Is global warming an issue? If so what information can you back up your claim.?

Yes, global warming is an issue. There is a lot of information to support the claim that burning fossil fuels is warming the planet:

1. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing. This has been verified by direct measurement over the last 50 years (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:CO2_data_mlo.pn... and by various other means, including measureing the air in bubbles trapped in ice, to go back several tens of thousands of years (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Carbon_Dioxide_... All studies agree that carbon dioxide has increased since the industrial revolution, and most scientists belive that it is now at its highest level in around 20 million years.

2. Carbon dioxide does trap heat. This is something you can verify with experiments--an advanced high school or college undergrad lab should be able to do it. I'm not aware of anyone who argues against this.

3. The planet is getting warmer. Measuring the average temperature of the earth is suprisingly hard, but many different data sets, including weather records and satellite data agree that temperatures have been steadily going up for the last 120+ years. (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globtemp.html)... There is also lots of secconary evidence that things are getting warmer: glaciers are retreating, permafrost is melting, and species are being spotted further north than they had been.

4. The measured temp. changes match the expected 'fingerprint' of CO2 based climate change--for example, winter and night temps. have gone up more than summer and day temps, the daily lows have increased more than the daily highs, etc.

There is really a huge amount of scientific info behind climate change--there are some people who are going to tell you that it's an open controversy, or that it's some kind of wierd conspiracy by evil leftists. I hate to be one-sided, but those things aren't really true, and very few people outside of the American right wing still try to dispute that human activity is warming the planet. On the other hand, what the effects of climate change will be and how much it will cost to slow it down are very much up for debate.

I don't think there is anything we can do about it even if it is happening.

It is easy to understand why nighttime and winter temperatures have gone up. Cities emit a lot of water vapor and heat and weather stations that measure the temperature are picking that up. Also, cities are typically concrete rather than green foliage, another factor that contributes to nighttime infrared radiation (warming at night). This is called the 'urban heat island' effect.

Surface temperature data is concentrated in places that have denser populations (which makes statistical significance and extrapolation to other areas problematic). Satellite data is much more useful to confirm or deny any warming (even balloon data is better than surface data).

Look at the EPA's temperature record and see if you can see a convincing warming trend in the satellite data.

http://yosemite.epa.gov/OAR/globalwarming.nsf/cont...

We should keep collecting satellite data and look at that.

A lot of the evidence of global warming occurring isn't necessarily because of manmade causes. Carbon dioxide isn't just produced by fossil fuel burining, it is also emitted in volcanoes. Methane is emitted by swamps in Russia (rotting material). Water vapor is given off by just about everything.

Ice melting is NORMAL for a long-term cyclic climate that has left an ice age behind. Receding glaciers carved out the US's Great Lakes.

Pollution is a problem for our increasing population with increasing energy needs but I don't think that CO2 is a pollutant.

I do not buy into the global warming ideal. Data is not available for a long enough period of time to conclude that this is a factual problem. Think about it, at times of the Earths history there has been ice ages. I guess that was due to our gaseous emissions as well. We certainly are not helping our environment through polluting the atmosphere but I do not see it as the significant reason for changes in the temperature.

GLOBAL WARMING IS ONE OF THE MEGA THREATS OF THE PLANET EARTH AND IS AN EFFECT OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL MISMANAGEMENT

CARBON MONOXIDE

chief causes for global warming are the destruction of the ozone and excessive carbon production ,because we have so many cars and so much land is being deforrested.

the trees absorb carbon emisions ,which is poison to us and they produce oxygen which we need to breathe.

the sea does as well but this is limited to winter periods how ever if the waters also heat up ,the seas will absorb less than ususal and we create more and more

the trees produce the air that we need to breathe.

deforestation must be stopped before desertification goes out of control and consumes the planet.

other reasons are the burning of rubbish especially tires and plastic,and the exescive use of aerosprays which release gasses

because of the green house effect and the desertification this planet is heating up

Each degree rise in temperature signifies 10% crop loss

DESERTIFICATION

the sahara is growing by 7 kilometres every day.

two major desserts in northern china are growing together making one giant dessert and,causing dust storms so making thousands of people refugeese

the trees evaporate a mist which ,which protects us from the strong rays of the sun .

the planet is drying out at an alarming rate.

in the days of the dinasaurs this planet was under an aquiferus manta ,a mist that covered the entire earth ,and there were no desserts .

Count how many there are today,and all of them are as a result of mans actions.

the sahara used to be forrests

arabia ,irak ,iran used to be fertile lands in biblical times

Ghengas Kahn burned all the forrests here and filled the well with water and so turning vast lands into dessert.

Bad agricultural practises is turning vast teritories into desserts ,because of over grazing and the exessive pumping of carbon aquifiers ,the surface aquifiers already having been depleted.

And the use of fertilisers and heavy machinery that compacts the ground which raises the salt in the soil.

Modern agriculture today is doing the same as ghengas kahn but in much bigger territories.

it is a vicious circle of chain effects

more and more CO2,,and less and less factors that obsorb

and hotter and hotter.

AND AS A RESULT WE HAVE LESS AND LESS DRINKABLE WATER

WATERSHORTAGE

each year 70 million more people are consuming water but this is ,but a small part of what agriculture uses.

so our consumption of water is ever increasing and our drinkable water supply is shrinking because of polution ,and the production of potable water is less all the time because of deforestation.

in Tasmania one can already exchange one litre of water for 2 litres of petrol.

it is predicted that the wars of the future will be for water.

the water we got in most populated places must be treated or purified before it is acceptable for human consumption.

in Portugal and soutern Spain ,as in many places, wine is cheaper than water.Which would explain the many drunk people there

we are living in a bubble economy and when the bubble bursts

food prices will sky rocket,and so will the price of water.

the wars of the future will be for water

RISING SEAS

The northpole is melting ,and we will know it without ice in our life times.

this does not affect the sea level because it is ice that is already in the water.

Green land and the south pole ,which apperantly has a hole in the ozone the size of the usa,are another matter.

this is ice above the sea ,on the land, and melted water will return to the sea .and so duely affect sea levels.the sea has been rising for a long time.

in portugal remains of Roman villas have been discovered 3/4 of a mile in the sea,and in one town the locals say that the sea is eating their town ,in recent years the Dona Philipa golf cours has lost the 16th and 17th hole which have fallen of the cliffs unto the beach.

in California and Florida rising seas have flooded arable land that has been lost

so far only a few millions acres in total globaly ,but this will speed up with the increasing global warming.

And in Antartica arms of ice that even had names because the were so permanent have broken of into the sea.

if you want to help the planet ,plant a tree every week ,if everyone on the planet did we we would be able to reverse the destructive processes

Yes, the cause of it is debatable at best however.

The left of the argument say it is a result of a build-up of greenhouse gasses caused by over-polution of cars.

The opposition says that the cause cannot be proven and that the slow heating of earth may just be a cycle that happens every few thousand years.

While i can say that the massive amount of vehicles on the raod has a severe detrimental effect on earth it may not be what is causing global warming.

Yes the earth is warming up, but that is the cause of living on a dynamic planet. one volcano can put out more carbon dioxide, the the entire human race has during our entire existence. a new automobile in la has cleaner air coming out than going in. we are just getting over an ice age, and we could get another one. not much we can do.

the truth in the debate lies somewhere in the middle, yes we can make an impact, but not that big.

No...it's just a bunch of BS. Just more enviro-commie mumbo-jumbo trying to create a enviromental job for themselves.

Case in point...Al Gore. "I invented the internet" and he's all about this global warming thing. Need I say more?

Definitely, loss of species, melting polar ice caps, bleaching of the coral reefs.

YES, THE ICE CAPS ARE MELTING, THERE ARE JUST SO MANY

it is because there is a higher risk of skin cancer.