If the earth is 4 billion years old how could we have messed it all up in just 100 years?

to be realistic - in less than 1 hour we could alter the climate more severely than the asteroid that drove the dinosaurs to extinction. 100 years is plenty of time to mess things up

Well I beleive the earth goes through phases of global warming like it is always happening. I think that the melting of the caps do too global warming causes kind of like an ice age and then the global warming continues too melt that bringing the earth back into balance. I think this is how the dinosaurs died, because the ice age phase then cavemen came after the earth was starting to balance itself out again. Yes I beleive we are harming the earth but not as bad as people would like you to think, I think we are just speeding up the phase just a little bit. I agree with you though since it is going to happen anyhow we should not worry about trying to stop it but how we are going to live after it happens. Although we can still do some green stuff so we dont deplete our fossil fuels as fast. There are many ways in building where you can make the building so it uses less fossil fuels during the life cycle of the building and during building itself. Something as simple as solar panels, or using recycled materials can cut down on fossil fuels quite a bit. And speaking of recycling you should do it, many things that can be recycled can be made into something useful, taking less fuel to make then to get more material, used tires can be melted down and made into pretty efficent shingles and siding for buildings that are durable, used plastics like milk jugs and bottles can be melted down into flooring materials, even plaster and drywall from demolished buildings can be made into new plaster and drywall. Some repair garages have furnaces that take used motoroil and burn it for heat, it has a filter to make the smoke less destructive to the enviornment and it makes use of something that has no other use. These are just a few examples of how we can prepare for later and do less damage to the enviornment.

In the long, long run, (millions of years) the earth will be just fine if the global climate shifts drastically. However, many, many species of living organisms will go extinct in the process. Those extinctions will likely include humans. So, the question isn't "will the earth survive global climate change?". The question is, "Do we, as humans, want to continue to destroy the environment that we NEED in order to live?" and "Do we want our legacy as a species to be a list of extinctions and toxic pollutants?".

Well for one, it is because the earth has not been covered in big businesses and almost 7 billion people. Not to mention all the energy that has been used up. In 100 years cars have been more mass produced and more businesses were created.

Sure we could stop and smell the flowers... but thats not a sustainable way. Green companies promote not only a good thing to the environment it shows respect to all humanity. Air pollution from cars and businesses harm anything that breathes it in for a long time. Its arrogant to ignore that its happening.

You have a good point, but give mankind some credit we're the only creature in the whole world that doesn't rely on what God gave us we use the knowledge that we somehow obtained along the way. We're the most efficient killers in the world, we use tools such as knives or guns or something. It's not that hard to believe we could kill the world especially on accident.

The Chernobyl nuclear melt down altered the climate in the northern hemisphere for three years. So did the mount Saint Helen's. These events took minutes to occur.

Why would you think that 6.5 billion people could not harm earth?

The reality is that it is probably too late to do much about it.

The good thing is that the earth is quite capable of taking care of it's self and most of us humans will be exterminated some time in this century.

We could easily screw up our planet in 100 years. Look how fast our technology is advancing. Every other day something new and better is coming out. We are moving too fast for us to comprehend. Back 2 billion years ago, they didn't learn something life changing every day. The more we become technology reliant, the more we quit thinking about that flower in our front yard. Or the trees being cutting down everyday in the rain forest.

WE screw it up in one YEAR

BUY a Dog Sled

Earth must brace itself for a growing ice cap, rather than rising waters in global oceans caused by ice melting. >

Science & Technologies

Russian scientist says Earth could soon face new Ice Age

14:31 | 22/ 01/ 2008

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ST. PETERSBURG, January 22 (RIA Novosti) - Temperatures on Earth have stabilized in the past decade, and the planet should brace itself for a new Ice Age rather than global warming, a Russian scientist said in an interview with RIA Novosti Tuesday.

"Russian and foreign research data confirm that global temperatures in 2007 were practically similar to those in 2006, and, in general, identical to 1998-2006 temperatures, which, basically, means that the Earth passed the peak of global warming in 1998-2005," said Khabibullo Abdusamatov, head of a space research lab at the Pulkovo observatory in St. Petersburg.

According to the scientist, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere has risen more than 4% in the past decade, but global warming has practically stopped. It confirms the theory of "solar" impact on changes in the Earth's climate, because the amount of solar energy reaching the planet has drastically decreased during the same period, the scientist said.

Had global temperatures directly responded to concentrations of "greenhouse" gases in the atmosphere, they would have risen by at least 0.1 Celsius in the past ten years, however, it never happened, he said.

"A year ago, many meteorologists predicted that higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would make the year 2007 the hottest in the last decade, but, fortunately, these predictions did not become reality," Abdusamatov said.

He also said that in 2008, global temperatures would drop slightly, rather than rise, due to unprecedentedly low solar radiation in the past 30 years, and would continue decreasing even if industrial emissions of carbon dioxide reach record levels.

By 2041, solar activity will reach its minimum according to a 200-year cycle, and a deep cooling period will hit the Earth approximately in 2055-2060. It will last for about 45-65 years, the scientist added.

"By the mid-21st century the planet will face another Little Ice Age, similar to the Maunder Minimum, because the amount of solar radiation hitting the Earth has been constantly decreasing since the 1990s and will reach its minimum approximately in 2041," he said.

The Maunder Minimum occurred between 1645 and 1715, when only about 50 spots appeared on the Sun, as opposed to the typical 40,000-50,000 spots.

It coincided with the middle and coldest part of the so called Little Ice Age, during which Europe and North America were subjected to bitterly cold winters.

"However, the thermal inertia of the world's oceans and seas will delay a 'deep cooling' of the planet, and the new Ice Age will begin sometime during 2055-2060, probably lasting for several decades," Abdusamatov said.

Therefore, the Earth must brace itself for a growing ice cap, rather than rising waters in global oceans caused by ice melting.

Mankind will face serious economic, social, and demographic consequences of the coming Ice Age because it will directly affect more than 80% of the earth's population, the scientist concluded.

But really its about a Global Warming Tax

It makes sense, but I think we have done a lot of damage, and I think we owe it to our future generations to look after the planet. I hate to think that my great great great grandchildren will live in a world full of our pollution.

Ever heard of the Industrial Revolution?