While global warming is still frequently framed as a "debate," the numbers don't give us much to argue about. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal" and blames it on human activities. And they haven't rushed to conclusions.
It took 600 authors from 40 countries 6 years to produce hundreds of pages, which in turn were scanned by 600 reviewers... The bottom line is that "there's an irrefutable consensus that [global warming] is real," says geoscientist Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton University in New Jersey. And "there's an irrefutable consensus that it will get worse" if greenhouse emissions are not reined in.
The IPCC is supposed to release a report on the social and economic impacts of the expected climate change in a few months. I imagine it's going to read like an apocalyptic sci-fi novel.
link via 3quarksdaily
I don't see the debate with global warming. The sea levels are rising. The climate is increasing. Polar bears and other wildlife are dying. The big debate here is, "What are we going to do about it?"
-loree
What exactly are you trying to say. I'm a huge "stop global warming person", "treehugger" call em whatever but I do have proof we are trapping gases that raise the temperature and is creating stability problems around the world.
MYTH:The science of global warming is too uncertain to act on.
FACT:There is no debate among scientists about the basic facts of global warming.The most respected scientific organizations have stated unequivocally that global warming is happening, and people are causing it by burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences, which in 2005 the White House called "the gold standard of objective scientific assessment," issued a joint statement with 10 other National Academies of Science saying "the scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action. It is vital that all nations identify cost-effective steps that they can take now, to contribute to substantial and long-term reduction in net global greenhouse gas emissions." (Joint Statement of Science Academies: Global Response to Climate Change [PDF], 2005)
The only debate in the science community about global warming is about how much and how fast warming will continue as a result of heat-trapping emissions. In the case of global warming, scientists have given a clear warning, and we have more than enough facts to act on.Industry took off in the mid-1700s, and people started emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases. The fossil fuels we burn to run our cars, trucks, factories, planes and power plants add to the natural supply of greenhouse gases. The gases—which can stay in the atmosphere for at least fifty years—are building up beyond the Earth's capacity to remove the gases and, in effect, creating an extra-thick heat blanket around the Earth.
The result is that the globe has heated up by about one degree Fahrenheit over the past century—and it has heated up more intensely over the past two decades
MYTH:We can adapt to climate change—civilization has survived droughts and ice ages before.
FACT:Individual civilizations have collapsed from dramatic climatic shifts.Although humans as a whole have survived the vagaries of drought, ice ages and more, not every society has. What's more, unless we limit the amount of heat-trapping gases we are putting into the atmosphere, we will face a warming trend unseen since human civilization began 10,000 years ago. (IPCC 2001)
The consequences of continued warming at current rates are likely to be dire. Many densely populated areas, such as low-lying coastal regions, are highly vulnerable to climate shifts. A middle-of-the-range projection is that the homes of 13 to 88 million people around the world would be flooded by the sea each year in the 2080s. Poorer countries and small island nations will have the hardest time adapting. (McLean et al. 2001) In what appears to be the first forced move resulting from climate change, 100 residents of Tegua island in the Pacific Ocean were evacuated by the government because rising sea levels were flooding their island. Some 2,000 other islanders plan a similar move to escape rising waters.
Scarcity of water and food could lead to major conflicts with broad ripple effects throughout the globe. Even if people find a way to adapt, the wildlife and plants on which we depend may be unable to adapt to rapid climate change. While the world itself will not end, the world as we know it may disappear.
I got most of my research from 2 reliable sources. . .
www.fightglobalwarming.com & www.epa.gov/climatechange/
Yeh just read a little on this and it will definately change ur perception. I feel if you did some more research before you posted this and find some promising sites you would have written this a little different!
I'm sorry I wasn't clear. I am aware of the huge body of research supporting current climate change and humanity's role in it. I am often frustrated when it is framed as a debate in the news or a controversial idea. I am worried that if we don't start acting more on the information scientists are providing us, we could face huge problems.
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Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
-Voltaire
Global Warming : It is to late for Global Warming .this is the thing of the pass .Governments will not admit that it has everything to do with shifting of the earths Poles. Why because they see that the earth is turning so slow that the people do not need to know .because there is nothing that the Government can do about it. Why panic the people .people will go crazy for nothing and that they would de so much unrest. so why cause a problem. Please do not judge these words just look and lesson to the news and you will here of so many things going wrong today that it is not funny. I live way up in the north Canada North west territories .and the Lord has let me know that there shell come a time very soon that there will be no more winters .we are in November 23 I think, and we have no yet receive our cold weather like we use to .we have not even had - 20 yet and this is not normal. we should have been in - 20 over a month ago. And please note this, we had our winter here end two week earlier this year then normal .so you tell me that the Earth is not shifting . The Lord also let me know that the Earth began its slow turning in 1996. Amen