Global warming. Man-made or not?

[Darwinian]

Whilst it is true that humans are dumping huge amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere it is also true that CO2 is not a particularly good greenhouse gas.

Other factors must also be considered such as the Earth rotation about its axis, sun spots, variations in the solar winds which affect cloud formation on the Earth thus affecting the amount of sunlight actually reaching the planet.

If rising CO2 is responsible for a warming of our climate why do the ice sheet records show just the opposite?

I must admit that I am a bit out of date regarding the current scientific thinking on this but it always amuses me the way some people follow this theory with almost religious fervour and those who dare to descent are treated like holocaust deniers.

[solidsquid]

It seems to be a combination of factors. The earth goes through cycles which is obvious from the comparison of many records especially ice-core data which allows an extrapolation back approximately 600,000 years. However, our contribution has made the warming trend worse than it possibly would be on it's own. So when people ask, "are we solely to blame?" and the answer is "no", many feel that gives them immunity from any type of responsibility - it doesn't. People look for the "is it our fault or not - yes or no" dichotomy and it isn't that simplistic.

[Tiberius]

I think the discussion over whose fault it is is a purely academic one. The known facts are:

1) We do damage the atmosphere, even if turns out to be an insignificant amount.
2) Damaging the atmosphere isn't helping anybody.
3) We can work to reduce the damage we are doing.

Even if we aren't the main cause of global warming, it still affects us, and we should be doing everything we can to thwart it. Sitting around arguing about whether it is our fault or not is ridiculous. The Earth isn't blaming anyone, this isn't a court case. If we can do something about it, lets do it.

[starbucks]

I think the discussion over whose fault it is is a purely academic one. The known facts are:

1) We do damage the atmosphere, even if turns out to be an insignificant amount.
2) Damaging the atmosphere isn't helping anybody.
3) We can work to reduce the damage we are doing.

Even if we aren't the main cause of global warming, it still affects us, and we should be doing everything we can to thwart it. Sitting around arguing about whether it is our fault or not is ridiculous. The Earth isn't blaming anyone, this isn't a court case. If we can do something about it, lets do it.

Good insight!

What irks me are the industries cashing in on getting everybody to go "Green".

No, I don't think we should just trash our planet but there's a thing called "wear and tear". The earth is ultimately going to deteriorate if not undergo some drastic changes with or without us so STOP cashing in on making people feel like they have to buy every FAKE "green" product on the market.

[Bungy]

The main problem is human overpopulation, a secondry problem is co2, we have the technology for battery electric cars and solar power but greed will make sure it will never happen.

[Edwardo Piet]

As George Carlin says...we're not killing the planet. The planet isn't going anywhere. The planet is fine. The PEOPLE are f**ed!

[leo-rcc]

A must see for anyone really interested:

[youtube]52KLGqDSAjo[/youtube]

Is there a way to embed youtube vids on this forum by the way?

[Tiberius]

Surround the video Id with [youtube] tags. I edited it into your post for you.

[leo-rcc]

Thank you.