Warning: This may be disturbing to the youth and/or self-righteous

[Stellaris]

We are fortunate to live in a world where we all have in our desktop systems the processing power of what would have been a supercomputer not so long ago.  So if you doubt that human CO2 emissions are warming the planet, or if you doubt that this will have drastic long term effects on the climate, please download and run NASA's climate model software for yourself, play with the inputs, outputs and baseline assumptions, and understand for yourself the various forces at play, the timescales they operate over, and the impact they have.

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/modelii/  Columbia university has a more user friendly version at http://edgcm.columbia.edu/software2/edgcm-climate-modeling/

If you think NASA faked the moon landings and are faking this too, then I can't help you.

[doright]

The earth's climate changes naturally. It's been this way for millions of years. It heats up and it cools down. To think man has anything to do with it is a galactic sized ego talking.

More of a planet sprawling ego thinking man's massive output won't effect the earth's climate. Yes earth's climate changes naturally, and dramatically throughout it's 4.5 billion year history. Tiny microbes causing the most dramatic change of all pumping the atmosphere full of oxygen one molecule at a time. But the problem isn't the earth. The problem is that humans have to live in earth's climate. Climate change has a long history of natural occurrence, so have extinction events due to climate change. You may think that the human brain will make us immune to extinction, but what about the plants and animals we need to eat to fuel that brain. What about the fresh water needed to cool and keep it working.

[Zacherof]

Trash is a huge problem
we should dump it into a vollcano

[DubiousKB]

Volcano's spew more C02 and sun blocking ash into the atmosphere than all vehicles/factories on the earth combined.... Significant tectonic plate movement could drastically change the planet in a short amount of time and have long lasting effects. (climate change)....

Now, saying humans are not impacting our environment is silly, but at the same token, saying we are the end all be all of climate change is a joke! Anyone notice that the politically correct term has changes from global warming to "climate change"?

WE ARE JUST ALONG FOR THE RIDE! This planet can purge itself of the human infection fairly easily... Humans need to stop projecting onto our environment and crying the "sky is falling!" when we don't like what we see.

I may not be that old but I still remember in the 80's scientists were convinced that we were heading for the next ice age.... Guess that didn't happen....



 

[guncrasher]

Let's see...10,000 years ago most of the northern hemisphere was covered in ice. It's been warming ever since. What caused that? Caveman farts?

Over the last 600 million years, there have been at least five global extinctions, nearly wiping out every living thing on the planet. What caused that? Can't blame the dinosaurs or the fish (or man).

The earth's climate changes naturally. It's been this way for millions of years. It heats up and it cools down. To think man has anything to do with it is a galactic sized ego talking.

when I first moved to los angeles in 1980, there were days during the summer when it was hard to see from one of the park to the other.  and this is a small park next to our high school.  even in the football field you could see the smog from one end to the other.  PE was cancelled many days because we couldnt run outside for more than a couple of minutes.

I remember my first winter after that hot summer when one day I was walking to school and happened to look north and was amazed that we had mountains just a few miles away.  mountains were probably about 20 -25 miles away and reached what 10 or 12k?

I had moved from a small city where smog was seen when the buses drove by and that was about it.  not sure what is causing the global warming, but I am pretty sure cars, factories, airplanes, forest fires... things like that have nothing to do with it.  yeah it's the cow's belching.  so I say save the planet, let's get rid of all the ex-wives.


semp

[NatCigg]

what about the plants and animals we need to eat to fuel that brain. What about the fresh water needed to cool and keep it working.

CO2 is essential for life.  When photosynthesis really gets going it is most likely limited because of a lack of CO2.  Some plants (C4) have evolved to cope with the low concentration of CO2 in the air.  The more CO2 that is in the air the more it will be consumed in the carbon cycle.  In turn producing more O2.  This, the same process of "polluting" our air with the toxin oxygen that has been going on long before Al Gore.  

Stopping pollution is a good thing.  We need to leave this world the same if not better for those that come after us.  But we do not need some book learned dream believer telling us how to live our lives because his daddy never taught him how to throw a curve ball and is now emotionally attached to a seemingly endangered dolphin that in reality wants nothing more than to eat his Crest flavored tongue for a snack.

 

[Stellaris]

Water is essential for life, but you can still drown in it.

Run the software, test its assumptions,  and your own, .   I did.  I learned a lot.   

[Ardy123]

Even if Lu's findings can't be confirmed, CFCs are known to cause environmental damage and break down ozone molecules weakening our atmosphere. The net effect is that less CFCs will be pumped into the air (hopefully), which we can only benefit from.

[NatCigg]

Water is essential for life, but you can still drown in it.

Run the software, test its assumptions,  and your own, .   I did.  I learned a lot.   

So, what does the simulator output? Is the world going to end? 

Does the software consider things that are not known?  Like, whats this kid doing on my front porch?   Or, I think id like to put in some shrubbery? And, where did all these bugs come from?
Then, OMG did you see that?

[mthrockmor]

Dr James Hansen has admitted that there has been no global warming for the past 16-years.

Think about this. For all of the science back and forth; the 'hockey stick' computer models; the massive investments in green energy that was never sufficient; etc, etc, etc. In the end, no global warming. In fact, this was even noted in the now infamous email-gate exposing communications between top 'global warming scientists.' This is why we no longer talk about 'man made global warming' but instead 'climate change.'

In any case...the debate continues.

[cpxxx]

We are fortunate to live in a world where we all have in our desktop systems the processing power of what would have been a supercomputer not so long ago.  So if you doubt that human CO2 emissions are warming the planet, or if you doubt that this will have drastic long term effects on the climate, please download and run NASA's climate model software for yourself, play with the inputs, outputs and baseline assumptions, and understand for yourself the various forces at play, the timescales they operate over, and the impact they have.

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/modelii/  Columbia university has a more user friendly version at http://edgcm.columbia.edu/software2/edgcm-climate-modeling/

If you think NASA faked the moon landings and are faking this too, then I can't help you.

This is a classic excuse for global warming. I sat up all night to watch Neil Armstrong to step out of the Eagle. That was not faked. Neither is the idea of faked human Co2 emissions. It isn't faked. It's mistaken. That's the difference. The reality is that the world's climate has not changed according to the predictions of the warmist's since 1998. That reality cannot be escaped. The Earth's climate is not changing thanks to human actions. No amount of theory can change that. The real world proves otherwise

[guncrasher]

This is a classic excuse for global warming. I sat up all night to watch Neil Armstrong to step out of the Eagle. That was not faked. Neither is the idea of faked human Co2 emissions. It isn't faked. It's mistaken. That's the difference. The reality is that the world's climate has not changed according to the predictions of the warmist's since 1998. That reality cannot be escaped. The Earth's climate is not changing thanks to human actions. No amount of theory can change that. The real world proves otherwise

with the amount of pollution we have sent up into the atmosphere in the past 150 years, it is not stupid to think that it wont affect the world.  perhaps we may not see it in our lives but if we keep doing the same for another 100 years they may not be much world left.

we are destroying the forests, polluting our air and the rivers.  it doesnt take a brain to realize that.

global warming is not gonna happen over night.  heck it may never happen at all, but are we really willing to take a gamble that it may not?  when I go to work there's a permanent haze over the city the whole summer, unless it rains or it gets windy I cant see the mountains and they're only about 15 miles from where I live.  there's days when the sun rise is covered by what I hope is clouds but to be honest sometimes I am not so sure.  imagine you live in a city where the sky is gray 1/2 the day.


semp


semp

[mthrockmor]

Just this morning I read an editorial written by a geologist from Australia by the name of Dr Ian Rutherford Plimer, University of Adelaide. He notes that the recent volcanic eruption on Iceland released enough CO2 into the atmosphere to negate every green effort on the face of the Earth over the past 5-years. He also notes that the year long eruption of the volcano in the Phillippines, which lasted roughly a year, released more CO2 into the atmosphere than all actions of man combined throughout world history.

Puts it all into perspective.

boo

[zack1234]

People have caused Global warming

[Stellaris]

Try a net search for Ian Rutherford Plimer and see if you get a different perspective.  I did.  His volcano claim is not new, and he gets it by willfully misrepresenting USGS data.  Here he is on Australian TV getting nailed on this exact point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEsygjXunTs

And here's a summary from the UK.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/dec/16/ian-plimer-versus-george-monbiot

A little more searching reveals that he's off by a factor of 135  (that is to say, human CO2 emissions are 135 times global volcano emissions), and is well known for loudly claiming climate change is a myth by using facts and figures he should know are wrong.  The "There is no climate change in the last 25 years" claim is his too, and is also based on misrepresented research.  

Of course, you'll find lots of people saying Ian Plimer is this brilliant maverick (who doesn't accept money from the coal lobby), but here's the thing.  We live in the age of the internet.  Why parrot some talking head you happen to agree with?  You can get the data yourself, DIRECTLY, run the experiment yourself, DIRECTLY - and see where it leads you.

Skepticism is healthy and useful, and the best person to question is yourself.  You'll either prove yourself right, or become right.  It's win-win.