Global warming?

[TallahasseeGrannie]

It is close to 70 in NYC today and I've been doing some reading on global warming. Now, keep in mind, I'm basically a humanities person. This stuff is alien to me.

The one argument against the existence of global warming that I am intrigued by (and kind of understand) is the concept that the world was once a very cold place during the ice age, and we are still moving out of it, hence the gradual warming.

Is there anyone who understands this that can tell me in simple terms why this is not a good theory?

Please let's not get into a flame war. I'm not saying global warming doesn't exist, I am asking for information.

[mom cat]

1. This link should help you a lot.

http://www.climateark.org/

[DrDebug]

2. Because the last decades have been a significantly warmer

It is unknown whether there is a slight natural increase in temperature or a slight decrease, but based on the data gathered so far there is a very significant increase which is higher than one could assume from normal causes.



Source: http://www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org/

So there has always been a natural variation, but during the 20th century (except during WWII which is important to mention as well since that was a period of global war) there is a huge increase unlike any seen in the past two millenia. The only problem is of course the detail of measurements especially for the old data, however it still doesn't make sense if it was a natural fluctuation.

[rodeodance]

3. yes, i have heard lots of this 'shape spike' in temps--

[Deja Q]

5. So, for 1900+ years people had been keeping track?!!

Gee, my state's weather stations didn't start keeping track until about 1900. And while temperature gauges had been devised long before, who would keep records?

While our increase in automobile usage, et al, has likely contributed to a warming problem, I would instantly question any chart containing data prior to 1800. Heck, even ther Farenheit scale wasn't even proposed until 1724; Centigrade (Celcius) in 1742...


I am inclined to believe this map, and in greenhouses devised to raise plants, we've seen the effect...

[DrDebug]

7. It's not a complete track, but there have been measurements for centuries

And you have other data like ice measurements. The point is that there is no indication of such a dramatic increase in the past as we are seeing in the last decades.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

8. I haven't read the links that were posted

but I do wonder how they "know" what the temps were then. Is there a way to, for example, look at icebergs the way you might get history from rock?

[DrDebug]

9. Yes ice core measurements have been used a lot

And it can give a reliable year measurement with a variation of about 1 Kelvin, so the only problem is that it is a local measurement.

Also there have been measurements for centuries and it was logged from 1700 onwards which was before the Celsius scale was established.

So the main problem is the you do not have a global measurement, but a set of local measurements.

[pretzel4gore]

4. how much is 6 billion metric tonnes?

how deep is 12 miles. In the May '92 Harpers Mag, an article describes the simple facts as known then: each year, 6 billion metric tonnes of carbon are pumped into earth's '12 mile thick atmosphere'(where air exists freely) and besides carbon such chems as freon and so on....1992 was 13 years ago, so extrapolating that's 78 billion tonnes of carbon...how much is 78 billion? What's sort of certain is that putting such quantities (a small plane burns approx. one pound of fuel to achieve 2500 ft altitude) of foreign substances in the air cannot be a good thing, regardless of whether it's just acceptably bad. 200 years ago, london england was so prone to smog the authorities began limiting the burning of wood or coal, and fining anyone who created smoke-eventually, this restored the city's air quality a bit; the point being that freepers always say no need of regulation when you find constant gov regulation concerning public spaces probably going back to ancient greece, china, mexico and rome etc....

[OneBlueSky]

6. common sense tells me that you simply can't pump the amount . . .

of crap into the atmosphere that humans do and not have a significant impact . . .