Do you think the Greenhouse affect is man-made or a natural cycle?

by free2beme 22 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  free2beme

  I hear a lot about the Greenhouse affect, in the news and in environmental movements. I also studied this topic when I was in college and remember seeing a lot of information on how many of these weather changes that are attributed to the Greenhouse affect, have repeated themselves many times throughout history and are expected to do so again. So when I read these topics in the news and see how much Greenpeace and other ultra enviro-terror groups ignore the other side of the story. I have a hard time accepting them supposed "Alarming facts" as being something other then biased. Yet I do think that man does affect the weather patterns, and pollution is not something to be ignored, I just don't buy the whole Greenhouse affect theory, hook line and sinker. I think a lot of what is happening, would have happened with or without man being on this planet.

  So which side do you lean?
• 

  SixofNine

  What do we have to lose by an abundance of caution and a concerted, high-level effort to switch to non or less polluting energy sources?

  People who poo-poo the research on global warming are just.plain.stupid.
• 

  stillajwexelder

  Do you think the Greenhouse affect is man-made or a natural cycle? both
• 

  Snoozy

  
  Man....

  And everyone is waiting for the other guy to fix it.

  Meantime it is getting worse..

  Snoozy...

  Do you think if everyone got on the same side of the earth it would tilt?
• 

  Frog

  The Earths environment has always been in a constant state of change, according to geographic theory the Earths modern atmosphere is probable the fourth general atmosphere of Earths history. However, there is absolutley NO question that human activity is forcing the pace of change to this Earths atmosphere at a rate that is unsustainable & irreversable. The Earth though will continue to exist long after we've gone, just not with life now as we know it.

  The thing with Global Climate Change is that it causes such extreme & irratic weather patterns that are off the charts in terms of past trends. Remember too that we've only been recording temperature averages & extreme weather events since something like 1880, which is a little while after industrialisation processes began. You don't have 95% of the worlds exclusive scientists getting up & screaming for no reason. And likewise 162 industrialised countries signing up to ratify a protocol to reduce emissions. What we have isn't really a "sleeper" situation anymore. Since 1998 extreme weather events & rapid changes in weather cycles have increased exponentially. Not to mention the melting of millions of year old glaciers, permafrost & ice sheets, and the subsequent rise in sea level & sinking of Islands in the Pacific. Being the likely result of a 2.5degreC temperature increase in the peninsula region during the last 50years. Remember too that when the IPCC forecasts a conservative estimate that sea levels will rise at sometime like .50m over this century, it might not sound like much, but we're talking about here is mega mega tonnes of water, considering the Earths land mass is over 70% ocean. Add to all that noticeable migation of plant & animal species to higher altitudes and places they've never before been seen.

  Think about the Earths atmosphere in tangible terms, the Earths resources are finite remember, and is one giant self-contained system. There's no where for excess water to go, or for that matter for the mega tonnes of carbons & pollutants that we pump into the atmosphere that are causing what scientists are calling a Greenhouse Effect. Pure logic alone in this regard must dictate that human activity is having a profound effect on earths living systems.

  I suggest doing some extra reading around the subject might help:

  http://unfccc.int/2860.php

  http://www.acfonline.org.au/
• 

  Wild_Thing

  The "greenhouse effect" is naturally occuring. We would actually die if we didn't have it. What it means is that the gases in our atmosphere trap some of the heat from the Sun and the rest escapes back into space. If this didn't happen, we would be warm during the day, and freeze to death at night because all of the heat would have escaped.

  I do think humans have altered the greenhouse effect to function in a way that is not natural. Because we are unnaturally putting large amounts of gases into the atmosphere (like CO2), it in increasing the amount of heat that is being trapped. That is what is causing global warming, and it is definitely a man-made problem. Are there other natural factors that might contribute? Of course! But, it is us that is altering the ratio of gases in the atmosphere and causing most of the problem.

  And that is your science lessong for today! :)
• 

  FreeWilly

  There sure is a lot of hype around "Global Warming". That, and some surprising oddities in the data make me suspicious.
• 

  Leolaia

  I believe it's BOTH. Our effect is on a climate that has its own processes that our influence plays into. It's a complex phenomenon that has multiple causes and interrelated factors, and human activity clearly impacts it and skews it in a direction that it would not have had if we did not exist. The problem is sorting out our historic increase of emissions in the past century with natural cycles, and for the most part the evidence is weighty that we have contributed to the warming trend. That said, there have been warming and cooling trends since the end of the last Ice Age that are no less than what has been occurring recently (in fact, some spikes between 5-10 thousand years ago have been greater). But when it comes to policy, it is always best to err on the side of caution and so the failure of our government and culture to mobilize to reduce consumption of fossil fuels is a great ecological problem. We just don't know how much worse things will get if things continue on their course.

  There is some very interesting palaeoclimatological work published last year in Scientific American that suggests that human-induced global warming has been going on for many thousands of years thorough the global spread of agriculture. In fact, if it hadn't been for such environmental impact, the past history of glaciation cycles suggests that we would have already been in the next Ice Age by now. This theory, if true, is one illustration of the complex nature of climate and that human environmental impact is not always negative (from our own point of view). What is not known is what chain-effect could occur if the warming trend continues, there are many eventualities which could be catastrophic, and other ones that are not so catastrophic but are economically devastating.

  (Of course, there are other ecological issues in the world today that also demand attention)
• 

  SWALKER

  I think that the next few years will tell us a lot of things. If we continue to have very strong hurricanes that cause tremendous devastation and we continue to see the polar ice caps melt at an alarming rate, I think we should consider moving to higher ground and building a huge ark. Only those that are members of JWD will be allowed on board. We'll have to think about which animals we'd really like to preserve as there won't be room for every species.....

  Swalker (Dogs are top priority in my book!)
• 

  upside/down

  Isn't man a natural part of the ecosystem?... then whatever he does (however foolish appearing) is a natural thing to do...or am I missing something? Of course...that doesn't mean I am advocating pollution...so all you tree huggin granola crunching whack jobs just give it a rest.

  Without getting into detail..as I and others have done in the past... Just one large volcano spews out "naturally" more green house gases than over 10,000 years of auto pollution... and somehow... the Earth survives.

  The good news is....you've only got about 80 or so years to worry about it.

  u/d(of the cynic class)