Photo: Cherrylynx
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Photo: Dr. Lyle ConradGlobal Warming effects
Greenhouse gases can stay in the atmosphere for an amount of years ranging from decades to hundreds and thousands of years. No matter what we do, global warming is going to have some effect on Earth. Here are the 5 deadliest effects of global warming.
1. Spread of disease
As northern countries warm, disease carrying insects migrate north, bringing plague and disease with them. Indeed some scientists believe that in some countries, thanks to global warming, malaria has not been fully eradicated.
2. Warmer waters and more hurricanes
As the temperature of oceans rises, so will the probability of more frequent and stronger hurricanes. We saw in this in 2004 and 2005.
3. Increased probability and intensity of droughts and heat waves
Although some areas of Earth will become wetter due to global warming, other areas will suffer serious droughts and heat waves. Africa will receive the worst of it, with more severe droughts also expected in Europe. Water is already a dangerously rare commodity in Africa, and according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global warming will exacerbate the conditions and could lead to conflicts and war.
4. Economic consequences
Most of the effects of anthropogenic global warming won’t be good. And these effects spell one thing for the countries of the world: economic consequences. Hurricanes cause billions of dollars in damage, diseases cost money to treat and control and conflicts exacerbate all of these.
5. Polar ice caps melting
The ice caps melting is a four-pronged danger.
First, it will raise sea levels. There are 5,773,000 cubic miles of water in ice caps, glaciers, and permanent snow. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, if all glaciers melted today the seas would rise about 230 feet. Luckily, that’s not going to happen all in one go! But sea levels will rise.
Second, melting ice caps will throw the global ecosystem out of balance. The ice caps are fresh water, and when they melt they will desalinate the ocean, or in plain English – make it less salty. The desalinization of the Gulf current will "screw up" ocean currents, which regulate temperatures. The stream shutdown or irregularity would cool the area around Northeast America and Western Europe. Luckily, that will slow some of the other effects of global warming in that area!
Third, temperature rises and changing landscapes in the Artic Circle will endanger several species of animals. Only the most adaptable will survive.
Fourth, global warming could snowball with the ice caps gone. Ice caps are white, and reflect sunlight, much of which is reflected back into space, further cooling Earth. If the ice caps melt, the only reflector is the ocean. Darker colors absorb sunlight, further warming the Earth.
6. More floods
Flooding represents one of the most dangerous hazards to human settlements and is one of the most potentially momentous impacts of global warming. As the climate changes, a warming of the seas creates ‘thermal expansion’. This is where warm water begins to take up more space than cool water, making the sea’s surface level increase. Thermal expansion has already raised the height of the oceans by 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20cm), according to National Geographic.
Steadily melting glacial ice also adds significantly to the elevation in water surface level, and many low-lying or coastal communities and facilities will be under threat of eradication should the sea levels continue to rise. An increase of just a single meter (3 ft) would submerge considerable sections of the U.S. eastern seaboard, while one sixth of Bangladesh could be lost permanently by a rise of 1.5 m (5 ft), to name just two examples.
The relocation of power stations, refineries, hospitals, homes and so on would become an expensive priority. Also, warmer air can hold more water vapour, increasing the level of rainfall and bringing flooding to inland areas.
7. Fires and wildfires
As the planet continues to warm, dry areas of land that are already susceptible to wildfires are likely to be ravaged by even more frequent and destructive episodes. In 2007, more than 3,000 fires brought destruction to Southeastern Europe thanks to a long summer that created arid and parched conditions – a situation that would become normal as a consequence of the greenhouse effect.
What's more, the carbon dioxide and ‘black carbon’ (a very fine soot) released by these large-scale fires together with the deforestation they cause further compounds the problem of air pollution – as the gases that help to create the greenhouse effect are supplemented and less mature trees survive to draw CO2 from the atmosphere.
8. Destructive storms
With ocean temperature being a key factor for hurricane formation, the consequences of global warming will inevitably include the increased generation of storms and hurricanes with greater power and frequency.
The destructive power of hurricanes has increased by some 50% in the last 30 years, a figure that is closely connected with the rising temperature of the ocean. Warmer water leads to greater evaporation, which in turn helps to not just ‘prime’ the coalescence of hurricanes and cyclones but also to maintain their vigour once extant.
Simply put, warmer oceans make for more extreme weather including devastating storms.
9. Death by smog
A powerful combination of vehicular fumes, ground-level ozone, airborne industrial pollution and the stagnant hot air associated with heat waves, smog represents an immediate and chronic health threat to those living in built-up urban areas.
It exacerbates pre-existing health conditions that affect the respiratory system such as emphysema, bronchitis and asthma, and in general impedes the immune system’s ability to fight against infection and disease.
A hotter climate tends to lead directly to an increase in the levels of ozone, with smog-related deaths predicted to rise by “about 4.5 percent from the 1990s to the 2050s,” according to relevant studies undertaken by Columbia and Johns Hopkins universities.
10. Desertification
How global warming affects desertification is not entirely understood, yet it is clear that an elevation in atmospheric and ground-level temperatures is likely to aggravate soil and vegetation loss in already hot climes. An increase in evapotranspiration and the accompanying decrease in rainfall mean that already semi-arid and sub-humid areas found across the world would face a future barrenness that is almost irreversible. This would negatively affect biodiversity and have a major impact on local human cultures and wildlife.
11. Tsunamis
Although global warming does not directly influence the formation of tsunamis, they can be generated by events that are brought about by an amplification of the planet’s temperature. One example is the melting of ice sheets. Being extremely heavy, massive glaciers apply a considerable amount of pressure to the Earth’s surface underneath them. This anchorage decreases as the glaciers diminish, resulting in a ‘freeing up’ of tectonic masses that can lead to massive earthquakes and significant volcanic activity, both of which are capable of creating deadly tsunamis.
12. Cold Waves
A cold wave is characterized by a major plunge in temperature over a 24 hour period. It can be a devastating shock for crops and commerce, and also bring death and injury to humans and animals through accidents, hypothermia and starvation. Damage to pipelines and property can be costly, and, particularly if snowfall accompanies the cold wave, transport systems can grind to a halt, adversely affecting the distribution of food, water and medical supplies.
More than 150 people lost their lives during the 2009 to 2010 winter after record low temperatures and abundant snowfall caused disruption to much of Europe – which doesn't take into account the many thousands more excess winter deaths that were caused indirectly. It was the UK’s coldest winter for three decades.
It may seem illogical at first to attribute harsher cold weather to global warming, but a change in atmospheric patterns brought about by receding glacial ice can lead to the redirection of polar air currents and the sun's rays being absorbed by the larger areas of dark blue sea, while critical phenomena like the Gulf Stream can be affected by changing ocean temperatures as well.
13. Increased volcanic activity
As already noted, melting glaciations can usher in new, more frequent and more dangerous episodes of volcanic activity. The shifting pressures brought about by the lightening of the vast ice sheets allows the Earth’s crust to ‘bounce back’ and can cause eruptions in unexpected places – like the one experienced during Iceland's Gjálp eruption, where magma reached the surface at an unusual intermediary point between two volcanoes. Potent or sustained volcanic activity can have an immense impact on human life even if the activity is centred away from dense population centres. It also has the potential to affect the planet’s climate by injecting tons of gases and solids into the atmosphere that can remain there for weeks.
14. More dangerous thunderstorms
A consequence of the increased amounts of humid air generated by global warming is that more thunderstorms will be triggered. Research into the dynamic between climate change and thunderstorm power and frequency suggests that by the end of the century the occurrence of major thunderstorms could rise by over 100% in some places. Not only that, but this increase would generally occur during the existing storm season and not at times when such storms might provide beneficial rainfall to arid areas. Thunderstorms are also a common way of starting the devastating wildfires mentioned above.
15. Migration, conflict and wars
It is possible that future centuries could see increased friction between nations and ethnic groups as dwindling resources lead to migration and conflict. Countries and factions would seek to control precious, dwindling resources and provide safety and shelter for their own people – perhaps at the cost of others.
Simultaneously, previously heavily populated places would become uninhabitable due to heat or other factors, displacing millions of people. These refugee hordes might be corralled into semi-permanent camps, or even suffer at the hands of unwelcoming native groups.
Even now, relocations are taking place. Mumbai’s population is estimated to become swollen by a further 7 million people by the year 2050 as global warming renders villages and hamlets uninhabitable or unprofitable, either through flooding or drought. More land pollution would be an inevitable by-product of these changes in habitation and the availability of resources.
16. More outbreaks of deadly diseases
As suggested, with warmth comes disease. Climate greatly influences some of the most deadly and widespread diseases currently affecting millions of people across the world. With disease-bearing insects such as mosquitoes able to multiply in staggering numbers thanks to even small rises in temperature, global warming looks set to facilitate the spread of diseases like Malaria, West Nile virus and Dengue fever to parts of the planet usually untouched. The increased number of sick people could even overwhelm public health services – especially in poor or unprepared countries.
The Deadly Dozen is a group of 12 diseases that have been identified as those most likely to spread due to global warming. It includes Avian ‘Flu, Cholera, Plague, Ebola and Tuberculosis. Other sources of serious illnesses are exacerbated by the effects of pollution and the release of CFCs that harm the ozone layer.
17. Loss of biodiversity and animal extinction
Loss of habitat for polar-ice edge communities such as polar bears is perhaps the most obvious consequence of having a warmer climate. Animals that are entirely dependent on cold environments will retreat to more northerly locations as the planet heats up – leading to encroachment upon other eco-systems and displacement of other animals from their natural habitat. A strong connection between oceanic warming, declines in reproduction and increases in mortality rates among seabirds, seals and sea lions has already been observed.
Acid rain has also been identified as having an adverse influence. One example of this is the death of large amounts of snails in areas prone to acidic precipitation. Birds dependent upon the snails as a calcium-rich food source and, without a suitable replacement for this loss to their diet, lay eggs with a much higher amount of defective shells.
18. Death of ocean life
The world’s oceans absorb roughly 30% of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide that seeps into the atmosphere, and so inevitably, as more fossil fuels are burned, ocean life will continue to suffer the negative consequences of global warming.
One of the most critical changes brought about by global warming is the ongoing reduction of phytoplankton. These tiny plants are an integral food source for ocean life and are responsible for around half of the world’s photosynthetic activity. Essentially, they are the foundations of the oceanic food chain, so a reduction in their numbers creates a knock-on effect that ripples up the entire food chain, particularly affecting the predators at the top.
Additionally, ocean acidification and warmer surface temperatures increase the dangers to many aquatic animals, particularly crustaceans, molluscs and coral reefs. Coral reefs are very sensitive to temperature changes, with many of them already observed to have ‘bleached’ and died thanks to climate change.
19. Animal attacks
Animals that are driven from their natural habitats or normal migration routes by environmental factors could easily come into contact with human settlements, leading to many deaths among humans and already endangered animals.
During the serious, recent droughts that struck Kenya’s Amboseli National Park, lions began to venture out of the park in search of prey, resulting in attacks on the already decimated Maasai livestock and even trapping some people in their homes.
Attacks on humans by tigers in India are on the rise as climate change affects mangrove forests in India's Sundarban region. Similarly, sharks are moving into new areas to find stable food sources, and some of these are heavily populated by humans. Experts say there are now more sharks in the waters off California and Florida than ever before.
20. Diminished food and water supplies
With greatly reduced rainfall, more severe droughts and loss of soil fertility, food and water supplies would soon diminish, resulting in higher prices, famine, disease, malnutrition, starvation and, ultimately, death. Politically unstable countries or badly affected areas might descend into various degrees of anarchy, with governmental collapses and shifts in authority as those in control of resources become more powerful.
Countries that still retain good food and water resources might be unwilling to part with these vital commodities or accept the millions of refugees that would seek new homes.
Ultimately these consequences would be catastrophic.
So what is the solution? Are we just being negative? Are there any positive effects of global warming? What about all the stupid global warming solutions. We welcome your thoughts.
Simmons blogs at Thoughts on Global Warming.
If you'd like to find out more about global warming and its effects on our planet, you can stay tuned by subscribing to our email updates or RSS feed.
Chris says:
Very interesting point jagwire. My take on it is that, what the author wrote about the ice caps was probably the least important aspect of it, as it was mentioned last. It was also part of a larger point about the disappearance of the icecaps and that it could accellerate the process of global warming.
Simmons says:
Jagwire:
Thanks for the comment. Although cloud cover may play a more important role than does ice (I'm not sure, but it sounds likely), the Arctic's ice does play a relatively (as in relative to the situation) significant role.

kimberly (not verified) says:
global warming is killing the cute koala bears

Jonathan (not verified) says:
Man this really helped a lot on my geohraphy project

aesculapius (not verified) says:
global warming is going to have a very heavy impact impact on Earth much faster than we would have thought. actually its effects are partly being camouflaged by 'global dimming', an effect which protects us from the real power of the sun rays. much more is yet to come in the coming years and it will be beyond our control if we don't act now and take necessary measures to secure our future. my contribution to global warming may seem very negligible but still since our planet is in peril, its my duty on humanitarian grounds to warn others about their actions.
so friends, do not pollute our environment and instead try to protect it. poor people and vulnerable animals are most prone to the effects of global warming rather than those causing it.

minjun (not verified) says:
why doesn't the melted ice evaporate??
like...
it has to evaporate in a few days because of the sun you know...
so like...
yeah...
it won't be like 230 ft. of water
maybe 229.9

SLJU (not verified) says:
Were All Gona Dieeeeeeeeee !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jaii Ortiz (not verified) says:
If all this is true about global warming then why isnt the goverment and the economy doing anything about it.
Dosent anyone care about next generations that will suffer.Are we really that selfish.

Samantha (not verified) says:
i wish people would take this situation seriously.

Earth Pro (not verified) says:
Take the situation seriously?? The entire concept is based on 'junk' science and burried deep in the muck of politics. Here is a different, more common sense point of view: http://earthpro.info/global-warming-is-a-total-scam

Dylan (not verified) says:
Let me reiterate one point. The polar ice caps melt which desalinizes the water, which messes up ocean currents, which causes parts of the world (northeast N. America and W. Europe) to cool off. Doesn't this sound like a natural system balancing itself out?

UncleFunk (not verified) says:
BOTH sides of the global warming camp are utterly corrupt. As for this article, it's simplistic garbage with scary pictures. I am on neither side. There are so many unanswered questions. Neither side is producing compelling evidence without it being mired in BS. I mean just one of the many MANY questions... How do they know we're not coming out of a period of global cooling? That this is the tail end of the last Ice Age? Or is, heaven forfend, NORMAL. We keep getting this predictions of doom and despair, but they never come to pass, and if you stop and analyze the cold hard numbers of weather events etc, and trace it back. There are always spikes and aberrations. The sad thing is, if one year generates more hurricanes, that fact will now be latched onto as "evidence", despite wider evidence showing the contrary is happening and numbers are dropping. It's the scientific equivalent of me holding up my mouse here and saying it gets rid of elephants. After all, there are none here. It's evidence that computer mice keep elephants away. Why is it evidence? Because I have one, and there's no elephants here. It's evidence because I say it's evidence.
Samantha: I think people would take things seriously, if the people putting forward the evidence could be trusted.
Now all those thinking the cutting edge of scientific investigation, we look back now on when medicine believed rotting flesh spontaneously generated maggots (for example) and laugh. Science these days will appear no more evolved in 200 years than the maggots do today.

Environmental Economist (not verified) says:
The effects of Global Warming need to be updated: A recent study from a Global Warming friendly institution reported last month that there have been less hurricanes since the commencement of Global Warming; Antarctica is the thickest it has ever been since humans have been able to measure its density; Economic data shows that global warming has had no change on the amount of money countries spend on natural disaster and disease control. This article is poorly written and appears to be more of a scare tactic than science.

P (not verified) says:
Let's not forget that the warming is resulting in the thawing of the permafrost in sub-arctic regions, which is expected to release thousands of years of stored CO2, which in turn will likely serve to just speed up the warming process even further. Scary.

Jim B (not verified) says:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - February 21, 2008*** NEWS FROM NOAA ***
NATIONAL OCEANIC & ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION U. S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON, DC
Contact: Dennis Feltgen, NOAA 305-229-4404Increased Hurricane Losses Due to More People,
Wealth Along Coastlines, Not Stronger Storms, New Study Says
A team of scientists have found that the economic damages from hurricanes have increased in the U.S. over time due to greater population, infrastructure, and wealth on the U.S. coastlines, and not to any spike in the number or intensity of hurricanes.
“We found that although some decades were quieter and less damaging in the U.S. and others had more land-falling hurricanes and more damage, the economic costs of land-falling hurricanes have steadily increased over time,” said Chris Landsea, one of the researchers as well as the science and operations officer at NOAA’s National Hurricane Center in Miami. “There is nothing in the U.S. hurricane damage record that indicates global warming has caused a significant increase in destruction along our coasts.”
http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/2008/02/21/noaa-hurricane-frequency-and-global-warming-not-the-cause-of-increased-destruction/
Will the authors of this article now remove it as FUD

Daniel (not verified) says:
What are your source for all of this?
I'm not saying that global warming isn't a reality -- it's real -- but its degree and effects are certainly debated. History shows us that even scientists have a pretty poor record of predicting what is going to happen in the future.
Science without sources or data to back it up, isn't science. Citing a single newspaper article that features the opinion of one science isn't proof. This is no different than the "junk science" that the right wing and industry-backed lobbyists spew. Is environmentalism becoming it's own type of ideology-based "religion?" This piece would be evidence that it is.

Ashleigh Skye Tyler (not verified) says:
AAAAAHHHHH! crap! I hope I make it past my 18th birthday! actually I agree with aesculapias we all should help even if it means less computer,tv and air conditioning, we can all help. AND IT IS N-O-T NOT A SCAM!!!!!!!!!

Innomado (not verified) says:
Take the situation seriously?? The entire concept is based on ‘junk’ science and burried deep in the muck of politics. Here is a different, more common sense point of view: http://earthpro.info/global-warming-is-a-total-scam
Earth Pro, you should read this, the article you pointed to is a perfect example.
Ad Hominem
I would realy like to read a valid argument for the non-reality of global warming. That article you pointed to isn't it, maybe you should do some research into critical thinking.

Innomado (not verified) says:
Now onto this article. I submit that the deadliest effect of dramatic climate change, regardless of the cause, is the damage to food production. If climate deviate from what our food crops have been optimized for then crop yields will be comprimised. Food prices will go up and more people will go without and face starvation.
More importantly those people will have face their children and other family members going without, which brings up the related consequence of dramatic climate change. Conflict. People without food will try to get it, as pressure to survive increases people will get desperate and the result will increaces in population movement, general violence, terrorism, and war.
I also have some questions, what are the risks involved with the different positions and actions regarding the issue of global warming?
If we take action against anthropogenic global warming and it isn't real, what are the consequences?
What if we don't take action it does turn out to be real?

TruthSquad (not verified) says:
Global Warming... it's not just science, it's Political Science.

noisewar (not verified) says:
Not only is malaria not a warm weather disease (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/press_r/reiter_pr.htm) but the amount spent on what little global warming is anthropogenic could be spent combatting it and saving innumerable lives. Ridiculous.

Ed Walsh (not verified) says:
I have a theory about global warming; Global Warming looks like a global scam.
It appears that the earth and planets in our solar have all warmed about 2 degrees during the past 100 years. If this is due to solar activity, why are we wasting valuable time, money and effort on something we have absolutely no control over.
Whatever happened to AIDS, Hunger, Housing, Health Care these are things we really can solve if we wanted to.

Roger Jardine Thomas (not verified) says:
Responses to all the comments were covered in a proposal to use the Millennium Dome London as a centre of excellence in global environmental management. This was the proposal the UK Government's own consultants wanted to back and was shortlisted.
http://millenniumprojecttwo.blogspot.com/2007/01/millennium-dome-2001-proposal.html
The facts are accepted but it would be seen as a commercial endorsement for the UK Government to support it.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ecodome/
The UNEP IPCC 3rd assessment, 2001 which was part of the business model, gave economic cost of climate change as $200 billion per year. The consultants accepted that this would rise. They also accepted that for a full environmental management centre, it would also cover pollution, species extinction, population dynamics, ecplogical life support systeme collapse etc. Not just an approach from a climate change perspective. Based on the projections of all these factors it was accepted that true economic cost that needed to be addressed could be $1000 billion per year, just over £500 billion.
If the project only addressed 10% of the global dynamic then it would have a 'positioned' magnitude of £50 billion per year.
The comment by Jim B on the cost of hurricane damage was covered in 2001 and a central point. The consultants had a large real estate portfolio and were aware of such assessments. This provided an option for funding. If selected a project team would appraoch the large reinsurers with a proposal to limit their liabilities in return for financing to set up the project.
It appears it was a political decision not to have an environmental centre at the Dome as detailed analysis and response to the competition criteria would suggest the environmental management centre should have won.
The project would have provided a globally authoritative source for all questions and comments raised here. As well as implemtation of sustainable strategies.

Ben (not verified) says:
Utter bull$%£. I can't believe that that you treehuggers still harp on about this. This planet is still coming out of the last ice age, of course it's going to get bloody warmer. Know why Greenland got it's name? Because when it was discovered, it was green and not covered in ice. You eco freaks just like shouting about something and scaremongering. Global warming is a natural thing. You are out of your minds if you think we can alter it. Idiots.

Orisysinfotech (not verified) says:
Global warming is really threat to the society.
Some preventive measures are,
1. Plant trees and stop deforestation
2. Minimise industrilisation
3. Stop using of gas, petrol, desiel like petrolium products/hydro carbons.

Death (not verified) says:
STOP THE WORLD- I WANNA GET OFF!!
AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

oh crap (not verified) says:
The real danger is feedback responses to warming, especially those that release more gases, and a runaway scenario that reaches equilibrium only after Earth more resembles Venus, after the oceans have boiled away, and all but the most hearty microbes perish.

Scott (not verified) says:
Man! Why do I read this stuff first thing in the morning? It's as if
I don't have enough to worry about on a daily basis.I guess I'll have to
add this to my list now...

John (not verified) says:
One was left out. The economic devastation and starvation that will come upon all nations that take up and try to do something about this fraud!

JB (not verified) says:
We must kill our pets ASAP in order to save the planet !
According to the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition, a moderately active 80-pound dog requires 1,955 calories a day — the energy requirement of a 120-pound woman. A lactating dog of that weight requires between 3,900 and 7,800 calories daily.
Smaller dogs of, say, 20 pounds consume energy disproportionate to their weight compared to large dogs. Translated, that means two miniature poodles consume more than a German shepherd on the small side. So, when calculating one's carbon footprint, dog owners should add an extra individual, or two or three, to their household size.
While it is true that some of the carbon dioxide released into the environment as a result of the metabolism of pet food is renewable, the energetics required to produce this food fare — the factories, the delivery trucks, the metal for the cans — are often nonrenewable or renewable more in principle than in practice.
"Tin" cans, for instance, made of iron, require about half a pound of carbon, in the form of coke, per pound to manufacture. After use they go to the city dump, where they may or may not be recycled. Even the best metal-recycling systems recover only a fraction of the metal, while using huge amounts of nonrenewable energy in their operation.
People who purchase organic pet food would hardly be so cruel as to leave Fido in a warm apartment in the summer months without air conditioning. Besides eight hours of cool air, don't forget to factor in the TV to keep him company, or the electric lights when he is home alone in the evening. In very round numbers, a single 6,000 British Thermal Unit air conditioner run for eight hours has the carbon footprint of .15 gallons of gas, which will drive a car for about 3 miles. Over its 10-year life span, a dog enjoying the benefits of air conditioning will consume about 150 gallons of fossil fuel — and that's assuming the system is operating at 100% efficiency.
And don't get me started on cats, which compete with humans in annually consuming millions of tons of various fish varieties from overfished seas.

Roger Jardine Thomas (not verified) says:
Ben It doesn't matter whether climate change is a natural process or induced by the actions of man.
A rise in temp moves the dynamic equilibrium points as described by Oh crap. Primary productivity decreases so biodiversity decreases, food production decreases.
With high population and resource pressures global ecological life support systemes collapse billions die. See ecology on this site Reindeer.
Just because you as yet have not got a full understanding of planetary proceses as you are capable of achieving, please don't call people idiots who have.
Of course it is possible to alter global systems. Even if it is a natural process intervention will be required. Ask your self the question. If you were told you were going to die next week. Would you be happier that it would be of natural causes or if somebody killed you?


Rich (not verified) says:
Global Worming is FICTIONAL! Anybody that would even consider believing people that present arguments on the warming of this enormous planet that is over 4 Billion Years old is out of their mind. The people conducting these studies only have a few hundred years of data and to compare that to all relative data since the dawn of this planet is simply naive. I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist or anything, but I find it odd that people go out of their way to point out the extremities but never the consistencies.
Just the other day, I was outside of Chicago's Union Station, and I got stopped by a group of people that wanted to discuss global warming with me. The temperature on that lovely day was about 12 degrees. Are they out of their minds? Are they trying to get laughed at? I mean come on! If they want to be taken seriously they should at least wait for a day in the summer when it's like 105 degrees out, oh wait, that hasn't happen for I can't even remember how long...Don't buy into this garbage.

Nemo (not verified) says:
There were major malaria epidemics in Poland and Russia in the 1920s. Archangel, Russia had some of the worst outbreaks, and is on two degrees south of the arctic circle.

WhatDoesScienceKnow (not verified) says:
It will be interesting to see what everyone will be saying by 2012, when it becomes very obvious that we are now cooling down.
Global Warming? BAH!!!

Ohmaar (not verified) says:
1998 was the hottest year on record since 1934.
I'll pause a moment to let you see the obvious logic flaw in the man-made global warming hysteria...
Still don't get it? Read the last two words in that statement: since 1934. What does that tell you?
OK, let me help you: it was WARMER in 1934 than it is now.
How can that possibly be? The industrial revolution was in its infancy. Aerosol cans weren't introduced until 1941. Air conditioning with Freon (CFCs) didn't really take off until after WWII. Mankind didn't start actively pumping greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere until the 1940s. So how could it have possibly been warmer in 1934!!
And OMG it gets worse!! Did you know that when the dinosaurs roamed the earth the WHOLE GLOBE was a giant tropical paradise? Man didn't even EXIST then. In fact, there weren't even COWS back then to pollute the atmosphere with their evil methane toxin. So how could the earth have POSSIBLY been warmer THEN than it is NOW?
But let's just forget about all of that. WE'RE DEALING WITH A CRISIS NOW! OUR POLAR ICE CAPS ARE MELTING!! AND IT'S ALL BECAUSE WE'RE POLLUTING OUR PLANET WITH NOXIOUS GASES!!
If that's true, then they must be really, REALLY bad gases, because they're melting the polar ice caps on MARS TOO! That's right! The polar ice maps on MARS are shrinking too. And it's all because we can't get people to buy more compact fluorescent light bulbs! Or use less toilet paper! Come on people -- CAN'T YOU SEE THAT YOUR SHINY CLEAN ANUS IS DESTROYING MARS?
Let's try to put it all together, MmmK? It was warmer in 1934 when we weren't spewing pollutants. It was warmer when the dinosaurs were here and WE WEREN'T. So from all of that, we can conclude...
IT DOESN'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH MAN! THE EARTH GETS WARMER. THE EARTH GETS COOLER. AND IT'S BEEN DOING THAT FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS -- ALL BY ITSELF!! IT'S NOT A CRISIS (unless you're Al Gore and you spent millions getting your books and DVDs produced and now they're just taking up warehouse space and well, it's not like you can just take them all to the landfill -- no that would be BAAAAAAD and you certainly can't burn them -- no that would be WOOOOOOORSE!)
So do yourself a favor. Start investing in PARKAs, cause it's going to get COLD again, just like back in the 70's when you were all panicking over the coming ice age!

angryrat (not verified) says:
Global Worming is FICTIONAL! Anybody that would even consider believing people that present arguments on the warming of this enormous planet that is over 4 Billion Years old is out of their mind. The people conducting these studies only have a few hundred years of data and to compare that to all relative data since the dawn of this planet is simply naive. I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist or anything, but I find it odd that people go out of their way to point out the extremities but never the consistencies.
Just the other day, I was outside of Chicago’s Union Station, and I got stopped by a group of people that wanted to discuss global warming with me. The temperature on that lovely day was about 12 degrees. Are they out of their minds? Are they trying to get laughed at? I mean come on! If they want to be taken seriously they should at least wait for a day in the summer when it’s like 105 degrees out, oh wait, that hasn’t happen for I can’t even remember how long…Don’t buy into this garbage.
And then there are those idiots who say the Earth is a sphere!! If that was the case those poor sods in Australia would need to glue themselves on it, to avoid falling off... :(
Fortunately for us, the Earth is flat, and sits on the back of four elephants which are carried by giant turtle. And only 6000 years old. Everybody knows that.
(Btw I loved this sentence: "global warming could snowball with the ice caps gone")

Rami Khoury (not verified) says:
Guys their would be no such thing as global warming if they had a solution for it correct? Well they do, my chemistry professor worked for NASA and they have a blimp ready to enter the atmosphere and release the molecule, ozone, into the atmosphere which counters the process of global warming. For those of you who are just knowing this, i bet your asking why don't we take action right away. Heres why, we are spending billions of dollars in iraq and we can't even fund projects in our own country to save OURSELVES.

G-String (not verified) says:
I don't deny that global warming is happening, i do however disagree with what they are saying will happen with polar icecaps. One major thing people not seam to remember is that when water freezes it expands, so when the icecaps melt the water level wont raise nore will it lower it will stay the same. The full weight of the ice is already pushing down in the surrounding water and as the water pushes back it keeps it floating. So as it melts it shrinks.

Dave Nofmeister (not verified) says:
Global warming is fictional.
If Al Gore was really concerned, he'd stop buzzing the country in his personal jet, pumping out all of that CO2, to tell us of this "crisis".
The earth has had HUGE variations in temerature for millions of years, both hotter and colder, even before man entered the picture.

Phil Monroe (not verified) says:
It is easy to say global warming is a farce until you look into it. It is not as easy as understanding just one realm of geology, it is the combination of all the realms and when you experiment a little with unbalancing one part, another one fails with it, this is what is called feedback loops. We are just starting to hit the steep part of the curve, and anyone who disbelieves in the impact that man has will be proven wrong. Earth is old, yes, but she has never been through this. We have records of all the gasses and temperatures of the Earth going back 600,000 years plus, that is long enough to make sound scientific observations on what key gasses do to the atmosphere. Now, you here a lot of talk about CO2 because it is easy to understand, but it is not the only gas that will effect us, but lets take CO2. It has always coincided with Earths temperature, guiding it from Ice Age to warm periods. There are reasons for this that would take too long to explain, but the basic is every time CO2 has gotten to about 300ppm Earth plunged into an Ice Age. Currently we are at about 400ppm, which the last time it was that high is when the Earth was nothing more than a hot planet covered in volcanoes. But why aren't we falling into an Ice Age again? The answer is that Earth is doing something it has never done before, and the natural protection of a run-away heat wave, an Ice Age, is not happening because of the abruptness of this rise, the destruction of all the heat sinks, the melting of the poles, the toxification of the atmosphere, and the feedback loops that are pushing it faster and faster. The sun is not the answer, it has been dimming the last few decades, and still we see the years getting hotter and hotter.
What I have written here is one page of a thousand page book on the subject. It is not politi-science, it is not a religious thing, it is simply science. I am not an advocate of fear mongering, yes the Earth will survive, but we are making it so that we are destroying everything good about this planet, and we will be the ones to suffer. Once we are gone this planet can go back to being what it was, but to claim that man has no effect belittles the fact that we do.

davidhaugen (not verified) says:
Humans have not had that much effect on the planet, we have been here for 40000 years compared to 4.5 billion years, and weve only been producing these "harmful gases" for the past 50 or 60 years. Its all b*****t its another scam to rally votes for the dumbass candidates.

Ohmaar (not verified) says:
You want to REALLY stop global warming? Stop funding the research into it. But at the same time, start funding research into the effects of global COOLING. Wait 1 year and watch how many scientologi...er...I mean climatologists come out of the woodwork warning us of the coming ice age (again.)

eric (not verified) says:
Global warming may increase windshear which will reduce the formation of hurricanes. http://www.sarasotaspeaks.com/node/18674

Tom (not verified) says:
OPEN YOUR EYES PEOPLE!!! i feel like global warming is like a religion i.e. jesus=gore/global warming=christianity. If stupid americans can believe a "story" made up by shepards 2008 years ago i think they can believe in global warming.Also who decided that gore was a scientist?

Jeenx (not verified) says:
I'll believe these global warming nuts when they can answer one simple question. What is the "ideal" global temperature for our planet?
Hmmmmmm, I'm waiting.

Corey (not verified) says:
How about the Earth's atmosphere made of 95% water vapor which gives us the CO2 factor. Also if global warming is happening how can El Nino affect the hurricanes? If the temps are up there and they cause the hurricanes why would nature counter act their theory. Plus everything Gore said has already been discredited.

Innomado (not verified) says:
I’ll believe these global warming nuts when they can answer one simple question. What is the “ideal” global temperature for our planet?
Hmmmmmm, I’m waiting.
Wrong question, it has absolutely nothing to do with the concern regarding global climate change. Your question is nothing more than an poor atempt to changing the subject.
A better question, one that I suspect many concerned with global climate change find interest in, is "What is the ideal range of global climate for humans?".

Roger @ celtic lion (not verified) says:
I’ll believe these global warming nuts when they can answer one simple question. What is the “ideal” global temperature for our planet?
Hmmmmmm, I’m waiting.
The answer was partly given in comment 34.
One answer would be the one that equates with the highest gross primary productivity (plant growth) globally without energy subsidy (eg fosil fuels in farming).
This supports the greatest amount of global community respiration which is related to bio-diversity which gives the greatest global ecosystem stability.
Conversely if we implement a planetary management system to gives the highest global ecosystem stability the temeperature you seek will evolve as a resultant of that. Everything is connected and dynamically inter related in non linear feed backs.
You are entering into the basics of applied planetary engineering.







jagwire says:
Regarding the fourth item about the icecaps melting, specifically: "If the ice caps melt, the only reflector is the ocean. Darker colors absorb sunlight, further warming the Earth."
This is fairly inaccurate. I must point out that while the icecaps are responsible for a substantial portion of the earth's albedo cloud cover is in fact responsible for more. While the albedo-temperature effect is well known in colder regions, because of snow falls, it is actually considerably stronger in tropical regions due to consistently more sunlight.
"On any given day, about half of Earth is covered by clouds, which reflect more sunlight than land and water. Clouds keep Earth cool by reflecting sunlight, but they can also serve as blankets to trap warmth." (Tetzlaff, G. (1983). Albedo of the Sahara, pp. 60-63)