Are you afraid of the global warming? What can we do to prevent that?

Let's make it clear...global warming is a natural phenomenon that has been going on in cycles for hundreds of thousands of years. What makes this latest warming cycle so disturbing is the rate and intensity of the warming. To quote Al Gore, If the current trend holds, this cycle will be "off the charts." [See source.]

A recent news report claims that the Earth will be 2 degrees warmer on average by 2050. At which time, we can begin to see extinction of species that cannot adapt to the new weather patterns.

According to the newscast, it's already too late to stop the additional two degrees. Even if we stopped emitting CO2 today, the best we could hope for is that the warming would level off at 2 degrees warmer in 2050.

The really frightening part about the broadcast is that, if we don't stop putting pollutants into the air, they predict the warming will continue on into 3 or 4 degree higher; and the Earth has never been that warm with life on it. Thus, no one really knows what will happen then because there is no precedence.

The U.S., with 300,000,000 citizens, pumps about 25% of the pollutants into the air. China, with its one billion citizens, is rapdly becoming a producing and consuming nation like the U.S. It does not take a rocket scientist to imagine how much pollution China will produce once it becomes an industrial nation like the U.S....only much bigger.

To answer your questions directly. Yes I am concerned about global warming. But I am afraid we cannot prevent it, even if we started today to drastictly cut back on putting polluting effluents into the air. The best we can hope for is to keep the global warming from going into the 3 to 4 degrees level where no one knows for sure what will happen, but it can't be good.

PS: The previous answerer is right about global warming going on for 18,000 years now...but that's only the latest cycle. Empirical evidence (CO2 concentrations in Antarctic ice) shows that global warming cycles (warm-cold-warm-cold etc) have been happening for hundreds of thousands of years. Most of them occured before mankind evolved, and became populous and a major contributor of CO2 and other stuff into the atmosphere. [See source.]

The Earth has been warming for 18,000 years. Most of this warming has been due to the natural interglacial cycle. Human activity has contributed to the natural warming for about 8,000 years, with a sharp upturn over the last two centuries. If all humans suddenly disappeared from the face of the Earth, global warming would continue for many centuries. We cannot prevent global warming, but we can work now to mitigate the effects of human activity.

Ofcourse, I am afraid of Global Warming. If Global Warming continous then our Earth will become too hot to be inhabited by humans. To prevent global warming we have to decrease to emmision of CFC, Carbon-di-oxide, and other green house gases. These are emitted by industries, and other electronic equipments like ACs and refrigirators etc... So, we have to find new technology to prevent emmision of such gases from the electronic equipments. We can also prevent it by planting more trees.

I'm not afraid of something I don't have much control over. I'm too insignificant in this world to do anything about it myself. It's on such a broader scale where it needs to be fixed. These major corporations don't care about anything but the almighty dollar, and that overrides the effect that they specifically have on global warming.

you will die way before the earth gets inhabited by humans due to global warming so, why should we care. just relax. it's gud question. i need to think about it.

Stop driving and using electricity - or buying things which are manufactured and shipped.

Deep Thought's answer is right on the money!!!!!

stop burning fossil fuels.