Do you people really believe that co2 causes global warming? (pollution, best)

[PNW-type-gal]

Having actually read a great deal of the primary material and talked to some of the people involved (I am a geologist by trade and know several of the glaciologists and oceanographers professionally or even personally) - yeah, I do believe anthropogenic CO(2) production is a large influence on the Industrial-era global temp. rise.

[Wicked Felina]

OK, a bit more info for those of you who view this as some sort of ridiculous political agenda (you do have to read the entire article):

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Space cameras to monitor forests.

And to reiterate PNWtypegal's post, we are talking about anthropogenic CO(2) emissions. Thank God, at least some scientists understand that.

[sterlinggirl]

Earth's climate was in a cool period from A.D. 1400 to about A.D. 1860, dubbed the "Little Ice Age."

Global cooling is usually attributed to volcanic releases of sulfur dioxide which caused global cooling. We let power plants put CO2 that warms the atmosphere into the air, but force them to scrub out the sulfur that cools the air.

Make sense?

[Niners fan]

Originally Posted by sterlinggirl

Global cooling is usually attributed to volcanic releases of sulfur dioxide which caused global cooling. We let power plants put CO2 that warms the atmosphere into the air, but force them to scrub out the sulfur that cools the air.

Make sense?

The Little Ice Age was caused by low solar activity. There were some volcanic eruptions that caused brief (a few years) cooling just as ocean currents can also cause a few decades of lower or higher temperatures. Many people believe that the warm pacific currents have been the primary cause of warmer temperatures from the 1970s-1999. Prior to that time there were cool currents for a few decades. Hence the global cooling scare of the 1970s. Prior to that there were warm currents and that is why the 1930s was such a hot decade.

There are actually more signs that we are entering a period of cooling again. Ask them about that in the Northwest US where the snow was particularly heavy and the season ran long. (A ski resort in Aspen, CO actually reopened in June because of late season snow.) Remember that this last winter also saw snow in Florida, Baghdad, Johannesburg, Buenos Aires, China (at the latitude of Key West) and Ramallah (Israel).

Cooling is far worse than warming and we can't do anything more to stop it than we did to cause it (no, driving our SUVs more won't stop the coming cooling).

[killer2021]

Originally Posted by riveree

So you think there's a conspiracy surrounding the true cause of Global Warming? That's it's not caused primarily by CO2 but by something else?

Yup, here is a starter, global warming is caused by the activity of the sun.

All I am saying is that we should look twice at these things before we go running off and trying to change everything and reduce our carbon emissions. The only good thing to come out of the carbon emissions craze is the fact that it gets people to go green (consume less), be more efficient, and look at their other habits.

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by killer2021

Yup, here is a starter, global warming is caused by the activity of the sun.

No. Solar activity is ONE of the causes of global climate change. There are a lot of other factors. Most of the anti-faction focus on solar activity (usually using a very misleading set of three cherry-picked solar activity photos to make their case).

[cohdane]

Anyone who hasn't read an Inconvenient Truth needs to read it before participating in this conversation. Almost no scientists in peer reviewed journals discount the Theory of Global Warming. (Or as I prefer to call it, Global Climate Decay.)

Gravity is a theory.

Germs are a theory.

Atoms are theory.

Believe in them?

[Niners fan]

Originally Posted by cohdane

Gravity is a theory.

Germs are a theory.

Atoms are theory.

Believe in them?

Point taken. I would call Global Warming a hypothesis then.

[riveree]

Originally Posted by UpperPeninsulaRon

Earth's climate was in a cool period from A.D. 1400 to about A.D. 1860, dubbed the "Little Ice Age." This period was characterized by harsh winters, shorter growing seasons, and a drier climate. The decline in global temperatures was a modest 1/2° C, but the effects of this global cooling cycle were more pronounced in the higher latitudes. The Little Ice Age has been blamed for a host of human suffering including crop failures like the "Irish Potato Famine" and the demise of the medieval Viking colonies in Greenland.

I'm still reading through the new posts, but I've never heard that the Irish Potato Famine was caused by an Ice Age?? My understanding is that the famine was caused by blight (a disease) and being a monoculture, it spread everywhere. One big lesson we've learned from it is not to plant a monoculture.

[riveree]

Originally Posted by killer2021

Yup, here is a starter, global warming is caused by the activity of the sun.

All I am saying is that we should look twice at these things before we go running off and trying to change everything and reduce our carbon emissions. The only good thing to come out of the carbon emissions craze is the fact that it gets people to go green (consume less), be more efficient, and look at their other habits.

Well, we're reducing our carbon emissions for a few different reasons, so if you don't want to reduce your emissions for Global Warming, then do it for Peak Oil .

We should look twice, three times even, but in the meantime, we don't want to get too caught up in the "thinking" when we could be "doing". As individuals, we can only control what happens in our own lives for the most part, so question away, but don't let it prevent you from making positive changes, right?