Global warming???????

[prickle13]

truth - the earth is definitely warming up. you can tell from the ice caps melting if nothing else!

[Kype]

Truth or myth?

[Anonymous Viking]

True. I saw the glacier on Kilimanjaro for myself a long time ago, and now it has melted. I also have many very old living relatives who remember their home state once being much colder. Even in my lifetime it's changed noticeably.

I could have answered in terms of science but we have a cultural disdain for science. In scientific circles if you believe the Earth isn't warming you're regarded as an idiot.

The deniers lie constantly. "EPA" scientists who don't really work for the EPA, a list of scientists who "doubt global warming" with very few names that actually belong to climate scientists on the list. Some of them will flat-out deny that glaciers are disappearing when in my travels I have seen with my own eyes that this is not the case, nevermind the scientific consensus.

For a while it was being funded by Exxon-Mobil. A scientist would come forward with "results" that challenged it, but they would invariably work for a think tank that was a wholly owned subsidiary of a wholly owned subsidiary of Exxon-Mobil. Someone posted the tax returns of a few prominent deniers online and it made for interesting reading.

Exxon gave up a few years back. They decided to stop playing shell games with their money and have since focused on remaking their image as "green". The movement shrank significantly and many of their websites just vanished. In modern times the torch is carried by conspiracy theorists and people who just don't want to have to change.

The conspiracy theorists say the Earth is spiraling into the sun, or that the sun is getting hotter, or that the CO2 levels nearly doubled because of volcanoes.

Well, it's pretty simple to measure solar output and our position in the solar system. I also don't see any erupting supervolcanoes. These people are crackpots.

[Paul B]

True. And specifically that it is serious, unprecedented, driven mainly by human activity, and requires appropriate action. See statement at

http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.asp?id=20742

endorsed by the [US] National Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, , Russian Academy of Sciences, Royal Society (London). Over 40 other academies of national stature have issued similar statements:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change#Academies_of_ Science

Thirty years of watching the evidence accumulate. Look in SCIENCE or NATURE, or even Wikipedia Global warming, for extensive real peer-reviewed scientific research.

See eg The Hot Topic, Dvd King, Prof. Cambridge (now Oxford); Global Warming 4th ed. 2009, John Houghton, Prof. AtmosphericSci., Oxford

[denson]

Global warming is the way the Earth is getting warmer due to effect of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels or from deforestation, which trap heat that would otherwise escape from Earth. The rapid rise in greenhouse gases is a problem because it is changing the climate faster than some living things may be able to adapt. Also, a new and more unpredictable climate poses unique challenges to all life.

[peteee]

in the end there´ll be hot summers for everyone

[tina123]

Because of these elements, temperature of earth is getting warmer and many crops also suffer disasters. Our water resources are getting short so that many people from all corners of the world have no enough water and food and their lives have lost. In order to avoid situations, we should take some measures to do it. The governments of all over the countries should strengthen management of environment.

[pippa01]

Nearly all scientists agree that the planet is warming. What is still open for debate is how much of the warming is due to human activites, and what all the potential effects will be worldwide. The Pentagon commissioned a report on the possibility of rapid climate change -- in particular examining the collapse of the north atlantic thermohaline conveyor (a process that delivers warmth from the gulf stream to Europe).

[Harriss.Zel]

It's a result of our own actions and I think we can somewhat help in preventing further damages by going green.

[Biologymad]

I believe it is at least in part, our fault. However the damage is done. We can damage control though by going green as some people are doing. The longer people leave a huge carbon footprint, the worse the world will become.