How real is Climate Change (global warming)?

Global warming is a farce. It is not right. THis planet has cycles, and we are in one, and we can't stop a cycle that God put in motion. The planet has gone through this before. All of the data that they use is easily manipulateable. The worst is these temperature readings they get that say it is 5 degrees warmer than it was 20 years ago. Well if you take a measurement in a city 20 years ago that has 30,000 citizens and not a lot of roads or large buildings, and then 20 years later take a temperature in the same city that now has 200,000 people, highrise buildings, roads, highways and interstates, of course it will be hotter all of that concrete holds in heat. Why do you think it is cooler in the country or the suburbs that it is in the city? It is called the HUMAN EFFECT. We get the data we want because we are looking for exactly that and nothing else, never mind the 5 things we found that contradict our hypothesis, lets concentrate on the one thing we found that sort of backs it up.

They want to tell us that all of the glaciers are melting right, that the poles are melting away and the glaciers are going to melt, and were all going to have to live on mountains not to drown right? DO you know how many glaciers there are on earth? Over 115,000 of them. Do you konw how many are actively monitored? Around 500. Do you know how many of those are actually receding? About 100. I don't think that less than one percent of total glaciers receding is cause for concern, not when that is only 20% of the ones they actually monitor, especially not since they are MOVING chunks of ice, the faster they move the faster they melt, its called friction. On top of that as they move into warmer areas and lower elevations, it gets warmer, so of course they are going to melt. Then to top it off do you ever hear about the glaciers that are growing (by the way growing glaciers accounted for over 175 of those monitored, which means more of them are growing than are shrinking). Bet you didn't hear about the one in greenland that grows over 100 feet a day? It is moving fast enough and growing fast enough that you can actually hear it creaking.

The bottom line is that scientist are funded by others, and if they don't find something that supports their theory, they will lose their funding, and if they lose their funding, then they are out of a job. So of course they are going to find something to support their theory, its self preservation.

If the TRUE data is to be believed we are closer to entering another ice age, than we are to having everything melt.

I am not saying that we shouldn't try to curtail our CO2 outputs, I am just saying that global warming is far from a scientific fact. FOr it to be a fact everyone would have to agree, except that for every scientist that says it is happening there is one that says it isn't. Climate change is occuring yes, but it is totally unaffected by what we do here as humans. Over 96% of all CO2 that is produced on earth is created by nature and all of the animals and plants in the world, out 4% is not going to make the difference. If you believe that we as humans can effect global climate change by driving cars, then you grossly overestimate your impact on this world.

All of these other posters saying that "you should watch the news and see what they are saying of course it is real." This is the same news that said we were winning the war in vietnam when we weren't, the same news that makes voracious claims and allegations whenever they want, without substance or fact. They run stories for weeks about how the hurricane season of 2005 was proof that global warming was occuring, because the storms were stronger than ever before. Except that they weren't any stronger than ones from 30 years ago. Then they say that 2006 will be even worse because so many people are still polluting and it will only make the hurricanes worse. Then it is the quietest hurricane season in 30 years. IT IS A CYCLE PEOPLE ! This is going to happen whether we are here or not. But you never heard a retraction by the news media... you never heard an apology for being wrong. They have no accountability for what they say. They don't even need facts.

How about the science story that went largely unreported about the warming trends on jupiter, saturn, and mars. Storms worse than ever before there and surface temperatures have increased by 10 - 15 degrees celcius. We have warming here but not as bad, DUE TO OUR LAYER OF GREENHOUSE GASSES THAT PROTECT US FROM SOME OF THE EXTRA RAYS THAT ARE BEING THROWN AT US BY THE SUN. The sun is a giant burning ball of gas, isn't it possible that it is burning just a little hotter than usual, therefore all of the planets are warmer. Certaintly my driving my truck here in Florida, and dumping CO2 into the atmosphere on earth is not causing flobal warming on Mars or Jupiter.

By the way, what happens inside greenhouses? There is moisture, exponential growth by creating an ideal growth environment, and extrememly healthy plants ad animals. Why is everyone so scared of greenhouse gases EVEN if it were true? SO we make a lush tropical environment to live in.... smon people. This is a media thing, nothing more, if they don't keep you afraid of something, and glued to the TV for more info, they will have fewer viewers, and less advertising revenue because of it. It is in the media and the scientists best interest for everyone to think it is real. They all lose money if it isn't. I am sure I will get crucified for my views on this, but so be it. People need to stop being lemmings and start thinking for themselves, otherwise they are going to get led right off a cliff and into the ocean to die.

I continue to see answers poppoing up on here about how things are different than they used to be. Well of course they are, but why do we as humans automatically assume that it is something that we created or something that we can change. Are humans really so afraid that there might be something beyond their control, something that they can't affect, that we have to make up "global warming, and climate change" as things that we created to try and explain what is happening, without latching on to any science to prove it. People never cease to annoy me with how much they want to have complete control, when that is the very thing that will always escape them.......

Something is definitely happening on a global scale. Just look at the way the glaciers in Europe have been receding, to an extent not seen in over 700 years. Or what about the way the snow peak on Mt. Kilimanjaro has been receding?

Not sure if you've read it, but the book: "The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History , 1300-1850" is a pretty good read. The author does a good job of accumulating data from such a wide variety of sources to paint a picture of climate changes in Europe (and to a lesser extent in North America) over those years. He doesn't really take a stance, per se, regarding Global Warming. But, he does go into a good level of detail of the climactic changes & extremes over the past ~700 years.

The only unusual weather event in recent memory in eastern Penna, USA occurred last summer - four days of record-setting rain which led to serious flooding.

As for the question of climate change, I think it's real - tough to ignore all of the evidence. The only question many people have is whether it's being caused by us or it's part of some natural, long-term cycle.

We're probably best off hedging our bets and taking some action as if it was real.

Some layers of the atmosphere show a warming trend, Others don't. If the person who is discussing this does not take this into account, they have either been propagandized or are espousing a political agenda.

Then there is the cause. The partial pressures of greenhouse gasses do not show a trend except for trivial periods of time either individually or sigma. You only need high school chemistry to understand this. Volcanic activity is hard to attribute as are other possibilities.

Then there is the solution. Keep in mind that the ultimate goal of some is the destruction of Western economies in order to achieve world domination. Even a cursory look at their proposed solutions demonstrates this.

On the other hand, everybody wants clean air and water. It is bad for all of us that solutions are proposed that put political advantage ahead of sound policies.

It is very real, but there are many who think that it will go away if we ignore it. I was given 4 thumbs down in another place for this. We can't bury our heads in the sand. Global Warming is a scientific reality. We are already starting to see the effects-http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070516/sc_afp/enviro...

This is just a little piece of the bigger picture but the biggest piece of ice, polar bears are dying as are bees, one thing is for sure, the climate is changing, and while there is a possibility that the climate would be changing anyway, we can't continue to pollute the Earth just because we can.

In Arkansas (southern USA) : This winter was colder, but with much less snow. The summers have been getting WAY hotter, in the triple digits most of the time

Global warming is DEFINITELY real. When my dad was little it would snow all the time during the winter, but now we're lucky if we get snow once or twice!

In Canada, (Toronto to be precise), winter actually only STARTED in January. We are used to falling snow and cold weather starting in October-November but it all only started in the second week of January. We had quite the warm x-mas. Climate change is quite drastic....we have to act now. People who enjoyed the warm winter PISS ME OFF.

in perth W.A all the weather records have been broken in the past 2-3 years (hottest march ever recorded in perth) and heaps more

global warming is real

Its a hoax. Look at the scientific data and you will see we are all being conned. The planet's climates are ever changing and shifting and have been long before humans where here. There is no way our actions can affect something so complex.

"Oh my, it rained in Boise when it shouldnt have, it snowed in Hong Kong in April, its warm in Alaska, oh no, it must all be true...that's it, I'm buying a hybrid so I dont feel guilty!!"

How absurd.

very real, Europe has experienced the weirdest winter in the last 50 years and spring is already so hot.it's changin'