Poll: Do you believe in global warming?

[Mullac]

Well I'm pretty sure global warming is near fact, the real question is whether humans are having an impact on it or not. Their is a lot to suggest that the earth's temperature goes in cycles of hot and cold (cold being an ice age). In fact there was almost a 'mini-ice age' in Victorian times, where the Thames froze over - for those of you who do not live in Britain, that is very strange.

 

[SanguiniusMagnificum]

Believing it or not doesn't matter when it's true. That's like believing in gravity, or believing that a freight train colliding with your face will cause severe injuries or death. So, to answer your question. No, I don't believe in global warming. I just know that it is true.

 

[The White Hunter]

Do you believe in global warming? I'm just asking because there is a wide variety of opinion out there and there are people a lot more educated than I am who have both claimed either side of this raging debate.

So...here we go, discuss!

You really should give your own opinion before throwing a question to the forums like that, rather than simply stating that there is a subject; discuss.

OT: No, because that's like asking if I believe in gravity. Or evolution.

Global warming is a thing, it is happening, the globe is getting hotter, this is a fact. Now what you should be asking people is whether they think it's entirely the fault of man or just part of the natural processes the Earth goes though and has gone threough countless times in the past. Are we entirely t fault or are we simply accelerating the process?

I personally think we have a large hand in the current shifts in the climate and we really need to be doing something to scale back our damaging behaviours. Partiocularly we need to move towards renewable energy sources, however the issue there is that while people may screech about the mining industry, they're also the same people that will screech and whine if you build a windfarm within their precious view of a grassy hill full of sheep.

Why do they do that? Because they're middle class and british and all they seem to do is complain.

 

[Substitute Troll]

A fact is a fact regarldess of wether you believe it or not.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

Anyone who doubts that humans can, and are, adversely affecting the environment, would do well to look up Potholer54's youtube series on the topic.

Here, I'll link the first one:

For the people saying 'no it's just the sun heating us up, we couldn't possibly affect it.' I'm afraid you're wrong.

Just look at the moon. The moon is more or less the same distance from the sun as the earth is. So it should be the same temperature, if the sun is the only factor. But it isn't the same temperature as the Earth, it's freezing cold. The atmosphere is what makes the difference.

Now look at Venus. Venus is way warmer than Mercury (860 degrees Fahrenheit), despite being much further away from the sun. Why's that? It has an atmosphere composed mostly of Carbon Dioxide.

The same gas we're releasing in enormous quantities into our own atmosphere...

And if you doubt the evidence saying that CO2 heats things up? Do the experiment yourself. Take a two containers, put them both equidistant from a heat source, or under two seperate identical heat sources. Fill one with CO2, the other with air. Stick a thermometer in both of them. See what happens.

 

[Talvrae]

The evidence are flimsy at best and don,t answer a few question that come when you look at the eventuallity of global warming.
First Antartic ice cap has been the biggest it ever was rcorded: http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/antarctic-sea-ice-extent-breaking-all-records/
there is the record that last 16 there wasnt any global warming even if carbon production world wilde still increased: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2217286/Global-warming-stopped-16-years-ago-reveals-Met-Office-report-quietly-released--chart-prove-it.html
This spring in the north hemisphere was the coldest in the last 50 years: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/uk-sees-coldest-spring-in-50-years-says-met-office-8638579.html
Many scientist deny it happens: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577171531838421366.html

 

[MeisterKleister]

First Antartic ice cap has been the biggest it ever was rcorded: http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/antarctic-sea-ice-extent-breaking-all-records/

That does not refute all the other evidence of rising sea levels and overall rising global average temperatures.

there is the record that last 16 there wasnt any global warming even if carbon production world wilde still increased: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2217286/Global-warming-stopped-16-years-ago-reveals-Met-Office-report-quietly-released--chart-prove-it.html

Irrelevant and likely cherry-picked data. Scientist look at overall trends over a minimum of 30-year periods to compensate fluctuations.

This spring in the north hemisphere was the coldest in the last 50 years: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/uk-sees-coldest-spring-in-50-years-says-met-office-8638579.html

Completely irrelevant. For every extreme cold we get two extreme heat waves. We're looking at global averages and longtime trends, and not at individual anomalies.

Many scientist deny it happens: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577171531838421366.html

Please refer to Q2 of this FAQ:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Global_warming
97% of climate scientists accept Man-made Global Warming.

Source: NASA GISS [http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/]

----------

I know I'm repeating myself, but if you have objections against Global Warming and would like to know more, I really recommend watching potholer54's Climate Change series on Youtube.
The corresponding Wikipedia articles are of course very informative too.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

I do believe in it, because global warming is maybe one of the purest examples of causality there has ever been. We produce insane amounts of CO2, our agricultural waste doesn't help, our generally polluting and smog-causing activities sure don't help either, and I hear red termite nests are actually serious CO2 contributors. Yes, absolutely.

Nature's weird like that, sometimes.

The one problem is that meteorologists and scientists specializing in climate change are up against the great and mighty force which is the corporate culture, as well as the unfortunate truth that any *individual* aspects of human industry aren't responsible for the totality of global warming. That leads to car manufacturers saying they're fine, because they've cut back on their CO2 emissions. That leads to certain I.T. sectors refusing to address the fact that their production runs require precious metals and minerals that require a fair share amount of pollution, if not political upheaval, in order to obtain them cheaply. It also leads to politicians dismissing the issue because they think massive short-term economical shortfalls aren't worth the effort - if and when you aren't faced with politicians who flat-out refuse to consider global warming because it offends their theological belief that God will somehow fix everything.

So yes, I do believe in it, and the way large parts of the world react to it in the most sickeningly casual ways possible bothers me.

 

[Virgilthepagan]

Considering how much energy the sun bombards us with every day, I'm going to say it's pretty arrogant to think that man is the only cause of global warming. The fact is, we've been on this earth for such a short time, and even shorter is our ability to measure and catalog data about its temperature. There is no way to tell if what we are measuring is truly our fault.

I'm quite certain we did cause some damage at some point though. The ozone layer and CFC's being something completely provable.

EDIT: I forgot to point out how I also don't trust agendas with a lot of cash behind them. I remember Penn and Teller doing an episode on going green. Al Gore's motives behind the movie was hardly for the sake of the planet. Also, the episode lead with reading an excerpt from a magazine talking about the dangers and current effects of the warming, and how it all spelt certain and impending doom just over the horizon. They then revealed the article was written in the 70's, pointing out how these alarmist discussions have been around for decades, and we really aren't worse for wear.

Frankly I think that should actually make you just as suspicious of the denialist arguments. http://www.opensecrets.org/ and some other sites do a good job of highlighting the direct link between donations from oil firms and climate denial. And yup, climate change has been a working theory among the scientific community since the 70s, and that Penn and Teller are illusionists and skeptics, not scientists. Scientific projections can be wrong, and the degree to which it affects us can be varied based on projection, but the consensus is more or less there.

 

[Voulan]

Of course, except I refer to it as Global Climate Change instead, since it changes constantly anyway. It's just that currently we're set to get warmer at a much faster rate than the earth is used to.

 

[The_Echo]

I believe in global climate change.

Is the planet getting progressively warmer? Yeah, sure. But it's done that multiple times. The global climate is in constant flux. (Wasn't it at its hottest during the Middle Ages?)

"Global warming" carries implications that humanity is at the center of the planet's growing warmth, which I really don't think is the case at all. Yeah, we aren't exactly helping, and being environmentally friendly is never a bad thing. But I don't think we have nearly as much impact as some people say we do.

 

[Platypus540]

I'm afraid you're asking the wrong question here. It's not whether global warming is happening, it's whether global warming is a natural occurrence or the result of human activity.

 

[alandavidson]

Of course I believe in global warming. That's like asking me if I believe my cat likes to sleep in my clean laundry.

Good news though! Global warming isn't happening as fast as predicted!

 

[MCerberus]

I'm afraid you're asking the wrong question here. It's not whether global warming is happening, it's whether global warming is a natural occurrence or the result of human activity.

The big problem here is that there are no temperature models that can handle that global warming right now is natural occurrence. We're talking statistic disproving. Disbelievers can live comfy thinking that there's a 1% chance humans aren't roasting the planet, but I'm not.

 

[Strazdas]

Considering how much energy the sun bombards us with every day, I'm going to say it's pretty arrogant to think that man is the only cause of global warming. The fact is, we've been on this earth for such a short time, and even shorter is our ability to measure and catalog data about its temperature. There is no way to tell if what we are measuring is truly our fault.

I'm quite certain we did cause some damage at some point though. The ozone layer and CFC's being something completely provable.

EDIT: I forgot to point out how I also don't trust agendas with a lot of cash behind them. I remember Penn and Teller doing an episode on going green. Al Gore's motives behind the movie was hardly for the sake of the planet. Also, the episode lead with reading an excerpt from a magazine talking about the dangers and current effects of the warming, and how it all spelt certain and impending doom just over the horizon. They then revealed the article was written in the 70's, pointing out how these alarmist discussions have been around for decades, and we really aren't worse for wear.

you have to remmeber that earth lets off almost all sun energy it has recieved away like a mirror. thats our natural magnetic shield at work. also, the amount of sunlight hitting earth amounts to less than half heat produced on earth, most of which is manmade.
As for the alarmist spin, yes, we are actually worse for weak, the temeprature has rise, water level has risen and plenty of species are at a bring of extinction due to it, let alone the fact of sachara and other deserts expanding leaving plenty of people having to either die of starvation of migrate towards the poles.

Just a side question, something I've wondered about regarding global warming:

What kind of shift would turn us into a moisture cloud-based planet. At some point wouldn't ocean and fresh water evaporate at a fast enough rate that our skies are filled with clouds and regular rain almost all the time? The conditions are already right for natural evaporation and rainfall cycles so I'd assume any increases in average water temperatures would result in water being more readily evaporated. What impact would this have on surface temperatures during a period of global warming severe enough to cause that?

we would need the heat to be so intense that all water would evaporate in the period of 10 days, because thats the time of water vapour cycle for it to return back down via rain. that would be.. .rather extreme temperatures.

Well sure.

I'm not sure I buy the doomsday scenarios, though.

A. Doesn't carbon dioxide/methane/etc trap extra heat logarithmically?

B. Aren't we about to run out of available fossil fuels anyways?

C. If we "fry" the planet, then doesn't the Earth just reset itself? I mean, the blasted thing was covered by lava at one point. That's markedly more "completely screwed" than humans can even try to do to it.

D. Why do modern people, who apparently "care about the environment", keep buying gas instead of taking transit, buying cheap instead of high-quality, asking for more electronics, buying more stuff, increasing their carbon footprint, etc?

E. Why does Al Gore travel by jet and have a massive utility bill? D:

E was meant entirely as a dig at Al Gore, and not as an actual argument against Climate Change Doomsday.

Not sure abit A,
It is true for B, however we still got the whole new gas industry comming and still people clinge on oil reserves and as aoil beomes more expensive we are willnig to drill deeper. also so far noone has been allowed to drill on antactica, and if we find a way to easily break though the ice (global warming - less ice, so yay for oil industries) theres a lot of oil there. but so far its politically untouchable.
C: yes, but you wont live to see it. essentialy resetting takes millions of years, and what will result is unknown. either way, humans wont survive.
D: i take transit, that are run purely by electricity, that used to be created in atomic plant till EU forced us to close it, and is now made in oil run electric stations, because our people refused new atomic plant in referendum. I recycle. I try not to waste whenever i can. I dont need new electronics as long as the ones i have work, though, i will buy new PC as the one i currently have is both failing (had to manually melt together broken monitor cables, ect, and now even hdd and keyboard seems to be failing) and is incapable of running new games (and games dont polute!) since its 5 years old. i had a phone that worked for me for 10 years till eventually i got gifted a new one and the original still works, well you get my drift. I do not buy just to buy. whenever i buy something it is planned and serves a purpose. I believe that if you want to change the world, you should start with yourself, and i try.
E: because Al Gore is money grubbing bastard that pretends to care.

The "reset" point is more of a question aimed at people who think that humans should be offed to "save the Earth". I know a lot of them, maybe I'm biased due to that.

And as for individuals, you'd think they'd start preparing for when, all of a sudden, their things can't be bought anymore and their allotted power allowance plummets. You do that by going green now, not later...

It's kind of funny. I'd rather bus instead of drive, I leave my lights off, I don't watch TV, I don't leave my electronics on, and my computer is sort-of-kind-of power efficient, so I'm technically more "green" than my hyper-environmental friends...

I think the whole save the earth is not really save the earth but adjust earth to save humans (and other animals) kind of deal. as in we change climate to suit us, you know, just like humans always did. humans are the only species that changes environment to themselves and not adapt to it.
They woudl start preparing, if you they a good logical thinking for far future. most dont. most cant even plan thier monthly budgets and spend everything in a week. you expect them to plan for decades?
"i leave my lights off" as oppsed to what? do some people actually leave the house and leave the lights on?

Thats like asking do you believe in gravity. Global warming is a fact, and while you can pretend it is not real, you wont float away. The actual discussion is whether it is man-made or natural.

Yes, it is, although the overwhelming consensus in the scientific community is that it is man-made, to a large extent. Now someone might say he doesn't personally believe it, but that's just making a judgement about something he doesn't know anything about. Neither do I, of course, and acknowledging my best option is to believe the people who are less ignorant than I am - the scientists of the relevant fields.

But even if you don't believe in man-made climate change no matter what, it's still not a reason to do nothing about it. Thing is, you can't know for certain, and what do we call doing something against something bad that won't occur with certainty, only with some likelihood? Exactly, an insurance. So have enough common sense to support the modest efforts (we're generally talking about very few percentage points of global GDP, 2-3% perhaps) to attempt to prevent a really bad outcome for mankind & the planet even if it might only happen with some probability.

I never claimed whether i personally believe either way in that post, merely stated that the main debate is about that, as can be seen in this very own thread, people arguing whether it is man made.
Personally, i agree with the scientists, that it is man made or heavily influenced by humans. in the post above i have already said that i do my part in trying to make the worlf more enviroment friendly. and i support regulatory laws that would enforce such actions.

Well, they want us all dead, as they think it's the only way to save said animals and plants. It's a... short-sighted viewpoint, to say the least.

Do they. Or do they just know that overpopulation is a real problem? I do not wnat humans dead, but neither i want 7 billion of us on a single planet.

Thats like asking do you believe in gravity. Global warming is a fact, and while you can pretend it is not real, you wont float away. The actual discussion is whether it is man-made or natural.

Or, you could use the BEST argument I've ever heard about why it doesn't matter which is: "who care? God's gonna rapture us all up soon anyway leaving the planet a desolate wasteland for the sinners." Can you believe that was from a fairly high ranking person in government?! (can't remember who it was, I saw it on a documentary).

God is always the best excuse. not only can you not feel guilty for doing bad things, you can blame somone else for it.

This is just simply not true in my eyes.
I don;t think were able to 'ruin' the planet. Even bathing it in nuclear fire from an all out war would not destroy the earth.

Actually, if all our nuclear arsenal exploded at once, it woudl be enough force to actually shatter the earth as a planet. We would not "Destroy" it so much as divide it in multiple parts, that likely wont reunite via gravity so easily.

 

[rvbnut]

Anyone who doesn't believe in global warming is an idiot, since the a change in the earth's temperature is a measurable and indisputable fact. The question shouldn't however be whether or not you believe in global warming, but whether global warming is caused by humans, or whether it's a natural phenomenon.

Global Warming in the basic sense that the temperature of Earth is globally warming is a natural occurrence.
I'm fairly certain at some point long before the Ice Age, Earth had a global temperature higher than this.

What isn't natural though is how fast it's going. Which is why it's causing so many problems. Animals aside from a select few can't adapt that fast and thus are on a fast track to extinction.

And you haven't thought that some animals were supposed to naturally go extinct at this point in the Earth's life?

I do both believe in global warming and know it to be true (since measurable facts aren't something that you can choose to not believe.)

 

[lacktheknack]

"i leave my lights off" as oppsed to what? do some people actually leave the house and leave the lights on?

Meet my father, my sister and my neighbors.

 

[rasputin0009]

It's more a question of whether it's absolutely natural, or completely our fault. Ha! Just kidding, it's both! It's just whether we should be worried about it or not. How much resources do we have to put into "stopping" it? Oh, an impossible amount? Great!

It makes sense to do the little things like putting catalytic converters on cars and filters on smoke stacks, but that's just to keep the smog down. There are bigger environmental issues to worry about than global warming. Like water. You keep the fresh water clean, and you've just fixed half the problems of "global warming". Damn, that is the worst pair of words to describe an environmental issue. Just something that politicians and uneducated celebrities like to blurt out every so often.

 

[Mister Chippy]

While I will not say that it's been scientifically proven, since that's impossible, I will say that the evidence is so overwhelmingly for the existence of human caused climate change that there's no good reason to think otherwise other than a perfectly natural desire for it not to be happening. While there may be some 'evidence' that it's not happening, that 'evidence' is completely dwarfed by the evidence that it is happening.

Also, there's no harm in believing in global warming, because I doubt anyone (with a few exceptions) could believe that polluting our atmosphere less could be a bad thing. And if anyone like that did exist, all we'd need to do is send them on a trip to Beijing to change their minds.

 

[Jakub324]

I don't believe it's happening. Alright, it is, but I don't believe we're causing it. We should be more worried about our continued pollution of the oceans rather than the threat of them rising, if you ask me.