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Bob Valdez

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what is the real cause of global warming, man or earth's natural climate cycle?

Have people used global warming as an excuse to change the way we create energy to benefit certain industries, or is it futile to stop global warming because earth has it's natural course of climate change as science seems to indicate. Has global warming become a political football for personal agendas?

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    Allan Macdougall 30+

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    Apr 7 2012: It is difficult to sift through the science about climate change, because it gets so easily skewed into political or commercial agendas. Biased science is bad science.

    My own view, which admittedly is not based on as much detailed and unbiased evidence as I would normally like, is that this current cycle of warming is man-made. The reason for thinking this is because fossil fuels have taken millions of years to accumulate to a state of hydrocarbon where it can be used as a fuel. We have been burning a vast amount of it, concentrated into the space of a few hundred years, including the ejection of by-products into the atmosphere that are known to cause warming.

    I side with the climatologists on this one - but only the ones who are not on a government or industrial payroll.
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    scott lee

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    Apr 6 2012: There is underway a massive PR effort by the the resource and industrial sectors to try and make climate change seem like some sort of conspiracy. Its really quite silly. There is not a single scientist out there who will tell you that we can alter the chemistry of the earths atmosphere and it will not effect the weather. We obviously have an impact, its just very difficult to see exactly what that impact is.

    There are many confounding factors. For instance, there is water vapour. Water vapour is a very powerful green house gas, but clouds reflect sunlight. However, I have read that the net effect of clouds on temperature gain also depends on altitude. There is also the effect of snow and ice, which greatly increases the amount of heat reflected away. Confounding the issue further, we can't dig into ice cores and find the percentage of H20 in the atmosphere the same way we can with CO2, so the data is hard to get.

    There is also the issue of deforestation, which can change weather patterns, and has been going on since the dawn of agriculture. These factors exist in natural cycles of weather, carbon and solar radiation. It isn't easy to pinpoint direct cause and effect relationships.

    However, that doesn't mean we can just put our heads in the sand and say, "oh well, its complicated, lets just add all the CO2 thats been stored in the earth over the last few hundred million years and see what happens".

  • Bob Valdez

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    Apr 5 2012: Thanks for the comments, I think you all have good points. Global warming is here to stay and politcians will say what they have to say to set their agendas, again true science lays on the roadsside.
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    edward long 100+

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    Apr 5 2012: Global warming is not a departure from normal functioning of our planet. An effort to slow American industry to create a better fit in a one world economy is underway and global warming is one of the tools being used to sway American sentiments regarding continuing unimpeded indusrial growth. Talk to politicians about global warming, leave the climatologists out of it.
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      Gabo Moreno 100+

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      Apr 7 2012: Come on Edward. Do you really think that our exaggerated use of energy is justified, and that it does not impact our planet? Any time I fly somewhere, I notice how fragile the whole thing looks from so far above. That we could be a bit more conscious about this does not stop industry in any possible way. It just calls for more responsibility. As of me, I see the number of cars around, that the emissions are measured in tons per year (not a few litres, not a few kilos, tons), that the standards to pass a drive-clean test are so bad that my car passes them no problem even if I don't take it first to scheduled maintenance. It is also curious that it took this big economic crisis for the big American car companies to all-of-a-sudden be able to build much more efficient, and much cleaner, cars. What was stopping them before? I can tell you that lack of proper rules and greed were some reason why they would not be a bit more responsible.

      So, I doubt that it could be argued that our actions are far from impacting our planet. That has to be unrealistic. Then, I question your logic about leaving climatologists out of the problem. Are you serious?

      Industry can lead in many ways. I doubt that having some basic responsibility about the consequences of their actions would stop american industry from being leaders in a global economy. I know some people there, and they can be far more creative than this cartoon that suggests that industry can only flourish if left to act as environmentally irresponsibly as it wishes.
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        edward long 100+

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        Apr 7 2012: I am serious, yes. I do not know if "our exaggerated use of energy" is justified but I do know it has supplied the world with some pretty beneficial technology in the last hundred years. Global Warming/ Climate Change is a conjured issue having no substance in-fact. The gap between the three worlds must be closed in order for a one-world socio-political system to function. This issue is one of the propaganda methods for reaching that goal. America is experiencing the true Silent Spring and it isn't about Super Sport Chevys versus Prius'.
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          Gabo Moreno 100+

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          Apr 7 2012: So you really think that our activities don't affect our planet and that scientists should be kept out of any discussions about our effects on the whole ecosystem. Well, not much else to say. Maybe all I can say is that I am very afraid that people can think the way you do. Terrified. We are doomed.

          (The cars were but one example to take the message home. But who cares. Let's burn oil for the sake of it. It won't make any difference.)
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        edward long 100+

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        Apr 7 2012: Don't be terrified by my thinking Gabo, not enough people think the way I do to have any impact. I don't think scientists should be excluded from climate study, that would be preposterous. I do think scientists should be careful about lending credence to politically motivated propaganda. We are absolutely desecrating the planet we were told to nurture and care for. Human activity does affect the planet, but Global Warming is not one of those effects. We need to change just about everything we do regarding resource management and energy consumption. I'm green too Gabo, but I don't buy the polar bears on melting glaciers malarkey. We are doomed, but not because people reject the fantasy of Global Warming. Thanks Gabo. Best wishes.
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    Frans Kellner 100+

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    TED Translator
    Apr 5 2012: Search on "topic" for the keyword " warming" and you find a lot of comments on your question.

    The natural tendency for the natural climate cycle is as I heard, cooling. So our carbon emissions are compensating this natural effect and more it does make the ice melt all over the world. It brings a lot of plants and animals to regions with a moderate climate that were before to cool for them to live. The rate of change from natural origins takes centuries or millennia and not decades. And most clear with some logical sense you could understand that the amount of CO2 we emit, the gas that works like a blanket, that this has effect on the climate even though much of it is absorbed by the ocean that becomes acidic by this. Ocean life suffers and is declining fast while we deplete it from all fish that could otherwise give some counterbalance. A little more warmth is enough to stop the algae from taking up CO2 which accelerates the process. The permafrost melts and frees all methane that was stored which has 20 fold the effect of CO2.
    How difficult can it be to see the activity of burning fossil fuel as the cause of climate change? Oil and coal are compressed plants and all they took from the air over millions of years made the composition of our climate as we found it today. By burning it all the composition will change back to the time that the species of today aren't adapted to. Just to say it simple for their's a lot more to it.

  • Jacob Drake

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    Apr 5 2012: I believe that the real cause of global warming (the spiking of carbon footprint in the last century) is mainly caused by human intervention, our usage of fuels and CFC or other greenhouse-gas producing products. Even if global warming was partly caused by the natural climate cycle (I'm not quite sure what you mean by this) it would benefit humanity best if we all strive to reduce it and live in a lifestyle that does not produce such a heavy payload on the ozone layer.
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    Scott Armstrong 50+

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    Apr 5 2012: Woman..
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