Global Warming

[Destai]

Whats your opinion of it? I seriously dont think people realise how serious it is. I get a really bad impression of America for there lack of support for fighting against it but still play a huge role in it with so much pollution.

[gokufusionss1]

tempratures around the world will rise 1 degree ooooooooh i'm scared.

[Destai]

Oh god, I hope that was meant to be ironic.

[Blackmageboi]

its so sad why did we have to be born just as this is happening i am forever trying to force people to do somthing about it,im only a kid though so people dont listen to me then i talk in a manner in which it sounds like their superior is talking and it makes them listen.
The humans have made an awful mess and now we need to switch to solar tidal and geothermal energy but no-one is i personaly think we arnt gonna make it in time

[Destai]

The main interest to me is to cut down on all the unneccessary pollution, recycle etc.

[boris no no]

i do environmental science ay uni so i have to see it in different perspectives.
global warming is happening and to some it seems that they have nothing to do with it. a rise in 1C is quite bad. more rain, more storms worse drughts more world hunger. the oceans will rise because of the melting ice caps. this will throw off the gulf stream causing britain to become like russia. plus most of the south coast of the uk will become covered in water.

another point is that we are overdue on an ice age. the weather will get slightly warmer before it goes right down. conpaired to the weather millions of years ago when the dinos were about temps were about 5-10C higher.

I think that it is a risk and that people really should take it seriously. and not to take the micky out of it.

[Super Christ]

Of course it's happening. I remember how it used to, y'know, SNOW in winter, not RAIN.

[Dr.K]

I think the current prevailing attitude of "I'll be dead when it gets serious, therefore I don't care" is a dangerous one, but one which, crudely, I guess you can't really condemn people for having - if they choose not to take heed in the topic, then that is up to them at the end of the day. While the Kyoto agreement has been elemental in getting the ball rolling, the targets should have been much higher. Alot of people live very luxurious lives without even knowing it, and if relitively minor sacrifices were made on a national scale, I think this is a problem well within our grasp of solving.
Although the melting ice caps and general temperature rise is a worrying issue, I've heard that the most important issue, as mentioned by boris, is how the gulf-stream will be disrupted, but sadly I don't know anything about that in detail.
This is probably misguided, but personally I think the depletion of the ozone layer is more concerning at the moment.

[udsuna]

Ozone: definately bigger issue. Radiation causes things to die, and actually probably has a bigger effect on climate change than the crap being pumped into the atmosphere. Besides, what we're seeing affecting the weather today is not global warming. That takes more time than what you might think. 1 degree every 100 years, that's the average increase- hardly a cause for concern.
What we're seeing is known as *heat pollution*, which has to do with the amount of heat energy produced on the planet itself. Stuff like nuclear plants and household appliances and winter heating of homes. The energy leaks out and actually does heat the entire neighborhood. If people turned off all energy producing devices and spent a year without them, most temperatures would slide comfortably back into average again.
That being said, the effect on the oceans will actually cut global warming back down very quickly. More heat= more algae= more oxygen= drop in temperatures. Nature is self-correcting and self-regulating, it compensates for stuff like this. You should be more concerned of the direct harm we're causing to life on this world, not the affect on temperatures.

[Darlon]

I don't know about all of you, but I get the impression that people are getting hysterical over this issue.


I'll link to a few threads from a message board I visit regarding this issue:

http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/vi...global+warming

http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/vi...global+warming

I hope the mods don't mind .

[Big D]

A sea-level rise of just one metre will submerge a lot of small Pacific Ocean islands. I'm talking about entire cultures being forced to relocate. Sure, that kind of change wouldn't affect the US much, but the projected rise of several metres would significantly impact on virtually every landmass. [q=udsuna]Ozone: definately bigger issue. Radiation causes things to die, and actually probably has a bigger effect on climate change than the crap being pumped into the atmosphere.[/q]The ozone layer blocks ultraviolet radiation. UV rays don't contribute to climate change, but they are a big deal. I live in New Zealand; the Antarctic ozone hole is right above us. It's summer down here. If I go outside without wearing sunscreen, I'll get burned in less than a quarter of an hour. I wear sunglasses on any sunny or cloudy day to prevent UV from making my eyes worse than they already are. Skin cancer rates are rising in the area.
And it's entirely because of the decades of pollution churned out by the industrialised nations. They aren't affected; due to air currents, the ozone hole is over the sparesely populated and generally quite pristine South.

However, progress has been made. Chlorofluorocarbons, the biggest destroyers of ozone, have been almost completely phased out. The ozone hole is slowly closing.

Besides, what we're seeing affecting the weather today is not global warming. That takes more time than what you might think. 1 degree every 100 years, that's the average increase- hardly a cause for concern.

Temperatures rose more than that during the twentieth century; that's why there's concern.

That being said, the effect on the oceans will actually cut global warming back down very quickly. More heat= more algae= more oxygen= drop in temperatures. Nature is self-correcting and self-regulating, it compensates for stuff like this. You should be more concerned of the direct harm we're causing to life on this world, not the affect on temperatures.

Nice in theory, but it's not that simple. Algae aren't the only life affected by heat. The planet's temperature rise will first affect the polar ice caps, causing huge amounts of fresh water to be released. This'll cause the rise in sea levels. The temperature change will disrupt ecosystems, too - habitat and food-source change being a big factor. It would take one heck of a load of algae to redress the balance.

What we're seeing is known as *heat pollution*, which has to do with the amount of heat energy produced on the planet itself. Stuff like nuclear plants and household appliances and winter heating of homes. The energy leaks out and actually does heat the entire neighborhood. If people turned off all energy producing devices and spent a year without them, most temperatures would slide comfortably back into average again.

Interesting... but I've never once heard this mentioned by a scientific establishment. It's well known that suburban life - buildings, infrastructure and so forth - causes distinct 'microclimates' within large cities, but that does not have a significant effect on the world as such. The energy output of computers and toasters is absolutely insignificant compared to the sun's energy and the chemical emissions of heavy industry.[q=Darlon]I don't know about all of you, but I get the impression that people are getting hysterical over this issue.


I'll link to a few threads from a message board I visit regarding this issue:

http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/v...=global+warming

http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/v...=global+warming
[/q]I read those threads, and was somewhere between amused and frightened.
In spite of what those 'experts' believe, there is overwhelming scientific belief in the existence of global warming. Most scientists in the relevant fields are convinced that it is occurring and that it poses a grave threat. This widespread public belief that "global warming is a controversial, disputed issue" is just media-perpetuated nonsense. TV news programmes don't offer facts, they create sensation and controversy. That's how they make money. People buy into what they say, and then start repeating slogans like "but many respected scientists say global warming isn't real!" when the opposite is, in fact, true. There's a strong urge to deny that anything is wrong. "Bah, those same stupid scientists said that the world was cooling, back in the 1970s. What do they know!?" Deny and discredit, and believe whatever makes things easier.
The reality is that the majority of qualified scientists take the threat of global warming seriously. However, their opinions and their research will make it difficult for some guy to make money, so steps will be taken to silence their warnings.

[Destai]

Thanks for the response Big D. It was the type of information I was hoping for.

[Endless]

On a practical note, it was, this morning, -6°C (21°F) here in Paris, around -9°C (16°F) in the outskirts, and it went down to -24.9°C (-12.8°F) at the coldest last night in France. Overall, we broke low temperature records from 1971. So you'll understand that right now, hearing about global warming makes me chuckle.

[udsuna]

Umm... I wasn't saying UV directly caused global warming- but it does have this nasty habit of killing animals and plants, which does directly increases global warming. And yes, I'm talking about a LOT of algae. All the algae in the oceans. Already responsible for about half the oxygen production on this planet. At least by the '02 estimates- I'm having trouble finding more up to date info. Boost the temp by a couple degrees, and the growth rate of these will almost double. Increasing oxygen by rates that might even become dangerous in and of themselves. But, it will replenish the ozone right quick. This is possibly the singular thing that controls most of the global climate changes, the changing of the algae ratios.

[Destai]

On a practical note, it was, this morning, -6°C (21°F) here in Paris, around -9°C (16°F) in the outskirts, and it went down to -24.9°C (-12.8°F) at the coldest last night in France. Overall, we broke low temperature records from 1971. So you'll understand that right now, hearing about global warming makes me chuckle.

Thats pretty uninformed. Global warming causes all kind of effects. Not just heat.