Global Warming

It is true that there is great uncertainty about the extent and cause of global warming. It is true that the propaganda about global warming simplifies, politicizes and often distorts the science in order to present a clear, but wrong, message about impending catastrophe. It is true that anybody who questions the orthodoxy on global warming risks being labeled a denier, a dangerous pariah.

I fall under the latter. We only have a little over 100 years'-worth of scientific measurements on temperatures globally. Bear in mind that other nations aren't as fervent in keeping accurate readings like the US, nor bothers reading them as many multiple times a day.

To add to this, we are still in a global warming phase since the Ice Age "just ended", as far as geology and meteorology is concerned. Folks are just fear-mongering on the phenomenon now. Remember the talk around Katrina? "This was caused by global warming. Expect this to be the new norm."

Hows about that horrible hurricane season this year, hmm?

I don't think I'll be throwing out any charts or graphs in this thread, because someone will respond with something that shows the exact opposite. Given the internet and its resources, it's possible to find a graph showing the evolutionary stages of wings onto pigs.

Bottom line is that we have trouble estimating the weather in weeks or even days to come. How the hell do you think we can accurately estimate long-term effects? In the 70s, people were politicizing "global cooling". A year or so back, there was a rumbling about "global dimming" (I'm sure some folks here will remember mention of it).

Personally, I find myself chuckling at the mass populace and their panic-attacks over this. Should we do something to reduce emissions? God yes. There's haze over LA and Houston because of it. This stuff eventually causes acid rain increases to boot. I'm a fan of nature preservation, but this is just trying to control folks with fear. Global warming is still far from science fact. I'm a fan of the scatter-plot, personally.

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Originally Posted by Paper Crane

But these are different chemicals. Where methane only clouds the sky, CO2 and CO3 cloud and rip apart the ozone. So driving a Hummer, although my produce less mass of gases, actually does more damage.

Methane does NOT only cloud the sky. It is a greenhouse gas that is over 20 times more effective than CO2. So... Those who believe in CO2 causing temperature climbs wet themselves over Methane. It only has a life of 10 years or so in the atmosphere, but it was present near several temperature climbs. If methane caused a haze or clouded up the sky, then farms and wetlands would look worse than LA.

Peruse this thread for a spell.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I love how folks blow into the whole neo-con name-calling spiel if you don't buy into Global Warming being caused by man. Just goes to show their maturity on this matter...

This whole thing is science that has been politicized, bottom line. What I see on TV and with some folks around here falls into the "sheeples" category.

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I fail to see how a few degrees change over 100s of years would equate to human apocalypse.

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I don't think you understand what global warming would realistically cause if it continued like this... The tropics would widen. A healthy amount of the northern and southern hemispheres would turn into rainforest-type regions. If polar ice caps melt, then you would have drastically increased precipitation worldwide.

As the ice caps melt, the gulf stream will shut down, as the current flows due to differences in water temperature and salinity. A rush of fresh water from the poles will drastically change lots of these mechanisms, but such things have happened many times before.

Increased intensity of storms? Howsabout that horrid hurricane season we had this year? Oh, wait. We didn't have one. In regards to Katrina & Rita, those simply occurred in a bad year -- such things aren't unheard of. Plus, hurricanes are caused by temperature anomalies. The gulf stream is ideal for such formations. If the glaciers melted, and the stream shut down, we would have less clashings of different temperatures. As a result, you have less storm formations and much less accumulation of hurricanes.

I believe you mean that we are parasites on our planet. Any good parasite adapts. Our ancestors lasted through horribly cold temperatures in the ice age (100,000+ years before present if you just prefer homo sapiens) as well as hot climbs within the past few thousand years.

In regards to the rain forest, deforestation should be the main blame at present...

There isn't a drop in O2 going on at present. CO2 has been in the atmosphere in much, MUCH larger amounts than it is now, yet we've experienced some of our colder temperatures during such times. Nitrogen takes up 74% of the atmosphere, Oxygen taking up 25%, and CO2 taking up 0.03%. I'd hardly say we're flooded with CO2 or lacking in Oxygen. The rainforest may be a diverse collection of plants & animals, but it's hardly our main source of oxygen. You can't label something as copious as oxygen as having any one main source in one spot. It forms from photosynthesizers all around the world as well as from acid rain accumulation upon exposed oxides.

We have humans living in the coldest reaches of Russia & Canada to the hottest, most desolate regions of the deserts of the world. I'd hardly label mankind as "designed for a narrow range".

I was speaking idiomatically.