Global warming

[MonsterHunterMaster]

a few degree difference may change the currents and streams which for example keep europe warm...

Yes, I don't know what happens if the Gulf Stream (Right english name?!?) gets changed somehow or it stops to be "warm"

[jaysus]

nearly 1 billion people will be without local food ressources as crops wont grow and living conditions will become rather harsh, these people will either die, move to africa or deeper into asia or extort 3rd world countries even more to get the ressources they need...

 

the times that we could survive in an arctic climate are over as we are far too many and the livestock that kept our ancestors alive doesnt exist anymore nor could it due to the missing environment to dwell in,

 

furthermore do we depend on money too much, theoretically we do have the ability since the 40ties (frey otto again) to actually live in an arctic climate under some kind of climate dome but our governments wont be able to build these due to their political quarrels and their dependance on money alone... they wont be able to just say screw it we require this and that and we take it now to make our people survive, no, theyll have to buy that stuff from people who will for sure overprice those raw materials and man power and hence only some selected few will be able to go on living the way they know

[Balagor]

Yes, I don't know what happens if the Gulf Stream (Right english name?!?) gets changed somehow or it stops to be "warm"

 

Gulf Stream brings warm water from Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Caribian Gulf and Pacific Ocean to the Nothern hemisphere.

On the way north, the water cools down, and some of it evaporates, and it also cools down. Both factors changes the salinity (contents of salt) and makes the water more heavy. Then it sinks, and this sinking creates a pump-like flow.

 

What is allready happening now is that huge areas of the polar ice-caps have melted into the Noth Atlantiqe, thus deluting surface water, making it too light to sink. This can even cause the "pump" to stop. That would cool down Europe and Northern US to below 0 C very fast.

Some scientists claim that this could have triggered the last glacial period. However that is just a theory.

 

 

[Ghogiel]

Consult the NASA website http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/

 

since 1880( begining of the modern industrial age) mean temperatures have risen. It has done virtually nothing else. So it IS happening. though it is a rather complicated issue with many factors involved.

 

Interestingly, I saw a channel4 documentary that is totally INSANE. it is so full of propganda I am surprised it was aired at all. The Great Global Warming Swindle it was called. for example, it took the above data in the graphs showing the global trends, and misrepresented it, stating between 1940 and 1980 the global temperature had fallen. which is true, but in contex with the complete information, its totally backward. which made me suspicious. after some research, the producer of the 'documentary' has his own agenda.... I learnt never take things as face value.

 

and to top it off, my auntie and uncle, who are are veggies, import and sell fair trade goods, you get the type, bought into that nonsense. they also tried to tell me that the ocean itself puts more CO2 into the atmosphere than we do.... the ocean is the largest carbon sink on the planet, everybody knows that! but there is no reasoning in that case.

 

such misinformation and the smacking guilibility of people really hit home to me.

 

anyway we can all agree- pollution is bad.

[LHammonds]

Well, I certainly agree that pollution is bad but I do not think that we (humans) have caused global warming (or cooling). The cycle of warming and cooling of the planet's surface occurs naturally throughout history. There have been much warmer and much cooler global temps and NONE of them were caused by humans.

 

I see this as just another one of the many tools employed as fear tactics to centralize power over the populace.

 

I won't submit to being scared of the weather killing me or terrorist activities or gun control (people kill people, not guns), etc.

 

LHammonds

[Vagrant0]

since 1880( begining of the modern industrial age) mean temperatures have risen. It has done virtually nothing else. So it IS happening. though it is a rather complicated issue with many factors involved.

Well, much of that is also because our ability to measure and record temperatures globally wasn't much to speak of before that. At best we had a large variety of local reports which although may be detailed in their own right, can't be used as a means of trying to find some major trend overall. Furthermore, if you look at the geologic , ice, and tree record, long term, you would see that patterns of cooling and warming spanning a few decades are not that uncommon. Furthermore, the last 100 years or so have been remarkably constant compared to years prior, and that the earths history is filled with periods which are overall warmer or colder than others (the golden age when most of europe had long summers and short winters, followed by a mini iceage) so what we may really be seeing is just an end of one of these mild periods.

 

Unfortunately, ALL of the data on the subject has it's own spin as the subject is politicized to an excessive degree. The sad part is that most of those pushing the agenda are just misinformed pawns being used by the companies responsible (even anti-corporation eco groups have corporate backing).

[Ghogiel]

while it is true that if you look at the past thousands or millions of years, there have been dips and spikes of global temperatures. still, that doesn't mean that we haven't had any recent significant impact on the enviroment. The medieval warm period you brought up, dependign on what you are measuring, is actually cooler compared to todays temperature increase. I actually think the issue may be confounded by these facts, a natural increase, as well as us exacerbating the effect at the same time. bad timing on our part, which makes the data conflict depending on interpretation/agenda.

 

It may all be too soon to tell, and we'll all be long dead before anything like significant damage to ocean ph values or something truely catastrophic happens. I think it would be naive to think we haven't made any impact, even on climate change. Judging for myself at the world around me, by the air and water quaility in most of the populated world that I have lived in, you can't hardly drink any of it. thats proof enough for me. Also another error I think, is that we as a countrys, live and carry on as if climate change isn't even happening, regardless of the cause. if the northern hemishpere cools to any significant degree in the next 100 years, which seems at least possible according to past trends, millions of people might be hungry.

[Vagrant0]

It may all be too soon to tell, and we'll all be long dead before anything like significant damage to ocean ph values or something truely catastrophic happens. I think it would be naive to think we haven't made any impact, even on climate change. Judging for myself at the world around me, by the air and water quaility in most of the populated world

Well, technically speaking, you couldn't drink it as is way back when anyway. "Pure", "clean", drinkable water has only really been possible in places without a natural spring for about 100 years. Water-born diseases like cholera and similar were quite common and fatal in many places without filtering technology... even when there isn't industry runoff polluting it.

 

And in my opinion, especially given the controversial nature of "global warming", the two issues should be treated separately instead of being one in the same. For too long we've been using the boogeyman of global warming to frighten children into recycling, turning off lights, and other stuff instead of paying more attention to the direct and measurable effects of those actions. This connection, even when it was mostly unfounded back in the 70's, has been one of the major mistakes* of the now "green" movement. If we had bothered pushing concepts of sustainability 3 decades ago simply because it lowers demand of resources and doesn't create fallout on the environment, we would all be in a better situation. But, no. Instead they decided to present this horrible, immediate (20 years ago), threat as being the sole focus of the movement.

 

The fact is that those who run these groups are so caught up in the politics that they forget their true goals. It's not that the cause is not worthwhile, but instead that the vast majority of those involved (on both sides) are corrupt fools who only care about getting their way.

 

*The other major mistake was turning it into some sort of anti-government/anti-corporation movement with a strong interest on PR campaigns. What they should have done instead was work WITH those agents to introduce and implement responsible industry. But no, we're all supposed to go back to living in trees, humping badgers, and waiting for lightning to strike to power our iPods.

Edited February 24, 2010 by Vagrant0

[CommanderCrazy]

May I say, that since day 1 temperatures have risen & fallen to the point of searing heat of up to 70^oC, to Ice age.

We are approaching the heat end, so things are, of course, going to get hotter.

"But the Ice Caps are melting" Give it a millenia or so & they'll be more frozen than ever!

But of course, when Humanity adapts to heat, the 'scientists' will start talking about 'Global Cooling'!

 

_{Its all so stupid.}

[Rixirite]

Didn't the false information of Global Warming come directly from the UN, or was there a relation to them? I thought I heard something about that.