[akaslickster]

I had never noticed the earth getting warmer. I did read about the North pole slowly melting and becoming nonexistent in many years to come. I don't believe there is anything we can do about the sun getting closer. At least, that is what seems to be happening. I think this past summer was cooler than what I noticed in the past. I say not to panic, until we have more to go on.

Edited by akaslickster, 12 November 2008 - 05:40 AM.

[Blade]

I had never noticed the earth getting warmer. I did read about the North pole slowly melting and becoming nonexistent in many years to come. I don't believe there is anything we can do about the sun getting closer. At least, that is what seems to be happening. I think this past summer was cooler than what I noticed in the past. I say not to panic, until we have more to go on.

o.O
WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN? IN A CAVE?!?!?!?!?

[Brandonb]

First, the “pollution theory” suggests that the increase in the earth’s temperature is created by the pollutants of man; that global warming is created by the carbon dioxide emissions we are dumping into the atmosphere.

The other theory, which I will call the “sun theory”, suggests that global warming is being caused by the sun, because it is inconsistent in the intensity of the radiation it sends to earth.

Now which one of these is the true cause of global warming? There is a lot of evidence to support both.

Some research supports the theory that man is creating global warming. For instance, I recently watched Al Gore’s documentary “Global Warming: An Inconvenient Truth.” In that film, he presents a lot of valid information showing that, through time, an increase carbon dioxide has a direct correlation with the increase in global temperatures. The bulk of his information was gathered through the testing of glacier ice in the arctic. To gather that research, scientists bore deep into the ice and remove sections that date back thousands of years. They are then able to take samplings of the trapped CO2 in the ice, and at the same time make a very accurate determination of when the ice was formed. Gore’s data shows that dating back thousands of years, during warming periods, an increase in carbon dioxide is evident. It also shows a decrease in carbon dioxide during all of the Earth’s known ice ages.

When compared graphically, the two parallel each other, and there is plenty of data to back it up. Gore also goes into how man has been dumping a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which does prove to be about 3% of the atmosphere’s total carbon dioxide content. Now, overall, this is only three percent, but the pollution theory says that it is having a drastic impact on our climate change, and dire consequences with fall upon us if we do not learn to lower our emissions.

Research on the sun has revealed inconsistencies in sun activity. There are cycles of warming and cooling which is influencing the Earth’s temperature. When longitudinal data of sun activity is compared to glacier ice records, it is also graphically identical to warming and cooling periods, just like the carbon dioxide. This theory does not deny that increases in carbon dioxide are evident when the earth gets warmer, nor that that there is a decrease in CO2 when the ice ages occurred. * However, it points out that there is no known cause of pollutants that could create a rise in carbon dioxide content back when these ancient warming periods occurred (though volcanic activity can be speculated on). The sun theory suggests that it is not the CO2 that increases the temperature, but rather the increase in sun activity causes an increase in temperature, and an increase in the CO2 content of our atmosphere is actually a result, not the cause.

Our current increase in sun activity has been studied in a recent NASA survey of Mars and chronicled in National Geographic Magazine. Though surface photos of Mars show no water, it is presumed that there are underground springs, and in fact there are ice caps on the mountains. These ice caps are speculated to be either frozen water or frozen CO2. Either way, this NASA investigation has shown that the icecaps have been melting, at the same rate that earth’s temperature has been increasing. Now, there is no way our carbon dioxide could make it to mars, so the only explanation that they have come up with is that the sun’s intensity is causing the icecaps to melt. With that taken into play, Earth’s increase in temperature in relation to the sun’s activity, seems a much more plausible cause of global warming than man pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – especially when one considers that since the Industrial Revolution, or more specifically the past one hundred years, when all the temperatures are averaged together, the earth’s temperature has only increased one degree.

So I'm gonna have to fall on the side of... man-made global warming is a load of BS that is an incredibly effective wealth confiscation and redistribution technique... but I won't go into that right now

Edited by Brandonb, 13 November 2008 - 04:01 PM.

[Violent pedestrian]

I hadnt heard this theory about the sun getting closer/ more intense. I think whether its true or not, global warming's at least partly our fault.
And (optimistically) the world will eventually end anyway, when the sun burns out or something. Just to be cheerful.
I'm not saying we should just give up, though, but I doubt we could change the damage we've done much now unless everyone tried, not just a few countries.
I might be wrong, I dont know.