5 Deadliest Effects of Global Warming
Global Warming effects
Green house gases stay 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.
5. 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.

4. 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.

2. 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 do billions of dollars in damage, diseases cost money to treat and control and conflicts exacerbate all of these.

1. 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 north-east 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 relected 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.

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.
Comments
155 Responses to “5 Deadliest Effects of Global Warming”
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jagwire
Posted: Sep 12th, 2007 at 4:09 pm1Reply to this comment.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)
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Chris
Posted: Sep 12th, 2007 at 4:16 pm2Reply to this comment.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.
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pingback:
Posted: Dec 3rd, 2007 at 11:42 am4Does It Concern You………? « Gaurav’s WeblogReply to this comment.[…] Deadliest 5 Facts–http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/?p=276 […]
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kimberly
Posted: Jan 16th, 2008 at 7:47 pm5Reply to this comment.global warming is killing the cute koala bears
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Jonathan
Posted: Jan 19th, 2008 at 1:53 pm6Reply to this comment.Man this really helped a lot on my geohraphy project
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aesculapius
Posted: Jan 25th, 2008 at 9:28 am7Reply to this comment.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
Posted: Jan 31st, 2008 at 12:08 am8Reply to this comment.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
Posted: Feb 10th, 2008 at 9:17 pm9Reply to this comment.Were All Gona Dieeeeeeeeee !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Jaii Ortiz
Posted: Feb 11th, 2008 at 4:37 pm10Reply to this comment.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
Posted: Feb 18th, 2008 at 11:33 pm11Reply to this comment.i wish people would take this situation seriously.
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Earth Pro
Posted: Feb 21st, 2008 at 7:11 pm12Reply to this comment.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
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Dylan
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 7:49 am13Reply to this comment.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?
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UncleFunk
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 7:58 am14Reply to this comment.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.
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Environmental Economist
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 8:28 am15Reply to this comment.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.
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P
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 8:29 am16Reply to this comment.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.
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Jim B
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 8:38 am17Reply to this comment.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 SaysA 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.”
Will the authors of this article now remove it as FUD
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Daniel
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 8:39 am18Reply to this comment.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.
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Ashleigh Skye Tyler
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 8:41 am19Reply to this comment.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!!!!!!!!!
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Innomado
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 8:44 am20Reply to this comment.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
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 9:23 am21Reply to this comment.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
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 10:17 am22Reply to this comment.Global Warming… it’s not just science, it’s Political Science.
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noisewar
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 10:56 am23Reply to this comment.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.
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Ed Walsh
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 10:58 am24Reply to this comment.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
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 11:27 am25Reply to this comment.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 $1000 billion per year, just over £500 billion.
If the project only addressed 10% of the global dynamic then it would have a ‘positioned’ magnitude of £50 billion per year.
The comment by Jim B on the cost of hurricane damage was covered in 2001 and a central point. The consultants had a large real estate portfolio and were aware of such assessments. This provided an option for funding. If selected a project team would appraoch the large reinsurers with a proposal to limit their liabilities in return for financing to set up the project.
It appears it was a political decision not to have an environmental centre at the Dome as detailed analysis and response to the competition criteria would suggest the environmental management centre should have won.
The project would have provided a globally authoritative source for all questions and comments raised here. As well as implemtation of sustainable strategies.
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Ben
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 12:16 pm26Reply to this comment.Utter bull$%£. 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.
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Orisysinfotech
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 12:23 pm27Reply to this comment.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
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 12:38 pm28Reply to this comment.STOP THE WORLD- I WANNA GET OFF!!
AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!
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oh crap
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 12:53 pm29Reply to this comment.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.
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Scott
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 1:21 pm30Reply to this comment.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
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 1:26 pm31Reply to this comment.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!
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JB
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 1:51 pm32Reply to this comment.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
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 2:07 pm33Reply to this comment.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?
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keenan
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 3:13 pm34Reply to this comment.u guys are all science f%$”
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Rich
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm35Reply to this comment.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.
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Nemo
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 3:45 pm36Reply to this comment.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.
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WhatDoesScienceKnow
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 3:46 pm37Reply to this comment.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!!!
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Ohmaar
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 3:50 pm38Reply to this comment.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!
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angryrat
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 3:53 pm39Reply to this comment.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”)
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Rami Khoury
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 4:13 pm40Reply to this comment.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.
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G-String
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 5:25 pm41Reply to this comment.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.
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Dave Nofmeister
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 5:33 pm42Reply to this comment.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.
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Phil Monroe
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 6:58 pm43Reply to this comment.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.
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davidhaugen
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 7:17 pm44Reply to this comment.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.
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Ohmaar
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 7:38 pm45Reply to this comment.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.)
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eric
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 8:20 pm46Reply to this comment.Global warming may increase windshear which will reduce the formation of hurricanes. http://www.sarasotaspeaks.com/node/18674
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Tom
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 9:47 pm47Reply to this comment.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?
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Jeenx
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2008 at 10:31 pm48Reply to this comment.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.
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Corey
Posted: Feb 23rd, 2008 at 3:56 am49Reply to this comment.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.
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Innomado
Posted: Feb 23rd, 2008 at 6:04 am50Reply to this comment.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
Posted: Feb 23rd, 2008 at 10:33 am51Reply to this comment.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.
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Durgan
Posted: Feb 23rd, 2008 at 10:36 pm52Reply to this comment.I suggest there are too many of you people scrambling for a finite world’s resources. Control population at some fixed number and build a soiety to that figure, lets say arbritrarily 10 billion.
It must be obvious that our present way of life is not sustainable. Global Warming is simply a symptom of a larger malaise.
If all the people in the world had a standard of living similar to Canada’s, then the planet would have to be seven times larger to meet the demand for resources. This isnow with a population of about 6 billion.
But I am a voice in the wilderness- without a beard.
Durgan.
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earthpro
Posted: Feb 24th, 2008 at 3:21 am53Reply to this comment.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.
It was merely a matter of time before Iraq and Bush was to blame. You actually believe there is a blimp BIG enough to take all the Ozone that the wackos claim is needed to fill the ‘ozone hole’. Blind faith in crazy ‘fixes’ is as bad as being spoon fed the entire global warming scam. http://earthpro.info/30
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Katie
Posted: Feb 24th, 2008 at 7:15 pm54Reply to this comment.Do I strongly believe that global warming is happening and is a threat? No, not really.
Do I believe that we are perfectly fine and don’t need to do anything to help the environment? Again, no -
the boy
Posted: Feb 29th, 2008 at 1:19 am55Reply to this comment.I do believe in global warming I do believe that these things will happen and deep down i know everyone else does. people just want to side step the whole issue because it’s going to be hard to change.But i for one am doing many little things that make up the bigger picture. And i hope everyone else wii catch on too.
P.S al gores jet is electric so screw you
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earthpro
Posted: Mar 1st, 2008 at 10:15 am56Reply to this comment.Electric Jet! LMFAO!!! Sure, the Plasma TV and other items in the jet are electric, but not the jet itself! You don’t seriously believe that do you? If so, you are more than just gullable to the global warming scam!http://earthpro.info/41 Read this to learn about Obama blindly following the herd, much like yourself!
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DWalla
Posted: Mar 4th, 2008 at 8:29 pm57Reply to this comment.aaaahhhh!!! Everybody run!…. .. the sky is falling!… the sky is falling!
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steve
Posted: Mar 6th, 2008 at 5:29 pm58Reply to this comment.thats scary
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steve
Posted: Mar 6th, 2008 at 5:29 pm59Reply to this comment.DWalla… yer g*y
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kuku
Posted: Mar 7th, 2008 at 5:00 pm60Reply to this comment.can u give more about global warming
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vinita hatadia
Posted: Mar 10th, 2008 at 10:45 am61Reply to this comment.wat can i do aas my part of contribution..??
i m using public vehicles instead of individual.. -
Lee Ryan Ebarle
Posted: Mar 11th, 2008 at 5:47 am62Reply to this comment.Usage of alternative energy such as wind, solar, geothermal, ocean current and bio fluids should be given importance by the leaders of our nation. all of this factors will definetely lessen the cause of global warming. :) We are distroying our eco system with out knowing the effect of this in the next generation. God help us to realized our mistakes.
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Radicallll
Posted: Mar 13th, 2008 at 8:18 am63Reply to this comment.This isn’t something to be taken lightly. It’s something that the next generation has to be in control of. Things can be fixed as long as people pay attention and understand what is going on in the world around them. At the moment, its like no one cares. Ridiculous.
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twitch
Posted: Mar 17th, 2008 at 6:31 pm64Reply to this comment.i will c u in hell unless we stop or slow all of this destruction and caos now. All of the ice caps will melt floding all of the earth and will kill us all unless we can all turn into fish ppl witch is imposible. or is it? ha
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Connor Glynn
Posted: Mar 18th, 2008 at 6:27 pm65Reply to this comment.and those stupid religious d-bags who dont beleive that humans are the cause arent helping at all…and those d-bags from kansas who says that god is killing reno can go f themselves to hell! if we could send all the evengelicals to mars so they could explode and die…that would be a problem solved.
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Climate Change Australia
Posted: Mar 20th, 2008 at 1:20 am66Reply to this comment.Great article and fascinating pictures!
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RanDoM
Posted: Mar 26th, 2008 at 3:15 pm67Reply to this comment.Apocalypse
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Minnesotan
Posted: Mar 27th, 2008 at 3:11 pm68Reply to this comment.I have this overwelming feeling of dread - have for some time. First heard of GW in the 1970’s -
I equate this to a cancer in the body - that kills the body, therefore itself. Are we the earth’s cancer. -
Melody
Posted: Mar 27th, 2008 at 7:34 pm69Reply to this comment.we need to do something!!
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J.Reyna
Posted: Apr 3rd, 2008 at 5:28 pm70Reply to this comment.good writing
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sherae george
Posted: Apr 5th, 2008 at 1:05 am71Reply to this comment.ok so im doing a 5 min speech on global warming that is due on monday, so what started global warming in the very first place??
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kim
Posted: Apr 5th, 2008 at 3:26 pm72Reply to this comment.let’s protect our mother earth…..
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kc
Posted: Apr 7th, 2008 at 11:06 pm73Reply to this comment.Wow, A lot of diffrent comments on this. I would like to state that one I do believe in global warming, I do not believe it may be as severe as stated but none the less I’m sure its here in some shape, way or form. The world is old and yes she has been going through changes since before we were here and will continue to do so when we are gone. The world has to many damn problems right now… and global warming may just be another to add on the “to do list”. I believe that burning all these fossil fuels and such can’t be to good of a thing either. I mean sure the earth might have been “hotter when the dinosaurs” were around but the earth was not emitting more CO2 into the air before we got here, and Im not saying this will be the “death” of us , hell humans will probably kill each other off and then mother nature won’t even have to worry about our stupid asses. Obviously there are scientific facts here that support the case and that don’t. There are a lot of problems that are caused by people.. deforestation , well I don’t think the trees chopped themsleves down when the dinosaurs were here, we are responsible for that. Just like we are responsible for some aspects of gw, you people who are against it , sounds like you don’t want to admit that your presence on this planet hasn’t the slightest bit to do with some of the problems we are having. People will always mess with nature I mean we have to , to surive , we have to cut some trees down we have to farm we have to fish , but we don’t have to over do it, thats the key. To the people on this comment page with all the bad attitudes about us “tree huggers”, as one of you “smart” people so nicely put it, so what , we care about the eviorment.. we want to see it thrive and we want to make sure future generations will live to enjoy as much of it as they can. As a colleege student pursuing a degree in zoology, yes I love the earth and the animals and I want to help stop these things from happening to our planet. Do I go around preaching about it, no, I do what I can in my own way. So I chose to go with the dillusional, low paying, life of someone who will probably not accomplish anything big to help save the planet but as long as I felt like I made a diffrence in something I believed in then im fine. You can call me a “tree hugger” or “hippie” , all those words are fine, at least I’m devoting my energy into doing something I am passionate about while it seems the majority of you on here are bitching and complaning about how your tired of hearing about al gores movie, or seeing gw on the news, tv, and, spending your tax money on stupid gw issues , all i have to say to you is… no one told you to go see the movie, you don’t like watching and seeing things about gw then turn of the t.v ( you would be saving energy anyway), and as far as tax money well please who does like paying taxes??.. we pay a lot of taxes right now for stupid things… get over it!!! You know if all of you would stop bitching we could probably reduce the CO2 leves by 50% from you just not opening your mouths.
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Danielle
Posted: Apr 9th, 2008 at 8:02 am74Reply to this comment.Man this really helped a lot on my geohraphy project
jonathan you nipped it in the bud
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mathew
Posted: Apr 9th, 2008 at 1:59 pm75Reply to this comment.theres so much stuff on here, that i never knew about before.
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gail
Posted: Apr 11th, 2008 at 2:09 pm76Reply to this comment.For all of you who say that global warming is garbage and that the scientific proof is nothing but “scare tactics”, I must ask you: Are you really so self-absorbed and comfortable with your convenient lives that you just don’t care about the planet that supports your life? Is it really so difficult to drive a vehicle with lower emissions? Will it complicate your life too much to reduce, reuse, and recycle? Even if the global warming message is exaggerated, or just plain false, how is it hurting you to make small changes in your life to protect the planet that has fostered our evolution for all these thousands of years? Since you are so self-centered, let me put this a different way. Do you really want to find out the hard way that global warming is actually happening all around us, or do you want to take precautions now, instead of saying later on, “Gee, I wish I would have listened when I had the chance!”
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Sparkle
Posted: Apr 15th, 2008 at 3:01 pm77Reply to this comment.I feel that something should be done to change or try to slow the the process of global warming because it regardless of what we do there’s no way of preventing it
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dontworryaboutit
Posted: Apr 15th, 2008 at 8:25 pm78Reply to this comment.why dont you do go to hell because global warming is natural just like global cooling
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i say
Posted: Apr 16th, 2008 at 10:00 pm79Reply to this comment.oh em gee really?
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paul marjun pacquiao
Posted: Apr 17th, 2008 at 6:15 am80Reply to this comment.hi im paul marjun from philippines, one of the very most difficult problem in fronting of the present time is global warming cause as I observed our environment has being captured by this serious phenomenon. Many of our natural resources has been totaly damage due this condition. One common example that global warming is overlapping and being disaster is the melting of the ice of alaska!!
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Abi
Posted: Apr 23rd, 2008 at 7:53 am81Reply to this comment.i understand that there is one chemical (i am not sure about the name but i have seen it on discovery channel) which observe carbon in the atmosphere. In the program it was shown that only with 10 tones of that chemical time that we can have another ice agi understand that there is one chemical (i am not sure about the name but i have seen it on discovery channel) which observe carbon in the atmosphere. In the program it was shown that only with 10 tones of that chemical time that we can have another ice age. How does this sound?? e. How does this sound??
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reality
Posted: Apr 23rd, 2008 at 10:27 pm821998 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 l
