Long Woltjer: Well CO2 is a greenhouse gas. Which... let me help explain this easily for me and you.The sun emits ultraviolet light. There are a few things that reflect this energy such as clouds, but some ultravilet light enters the atmosphere and reflects off of the earths surface. When it reflects off the Earths surface it degenerates into a much lower frequency, lik a radio wave going to a lower frequency and it is then absorbed by greenhouse gasses like CO2. Normally they wouldn't absorb UV light, but since it degenerates into lower frequencies it turns into Infradred energy and the greenhouse gasses then re-radiate this energy, no only into space, but also back to the Earth's surface.But CO2 isn't the only cause. The most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is water wapor, good ol' H2O, of course it isn't as effective as CO2. The most effective greenhouse gas is something like trichloflorocarbon-something or other. But of course there aren't many trichloroflor! e things in the atmosphere. CFC's are also pretty bad.
Norine Lomonte: There are chemicals in the air that help absorb heat so that earth will be able to support life. There are those who think humans are creating more of these chemicals, thus causing the atmosphere to absorb more heat.
Clifford Riggleman: Here is a simple explanation:http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/clima...In the most basic form, some of the energy from the sun that normally would bounce back out into space collides with greenhouse gases (e.g. CO2) and that causes additional heat to remain near the surface of the planet. The more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the more "collisions" that will occur and the more heat that is trapped....Show more
Libby Berkovitch: Green House effect is an phenomenon in which earth's atmosphere traps the heat from the sun & prevents it from escaping. The phenomenon is so named because earth's atmosphere acts like a greenhouse made of glass ! in which sunlight enters through transparent glass, but the he! at released by plants in the form of infrared radiations is not allowed to escape. As a result of this , the temp. increasses inside the greenhouse.In a similar manner, sunlight enters earth's atmosphere and heats the surface of the earth. But certain gases present in the atmosphere trap the heat emitted by earth's surface & do not allow it to escape. This causes an increase in temp. of earth's atmosphere. This is known as Global Warming.The gases causing green house effect are called greenhouse gases. Carbon Dioxide, methane, ozone, and CFCs are the green house gases present in the atmosphere which are responsible for global warming.
Marti Declue: It's one of the great mysteries. Only Al Gore knows.
Dexter Gold:
Russell Mckinzie: @ Othol48 -->> Nature goes in cycles, and will always do so.What cycle? What are its frequency and period?You cannot answer those questions because you do not know what you are talking about.Why don't you restrict your opinions ! to those areas that do not require scientific knowledge or much education?...Show more
Raymon Fiene: do your own homework!
Ervin Overbee: Green house gases keep the earth warm enough for us humans to live on it. But if the greenhouse effect becomes any stronger, it could make the Earth warmer than usual. Even a little extra warming may cause problems for humans, plants, and animals. Therefore it’s important to keep green house effect in check. One of the results of GW is its affect on water availability. It is becoming a scarce resource and therefore important for all to use it wisely. You will find some simple and easy to follow tips on water conservation at http://www.bewaterwise.com/tips01.html...Show more
Frederick Mccoach: The Sun is hotter than Earth, so it gives out more light of a higher frequency. Greenhouse gases absorb light of a lower frequency, but not of a higher frequency. So heat gets through from the Sun, is absorbed by Earth, and then r! e-transmitted at a lower frequency because Earth is cooler. Look up Bla! ckbody/Greybody radiation.Greenhouse gases absorb the lower frequency light, slowing down its escape and therefore increasing the amount of energy in the atmosphere and planet. This leads to warming.Any absorption in this manner will lead to warming, regardless of how fast the gas dumps the heat afterwards (unless its heat dumping exceeds the speed of light, which it would need to for James E's theory to be correct)James E's 'it's only humidity' argument fails to explain climate changes caused by greenhouse gases in history (Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum, Azolla Event, Snow/Slushball Earth episodes, Faint Young Sun Paradox...), and it fails to explain the observed greenhouse effects on Mars and Uranus. It also runs contrary to the entire understanding of physics we've built up so far.JcL link 1: 'cooling'? 2009 is warmer than 2008.http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/hadc...GISTemp (NASA) also reported that June 2009 was the warmest oceans on record and the seco! nd warmest June on record.This is probably because of an El Nino. We have recently emerged from cooling La Nina conditions, and the ENSO cycle can affect temperatures by as much as 0.3-0.4C in the space of 2 years (see 1996-1998). Far bigger than the miniscule changes in the solar cycle or the 0.1-0.3C/decade warming from greenhouse gases. You need longer term records than that.2000-2009 is 0.17C warmer than 1990-1999.Link 2: 'it's the Sun'. It says solar cycle changes cause temperature changes of 0.1-0.15C, then tries to argue that this explains the 0.8C warming observed from 1900-04 to 2005-09. There is other evidence against solar dominated warming:- the amount of sunlight reaching the surface of Earth fell until 1990 because of air pollution, yet net warming occurred[1].- the stratosphere is cooling, consistent with ozone depletion/increased greenhouse effect, but not with solar warming.- changes in solar output in the last 30 years have been about zero.http://media.pho! tobucket.com/image/damon%20%252526...http://tamino.files.wordpress.com/! 2007/07/lockwood......Show more
Filiberto Ranalli: War, Poor or uncaring Governments, Mismanagement of Soil, Lack of water, pestilence, and etc.....
Freddy Shutler: global warming is bogus.
Cierra Gadbaw: Global warming is a scam created by the government to provoke panic and to control societies.Leave carbon dioxide to the devil.My 2 cents.
Raymundo Kyser: Gases such as carbon ioxide are emitted into the atmsophere at the level of the troposphere. They both absord and emit infrared radiation and heat from the sun. In this way, they can retain enough heat to keep the earth at a desirable temperature. Increased levels of these gases, most notably carbon dioxide, accumulate as a consequence of human activity. As a result, too much heat may retained at the level of the earth's atmosphere and excessive warming of the earth may occur.In an actual greenhouse, the heat is retained by the enclosure....Show more
Zulema Baccam: Jack Bakerson said:"it! destroys ozone (three oxygen particle) which protects our earth from the sun's radiation (not heat) which then causes the warming of the earth. (the warming doesnt happen until the radiation hit the earth first)"It is funny how many people actually think that this is how AGW works. Though it is overly simplistic, try reading ken's link above for a more accurate look at the GHE and how CO2 might should warming.
Monroe Rainey: Since there is no such thing, why worry? Nature goes in cycles, and will always do so.
Alden Sabio: Apart from Ken know one here seems to have even high school science knowledge, or maybe they just weren't listening at the time There is easy proof that the greenhouse effect works, because without Co2 (and the other gases) the Earths average temperature would be around -20c.'Jack Bakerson'http://www.epa.gov/sunwise/kids/kids_ozone.htmlthis is aimed at kids and explains ozone depletion and the cause, no mention of Co2 in relation to ozone.
Raye Tredennick: IT DOES'NT= ALL NON-SOLIDS DECIPATE IN THE FRIDGI! D THINNED AIR ABOVE YOUR HEADS OUTSIDE ALSO GLOBAL WARMING IS'NT CAUSED BY ANYTHING MAN MADE.
Carolynn Testani: Have a look at this (hi-def) video, called "HOME"......It is about our planet, global warming and what me might do for the future..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU
Geraldo Mccalla: Global warming is beating global dimming. As time goes on, it will dominate it.If I put a CO2 molecule in the atmosphere, there's a good chance that in a hundred years, the atmosphere will be a CO2 molecule richer.If I put an aerosol particle in the atmosphere, it will probably rain out within weeks.This means that CO2 adds up whilst aerosols rely on being constantly refilled. Last weeks' aerosols are trying to cancel out all the warming from the last hundred years of carbon dioxide.Back in the '60s and '70s they could do this, we pumped out aerosols so quickly that they could cancel out the CO2 from the 1800s to then. But since then we've pumped out CO2 at a much ! faster rate and aerosol emissions haven't kept up. So aerosols are continuing to cool us, but the proportion of warming they prevent will shrink....Show more
Robt Betker: Majority of credible scientists agree global warming is man made.A small fringe group believe otherwise.
Danette Slotnick: oh didn't you know it was cows, cars,over weight people, etc etc,,im not a beliver in global what ever , i do however belive if someone doesn't put a stop to the madness we will be the ones depleting off this earth and living strictly how the government sees it fit
Warren Kotter: From the UK Met Office:1.1 What is the difference between global warming and climate change? The Earth is warming faster than it has in the past thousand years, hence the term global warming. But climate change is a better description than global warming, as some areas may, in fact, cool. It also describes other effects like rising sea levels and more extreme weather. 1.2 Is the ‘greenhou! se effect’ the same as global warming? No: The ‘greenhouse effectâ€! ™ is the way the atmosphere traps some of the energy we receive from the Sun (infrared radiation or heat, ultraviolet and visible light) and stops it being transmitted back out into space. This makes the Earth warm enough for life. The problem is that scientists believe we are adding dangerously to the natural greenhouse effect with the gases from industry and agriculture (chiefly carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide). This traps more solar energy and increases the temperature. 1.3 Has climate changed in the past?There is little doubt, from the evidence so far, that there have been enormous changes in climate in the past. These ranged from a complete absence of ice over the Poles to ice sheets extending across much of Europe, Asia and North America. The last major extension of polar ice retreated only 10,000 years ago. Since then, the climate has sometimes been warmer and sometimes cooler than it is now. 1.4 Has the climate changed recently?Natural sources, such as tr! ee rings and glaciers, as well as human records, show that climate has changed significantly over the past few hundred years. There was a relatively warm period in Europe during the 14th century, followed by a quite sudden change to cooler conditions in the 15th century. This extended into the Little Ice Age of the 17th and 18th centuries, followed by a warming trend that has recently accelerated. The evidence for this recent warming comes largely from direct measurements of temperature.In the more temperate northern latitudes, winters are less severe than 30 years ago, with cold snaps generally being short-lived. 1.5 As natural emissions of carbon dioxide are very much greater than those from human activities, surely the effect of man is insignificant?The exchange of ‘man-made’ carbon dioxide between man-made emissions, atmosphere, ocean and land, is about 7 GtC/year (billion tons of carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide, per year), which also shows much larger natural! exchanges between atmosphere and ocean (about 90 GtC/yr) and atmospher! e and land (about 60 GtC/yr). However, these natural exchanges have been in balance for many thousands of years, leading to the pre-industrial concentration of CO2 remaining steady at about 280 ppm. 1.6 If we’re meant to have global warming, why is the weather so miserable a lot of the time? This is the fundemental difference between weather and climate. Even in a warming climate we will still get individual weather systems which will bring ‘miserable’ weather. There is indisputable evidence that the climate is changing. The average global surface temperature has risen by 0.6 °C in the past 140 years. Globally, nine out of the ten hottest years ever recorded have occurred since 1990. Here in the UK, four out of five of the hottest years ever recorded over a 330-year period have occurred since then. 1.7 Is lots of rain a sign of climate change?A research project, carried out by Met Office and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, looked at extreme flooding in October ! and November 2000. It concluded that, though the events were extreme, they could not in themselves be attributed to climate change. However, heavy rainfall and peak river flows of similar duration have been increasing in frequency and magnitude over the past 50 years. This pattern is consistent with model predictions of how human-induced climate change affects rainfall. 1.8 Will climate change mean that we will see more severe weather events? Experts predict that fierce storms and floods, such as those that brought chaos to parts of the UK in October 2000, are likely to become more frequent in the future. Over the past 100 years, warming has been accompanied by a reduction in the frequency of frosts and an increase in the number of heatwaves in many parts of the world. The amount of rainfall is getting heavier in some countries in terms of volume per downpour.1.9 Weather forecasts aren’t always accurate a few days ahead, so how can you possibly predict what climate over t! he next 100 years? Although they are made by the same sort of mathemati! cal model, weather forecasts and climate predictions are really quite different. A weather forecast tells us what the weather (for example, temperature or rainfall) is going to be at a certain place and time over the next few days.A climate prediction tells us about changes in the average climate, its variability and extremes. So, it might say that Somerset, in 40â€"60 years time, wil...Show more
Elvin Mannheimer: Green house effect is simply sun's heat reflecting off the methane gas in the atmosphere back to the earth. This heats up earth.Global warming is the earth getting hotter than it maybe should be, yet studies have proved there is no possible way that man is doing this. We know that Russia and Alaska were once connected by a solid block of ice not long ago. The solar activity of the sun has cycles which are to date unpredictable. Sunspots come and go, nobody knows why. One connection is the galactic axis where a stream of particles invisible to us effects the ! sun and earth. If you think you want to worry about global warming; I must first suggest looking into the 2012/2013 earth spin axis shift of 120 degrees....Show more
Toney Flaten:
Kip Ockenfels: It appears to be home work assignment!
Wilmer Skidmore: Increasing the strength of the greenhouse effect is believed by scientists to be the main cause of the current global warming. http://dels.nas.edu/dels/rpt_briefs/climate_change...http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/global_warming_world...
Randolph Lozoya: http://www.articlesbase.com/environment-articles/g... http://www.articlesbase.com/environment-articlesThe sun is heating up the planet due to increased activity!the sun is much stronger than it was 20 years ago, just go stand in the sun during mid afternoon....Show more
Nicolasa Henke: Greenhouse gases effectively absorb thermal infrared radiation, emitted by the Earth’s surface, by the atmosphere itself due to the same gases, and by clouds. Atmosp! heric radiation is emitted to all sides, including downward to the Eart! h’s surface. Thus greenhouse gases trap heat within the surface-troposphere system. This is called the greenhouse effect.
Shaun Rapkowicz: The only documented link that has ever been tested through the scientific method is that the sun evaporates water vapor from oceans, lakes, rovers and ponds. This is known as humidity and the world always has between 1% and 4% of this water vapor in the air. This the only greenhouse gas retains the days heat from the sun to keep the nights from cooling down through clouds or just the humidity itself.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HumidityBecause humidity and clouds keep nights from cooling off as they would if these factors were not there it can contribute to compounded warming from day to day as the heat index builds until a cold front cools the air enough below the dew point for the moisture to condense and rain out of the air. This is how the greenhouse effect and the water cycle it is based on function scientifically.http://en.! wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_cycleThere are also some political pogroms such as AGW that distort truth and science for political advantage however and if your teacher is a left wing radical environmentalist the scientific explanation will get you an F instead of the A you would get from a teacher who uses the scientific method. So understanding your teachers political views can be central to good grades!....Show more
Wilbert Shellgren: it destroys ozone (three oxygen particle) which protects our earth from the sun's radiation (not heat) which then causes the warming of the earth. (the warming doesnt happen until the radiation hit the earth first)
Freeman Rutkin: You have to dabble with external and internal forcing. There's not a clear cut definition of which offsets the other. But for the most part anything including (short term) anthropogenic forcing has a role. But it's nothing that can be annotated with proof, just modeling.
Fermin Tara: To get an accurate! answer for your homework assignments, I'd recommend asking over at www! .ecohuddle.org instead (Although this time Dawei has the right answer). Too many people here are out to tell the world their conspiracy theories. Don't listen to them. Global warming is most almost certainly real, man-made and a threat to us.If you were ill would you trust a fellow blogger, a wingnut on the internet or someone who studied medicine for many years? If one maverick doctor disagrees with the consensus would you trust your life to them or the majority opinion? Global warming is highly complex, and it takes a while to fully understand what it is, why it's happening and why it's a threat. This is a potential minefield to anyone who's not an expert on the subject. To illustrate the point try this: Google geocentric theory (the idea that the sun goes round the earth) and you'll find arguments that you won't be able to counter without resorting to some form of "But everyone knows most scientists say otherwise!"It's understandable that people want to come to their own! conclusions, but by far the best way to start doing that is to look not so much at what's being said, but at WHO is saying it. These are just some of the most significant people warning us of the global warming threat:First, the scientists:The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 2500+ scientific expert reviewers, 800+ contributing authors and 450+ lead authors from 130+ counties, working more than 6 years to review thousands of peer-reviewed papers. They published their first report on climate change in 1990 and have published an updated one every 5 years since thenThe National Scientific Academies of the following countries issued this statement in support of the IPCC:"The work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) represents the consensus of the international scientific community on climate change science. We recognise IPCC as the world's most reliable source of information on climate change and its causes, and we endorse its method of ach! ieving this consensus. Despite increasing consensus on the science unde! rpinning predictions of global climate change, doubts have been expressed recently about the need to mitigate the risks posed by global climate change. We do not consider such doubts justified."The National Academy of Sciences (US), (founded in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln, 1 in 10 of its members is a nobel prize winner!)American Association for the Advancement of Science (around since before the US Civil War. It's the largest scientific society in the world, with 144,000 members!)Royal Society (United Kingdom),Chinese Academy of Sciences,Science Council of Japan,Russian Academy of Sciences,Academia Brasiliera de Ciências (Brazil),Royal Society of Canada,Académie des Sciences (France),Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina (Germany),Indian National Science Academy,Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Italy),Australian Academy of Sciences,Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and the Arts,Caribbean Academy of Sciences,Indonesian Academy of Sciences,Royal Irish Academ! y,Academy of Sciences Malaysia,Academy Council of the Royal Society of New Zealand,Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.See the full statement here: http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.asp?id=1361...Government sources:In 2008 (i.e. still during the George W. Bush era), all 16 US intelligence agencies (who aren't normally known for being green), including the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency jointly produced a report known as the National Intelligence Assessment. The report warned of a wide of a wide range of national security threats if global warming isn't properly addressed.The Pentagon, in 2003 (i.e. also in the George W. Bush era) released a study which warned: "There is substantial evidence to indicate that significant global warming will occur during the 21st century. ...With inadequate preparation, the result could be a significant drop in the human carrying capacity of the Earth’s environment" http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2004/feb/22/...Governments f! rom all around the world are meeting in Copenhagen to discuss what acti! on to take against climate change.John McCain promised to take action against climate change http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/04spr/mccain1.asp?r=n (again, this would suggest that it's NOT in fact a liberal plot)Also in Britain where I live, all the major political parties, including the conservative party agree that global warming is man-made and a threat.China has declared that it will take action on climate change http://climateprogress.org/2009/08/13/china-signal... and has recently closed coal power plants with a total of 7,467 generating units.The president of the Maldives made the following remarkable short speech: http://vimeo.com/3661273Corporations:One would have thought that big corporations would be the last people to accept that global warming is real, given that many of them, particularly oil companies, may stand to lose out of consumption of their products is necessarily reduced:Exxonmobil is an oil giant, and the largest company in the world. For a long time they! have funded those who deny global warming http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/global-war... However, in 2007 they finally stated that global warming is a serious risk and must be addressed by governments.80 global corporations including Shell, BP, Duke Energy, Michelin and British Airways wrote a document to G8 leaders calling for stronger action against climate change.Wanna see even more sources? The list just goes on and on! Click the following link:http://logicalscience.com/consensus/consensus.htm#...____________________So who are the skeptics?At this date, there is only 1 professional scientific organization which does not concur that the science clearly points to man-made global warming being a serious threat. That's the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, who state that the globe is warming but that their membership is divided on the degree of human influence. However, this is not all that surprising when you consider that they may feel that their jobs! will be threated by action taken against to prevent global warming.The! Oregon Petition/petition project etc:An online petition which anyone can sign. The number of signers is now up to 31,000, although you may hear it quoted as a lower number if someone isn't up to date. To sign you're supposed to hold a science degree, although it can be in ANY area of science, the names are not disclosed and nobody actually checks to see if the signers really do have degrees. http://www.petitionproject.orgA compiled list of 400 scientists against global warming:Amazingly, some people on this list are counted multiple times, and many are not scientists but engineers, inventors, economists etc.A few think tanks and advocacy organizations (i.e. people with agendas to push, NOT scientists!):e.g. The Heartland Institute, The Marshall Institute, The Competitive Enterprise Institute...A small number of oft-quoted individual scientists.Robert M. Carter, Richard Lindzen, S. Fred Singer, Roy Spencer etc.Most of these skeptics are qualified in fields other than CLIMAT! E science, which is the relevant field.A slew of journalists, writers, bloggers and documentary makers who present different versions of events, where global warming is portrayed as shambles/conspiricy/liberal plot. They are pretty successful at convincing people, because your average member of the public doesn't know any better.__________________It's easy to think that you've found a serious hole in the global warming argument, when in fact you simply haven't properly understood it. In particular, if you go searching for holes in the argument you will surely think you've found some. However, look deeper and there are solid answers to every single one of those holes. To assume instead that ALL these scientists are lying or incompetant is paranoid to say the least! If you're curious about how certain parts of the picture add up, this website does a good job of answering the most popular skeptical concerns:http://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php...Show more
Leif An! dreason: Global warming is still a threat. Global dimming may be slowi! ng GW slightly, but not enough to counteract ever-increasing levels of CO2.
Scot Sepulbeda: Great question for awareness. It is a fact that global warming would be far worse if it were not for global dimming, but pollution is not a good trade off. It also seems that we may be entering a period of cooling off for the next 20 or 30 years, but the way I look at it, God is giving us 20 to 30 years to do something about it. Wind and solar power are not the answer. The wind doesn't always blow, and the sun doesn't always shine. We must have enough power for peak demands on these days. Nuclear power is the only answer.Democrats, environmentalists, and liberals have blocked all new nuclear power plants over the last 30 years. Jimmy Carter created the Department of Energy which instead of making us energy independent they have actually destroyed our ability to be energy independent. Excellent article on the DOE at this site....Show more
Jacques Vaquera: something like la! wn mowers or something else funny just dont say drought or other thing like that, that are that serious
Mitzie Clough: All 4 agencies that track the earth's temp say the earth is cooling.(2009)http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197...NASA says earth warming due to Sun.(2009)http://www.dailytech.com/NASA+Study+Acknowledges+S...
