if there actually is global warming...?

There actually is global warming. It's not a conspiracy, but it's much too late to stop it. The CO2 is in the air and, at the moment, we have no way to get it back in the ground. But that's no reason not to curtail putting more into the air and making things worse than they already are.

Last year quite a few evangelical leaders, fortune 500 executives and oil company men signed a GW initiative. Oil puppet Bush is losing his support base on this and he followed suit in his State of the Union Message last week, saying it was time to address climate change.

Don't listen to the people here still spouting the GW denial nonsense. On the one side we have the entire active peer-reviewed publishing scientific community, IPCC, NASA, NCDC, NOAA, EPA, CEC, UCS, and on and on. And on the other side we have ... ummm .... what was that ... oh yeah, a handful of non-publishing scientists most of whom receive oil money.

"In 1997, the UCS circulated a petition entitled "A Call to Action". The petition called for the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. The petition was signed by 110 Nobel Prize laureates, including 104 Nobel Prize-winning scientists." -- Wikipedia

This was back in 1997. Now, in the words of Dr. Robert Correll, the Chair for the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment study, "The science is unassailable."

I'm putting my money on the Nobel Prize winning scientists. Which side would YOU put your bet on?

Exactly what I have been thinking. If it really is this BAAAD as the UN is saying, then why is there anything we can do about it? in fact, it was actually warmer in the Middle Ages than it is now...and they -didn't- have gas-guzzling SUVs or coal power plants.

But before I continue, let's just state it that global warming is a fact, in the sense that the globe is -warming- up. That cannot be denied. What the debate is really over is if humans have had something to do with it and if there is anything we can do to stop it.

With that defined, I shall continue. A reason the UN is such a staunch supporter of the global warming is because if they can issue emissions caps or stuff like that, they will be able to control people, and by people I mean the US. the UN hasn't been all too favorable of the US in recent days, and this would help them in establishing a one-world government, under the guise of saving the planet. Yes, a little radical, but world war II was -only- 60 years ago, and we're still the same rotten human beings we were back then.

A reason some Democrats are such staunch supporters of global warming is that it will profit them. They always support more taxes, more government, etc. so this would come natural to their way of thinking. If they impose emissions caps and activity bans, etc. they will be able to control us. Taxing us for driving Hummers or coal energy will only give them more of what they want--the money.

Grand events require grand reasons...so all conspiracy theories go. The world is warming! Gasp, maybe humans are destroying the world! Sorry, folks. The earth is simply going through one of its warmer phases. If all those scientists who boldly proclaim the 4-billion-year age of this earth know anything about terrestrial history, they will state that there have been warm and cold periods. Why should the current time period be due to any other reason than cyclical weather patterns?

Perhaps if we REALLY knew what is the root cause of global warming, we could do something about it. Same is true with global cooling, which was the big concern a few years back. Humans may or may not have a measurable impact on the earth's climate. The sun definitely does. The sun goes through phases/cycles that have a huge impact on our climate. The rotational speed of the earth has an effect on the earth's climate. The axis of the rotation has a slight wobble to it, bringing us closer to the sun at semi-regular intervals. Trying to understand the climate of earth and the causes of it's fluctuations is akin to predicting the weather. Only a million times more complex. And we're lucky to get a decent 1 week forecast from our weather people. Do all the GREEN things you can. They are beneficial and make good common sense. But beware of falling into the GLOBAL WARMING PHOBIA that can end up costing a fortune and possibly have no impact whatsoever.

after you've read AL Gore's Inconvenient Truth, the other side of the story is Michael Crichton's State of Fear.......so there's a lot being said on both sides........

one thing we do know is CO2 levels are going up ( whether that produces climate change is the debate)

but if we want to slow down CO2, as the other poster said.......plant trees.Trees absorbed a tremendous amount of CO2.

We can also think about what we buy and where it is made...example, China is NOT subject to the Kyoto Treaty on CO2 emissions and is the largest producer of CO2 and smog in general......there is real doubt that it will be healthy enough for the Olympics in Beijing next year.

So if you REALLY believe the planet is doomed because of CO2..put your money were your mouth and heart is and stop buying stuff made in the Peoples Republic of China.....just look on the back of anything you pick up before you hand over your $...you wouldn't buy something that said " Made by Slave Labor in a Prison Camp", would you?

Reality check- it's here, it's real, and it's dangerous.

If we don't do anything to stop this, the ocean levels will rise by at least 13 feet in the next 100 years. That would swallow up most of New York, California, etc. other coastal areas. The ice caps are melting and polar bears are drowning because they have no place to go to sleep or eat. If you want to help out, stop using products containing chloroflourocarbons ( CFC's ) and try walk just a little bit more. Emissions from cars and other transport are a huge factor in global warming, because these along with CFC's eat away at the ozone layer that protects us from harmful UV rays and excess sunlight. ( It's called the "greenhouse effect" )

IT'S NOT A CONSPIRACY! There is actually proof that it exists. First, Global warming is caused because pollution has made a hole in the ozone layer, and the ozone keeps all of the sun's UV rays out! And now, more sun rays are coming in, warming the earth, and all of the pollution in the atmosphere is preventing it from getting out! So If you look at temperature changes in the last few thousand years, the temperature has been going up STEADILY! All of the ice caps are melting, FAST! The north pole is growing smaller. A short time ago, the biggest ice 'plate' cracked into 2 parts! Polar bears are gonna go extinct! All of this is proof. And it's devastating. It's also destroying us. Take the hurricane Katrina. As it moved to New Orleans, it passed through warm waters (aka global warminged waters) and grew stronger, and it was a calamity! What we have to do is stop polluting, stop using so much CO2, carbon dioxide, petrol, electricity, etc. There is actually a committee for global warming. It's the Kyoto Protocal and they're currently trying to get all the countries to sign a contract that makes them use less CO2. Personally, plant more trees to get rid of some co2, use the least electricity you can, and whereyou can walk, don't take your car. walk or bike but go on a non-polluting thing! If you still don't understand, go to

http://www.asmilan.org/teachers/mamodio/atmosphere...

and click on the ozone button. or just go to http://www.asmilan.org/teachers/mamodio/atmosphere...

I made the site, from trusted sources!

Now the new montra is that CO2 levels are rising.

However ther is no proof to back up this claim.

However if you fallow the money, I guess you could see a conspiracy. But youd have to only look at proovable facts.

Tree-Huggers and liberals hate when you use facts to come to a conclusion though.

there is a global conspiracy, and we are powerless to stop it. once people find out they can make money from scared people, they will take all they can get. on the other hand, if we are headed toward a warming trend, the best we can do is adapt to warmer weather. it is doubtful by true scientists that CO2 is the cause of global warming, but if it is, then we need to plant trees, control human, and livestock populations, and eliminate automobiles, and coal fired powerplants. pretty hard to do.

Sure there's global warming. There has been ever since the ice age ended. There are gasses in the atmosphere that trap the heat of the sun, and the more gasses there are, the more heat is trapped. Warming is also caused by shifts in the earth's orbit and power output from the sun, but let's focus on greenhouse gasses.

Greenhouse gasses, which cause global warming, are mostly comprised of the following:

Water vapor - 95% of all greenhouse gasses

Carbon Dioxide - 3.6%

Methane - 0.36%

Nitrous Oxide - 0.95%

CFC's and other - 0.07%

So, how much of these gasses are caused by humans?

Well, apart from water vapor, about 5.5% of greenhouse gasses are caused by humans (the atmosphere is a very big place). In other words, about 94.5% of the gasses made up of CO2, Methane, CFC's, and Nitrous Oxide occurs naturally.

But these gases (CO2, methane, CFC's etc.) only make up about 5% of all greenhouse gasses. Water vapor makes up the other 95%. And since almost all water vapor occurs naturally (99.999%), HUMANS ONLY CONTRIBUTE about 0.3% of all greenhouse gasses.

So, let's say we establish legislation that cuts our greenhouse gas emissions by 30%. In other words, you'll only be allowed to drive half as much. You have to set your heater on 45 F, and your AC on 95 F. Your grocery bill would increase a lot because farmers would be taxed for driving their produce to market. In fact, the cost of everything goes way up.

And what would be the effect of cutting gas emissions by 30% on the amount of greenhouse gasses? Well, they'd only be reduced by one tenth of one percent. 30% of ALL greenhouse gasses contributed by humans is only about 0.1% of ALL the greenhouse gasses there are in our atmosphere because so much occurs naturally.

This reduction will not reduce global warming.

Stated another way, cutting "dangerous CO2 emissions" might sound like an important thing to do, but since there is so little CO2 in the atmosphere and most of it is naturally occuring anyway, it won't have a measurable effect on the amount of TOTAL greenhouse gasses that are in our atmosphere.

Dr. S. Fred Singer is an atmospheric physicist, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia,

and former director of the US Weather Satellite Service. He says

"There is no dispute at all about the fact that even if punctiliously observed, (the Kyoto Protocol) would have an imperceptible effect on future temperatures -- one-twentieth of a degree by 2050. "

While the greenhouse reductions required by the Kyoto protocol are GUARANTEED to exact a high human price, they would yield statistically negligible results in terms of measurable impacts to climate change.

Should we enact legislation that is guaranteed to hurt our citizens (especially our poorer citizens) when the impact on the total amount of greenhouse gasses would be negligible?

ok if you seriously believe that global warming is a conspiracy then i suggest you watch Al Gore's movie " An Inconvenient Truth"