That climate change (Global Warming) is overrated.

[Crisb92]

Is it really the great issue facing mankind that it is made out to be? Was it caused by humans and is it really having a noticeable effect on the planet?

 

Or is it a hoax?

 

While I am unsure as to the extent of the problem, I do believe it is an issue that we will have to face in the coming decades and centuries. Whether it was caused by humans or not, it is not something to be taken lightly or an issue which we can stick our heads into the sand on and hope it goes away.

 

What are your opinions, or the answers to the questions above?

 

Cris

[ninja_lord666]

Earth's climate naturally changes. If Earth stopped changing, everything would die. IF Global Warming is real, it's only because of what happened in the past. There was an ice age around 10,000 BC. Now while that may seem like a long time ago to our short lives, as far as Earth is concerned, 12,000 years is a very short time. IF Global Warming exists, it's because Earth is still recovering from that. There was also the Little Ice Age from about the 16th to the mid-19th centuries meaning, that it ended about 50-60 years ago.

Also, everyone thinks of Earth as being this weak, fragile thing, but Earth has survived far worse than a simple Global Warming or even the entire human race. Earth and life in general has survived 5 mass extinctions. I think that IF Global Warming is real, we have nothing to worry about.

 

Also, it's cold up here in Wisconsin, some heat would be nice. ;)

[ResidentWeevil2077]

I agree ninja lord, and I think Al Gore (the creator of An Inconvenient Truth) is a complete f**king b*stard and an utter moron to boot >:( . I don't believe this so-called "global warming" crisis is as bad as people are led to believe. As a matter of fact, it was even hotter back during the "Dirty Thirties" (approx. from 1929 to the start of WWII in 1938) than it is today. Al Gore I believe is only seeking the presidency, to which he claims he isn't.

 

Now, here's what baffles me. Why release a documentary, backed up by what may not even be true, make people believe that you can make a difference and may even run for president, then turn around and say "Oh, I'm not seeking the presidency". It makes no sense to me. I think Al Gore is caught between a rock and hard place if you ask me.

 

If he decides to run for president, then the environmentalists will think he only released An Inconvenient Truth just so he could win the next presidential election - a sort of "publicity stunt", if you will. If Al decides not to run, he's gonna have his head handed to him on a silver plate.

 

The only "inconvenient truth" is Al Gore really doesn't support the environment, nor does he believe in saving it either. This whole thing about the environment is farce, concocted by a bunch of sado-masochists who think their g*ddamn "Kyoto Accord" will hurt the economy of every country whose goverments were fool enough to believe they could meet or beat its stringent protocols

 

(BTW, the "Kyoto Protocol", which was signed by the Canadian gov't under the leadership of the blasphemous and treacherous Liberal Party, is binding, and therefore the targets it sets for cutting back on green house gas emissions MUST be met. I know that if our Conservative Party, or Tories as we call 'em, uphold Canada's commitment to Kyoto, it can and WILL hurt our economy. NOT nearly as much as our gov't claims it might, but our economy will be crippled somewhat. That's NEVER good for any country. I'm not going against the environment, since EVERYONE must care about it, but the Kyoto Accord is total and utter BULLS**T, as is the so-called "scientific evidence" that apparently "proves" the current global warming "trend" is a crisis. And the same thing goes for the Live Earth concert a couple months ago, which BTW was also a g*ddamn farce, since more than 3/4 of the artists that performed never really cared, or will care, about the environment. And I never liked any of the artists ANYWAY.)

 

EDIT: I think racial slurs are best not said, yes? Edited out. Calm down. ;)

 

- Switch

[Vagrant0]

I think the center of the problem is really that all these environmentalist groups have gotten too involved in perpetuating this global warming scare in order to make people aware of their actions. As people realize that "global warming" is just part of a natural cycle (that we may or may not be accellerating), they may forget that there is still a real reason why we shouldn't let our planet go to waste. Global warming or not, massive flooding, severe storms, or not, we as a species still have to live on this rock for many years yet. If things can be done to improve the quality of the air, keep the land fertile, and the seas filled with life, shouldn't we be concerned about those things, for the sake of what they may actually help?

 

The second part of the problem is that some of the groups involved with "saving the planet" are more concerned about their publicity, and spreading the word (and getting donations to pay for their advertizments) than they are about actually doing anything. They should really stop copying PETA's business model (hey, good idea, just executed in the worst possible way) and think about how they can put their efforts into something other than publicity stunts, buying airtime, and hiring celebrities to speak on their behaf.

 

People really need to accept that the world sucks, there is still a hell of alot that could be done to make it a better place. Global warming or not, seas becoming too acidic to support life or not, we still have to live with the results of our actions. Stop screwing over our future with your politics.

[elpiggo]

It's all completely fake. Some scientists see that as carbon dioxide levels rose, surface temperature rose too. So they go off and tell everyone that unless we stop driving cars we're all going to get flooded and die. A short while into this campaign, somebody actually bothers to look at a graph, and realises that the rise in temperature is slightly ahead of the rise in carbon dioxide. Therefore, the former is effecting the latter, not the other way round, which is what everyone else thought at first. Now, they're in a tricky situation. They can't tell the public the truth otherwise everyone will lose their trust in the people that were so sure what they were saying was the truth. Now, the public are taking it into their own hands, and with companies cashing in big time by making a product with a green label, government scientists can step back and hope they don't get noticed.

 

Like Ninja said, climate change is inevitable. A movie came out a few years ago called The day after tomorrow. People saw this film as an example of what will happen to us if we don't stop global warming. (Polar ice caps melting disrupting the salt flow in the trans-Atlantic current causing the whole world to be plunged into perpetual winter etc. etc.). What people didn't realise is that it is in fact showing exactly how an ice age starts. So be warned when you try to subtly tell people that climate change is, in fact, complete bollocks, they may interpret it the wrong way. So instead, put up a poster today saying: CLIMATE CHANGE IS COMPLETE BOLLOCKS. Do the world a favour.

 

That said, there are a few things that will make things worse for us. Cutting down trees is a good example. I don't eat MacDonald's or anything like that. Mainly it's the taste, but also because they cut down trees is the Brazilian rainforest just because the land is cheaper. (I would say they're exploiting the government, but they're actually helping them). Also, car pollution is still a problem, with newspapers recently urging people not to go the the Olympics if you have breathing difficulties.

 

All in all though, don't let yourself get carried away with all this climate change crap. Enjoy your life, and remember that your grandchildren will drown horiibly whether you drive a 4x4 or not.

[Switch]

I think the key thing to remember here is that yes, there have been extreme environmental changes in the past... but these changes were gradual, like over thousands of years. This change isn't gradual at all, it's literally transforming the climate in the course of a couple of hundred years. And at the same time, we just so happen to be pumping massive amounts of harmful vapour into the atmosphere? Doesn't seem like coincidence to me. People just don't want to believe it because it means we may actually have to make an effort to do something.

 

I'm not an environmentalist but really you just have to look at the facts and apply some common sense to see that something is going on here. I don't think it's all a load of hot wind (pardon the pun). The ice caps have melted more in the last 10 years than they have in centuries (I believe ice core records show this).

 

Scientist opinion on this except for a few naysayers is pretty much unanimous... most asked to do research say that this is happening.

[elpiggo]

An example of the correlation between carbon dioxide levels and temperature. Notice how change in temperature happens ahead of change in carbon dioxide.

[Switch]

Sorry but what the heck am I looking at? :P What does the blue/green/red stand for? What is that supposed to show? What's that scale along the bottom? 0-450,000 years? If the green is the gases and blue is the temperature levels then they look like they correlate to me.

[ninja_lord666]

Sorry but what the heck am I looking at? :P What does the blue/green/red stand for? What is that supposed to show? What's that scale along the bottom? 0-450,000 years? If the green is the gases and blue is the temperature levels then they look like they correlate to me.

Yes, but they correlate different than you think. If you look very closely at the right side of those large increases, you'll see that the temperature raises before the CO2 levels rise, meaning the amount of CO2 doesn't determine the ice core temperature.

[Marxist ßastard]

Which direction are you reading the graph?