Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.
Trending News
Is GLOBAL WARMING caused by humans or is it a natural cycle that the earth is going through?
No one denies that Global Warming is happening. But what has caused it?
Have humans caused it? Or is it just something the Earth is going through, and has gone through in the past, and will again in the far future?
14 Answers
- StarskiLv 61 decade agoFavorite Answer
Nobody knows for sure. We still don't understand what caused all the climate variations in Earth's history, including ice ages and subsequent warmings. Factors like solar cycles, precession, plate tectonics, salinity changes, ocean currents, cosmic rays, life, etc. Complicated interactions of those and other factors, given chaos theory, are beyond anyone's ability to fully analyze and understand. Difficulties with measurement of tiny temperature variations from historical records worldwide also make the data uncertain.
Despite what you hear about "consensus" , "the debate is over" and "the science is settled", there are hundreds of serious scientists skeptical that manmade causes are significant factors. Search peer-reviewed articles and you'll find lots of skeptics. The emotions and money involved make the entire movement as much political as scientific. Skeptics are routinely attacked, unlike skeptics of any other scientific hypotheses.
Simply ask yourself...is it falsifiable, and has it made accurate predictions? That's what makes good science.
(Note the "thumbs down" votes on this answer, even though all of it is true. There is your evidence that global warming is about much more than science...it's also about emotions, beliefs, and politics.)
- Anonymous1 decade ago
The term 'global warming' is so relentlessly politicised that it has been rendered impotent. Fortunately, the term 'climate change' is still fairly pristine, and, fortunately, more accurate. This is NOT a slimy P.R. tactic. This is picking the most appropriate terminology to convey information accurately and in a way that is most likely to be accepted.
Politicians are generally scientifically illiterate. They are not the kind of people you should trust if it is facts you want.
There is virtually universal agreement over a causal relationship between human greenhouse gas emissions and the recent temperature upswing. As with everything, there are other causal factors, including natural climatic cycles. Nonetheless, it is well agreed that human activities are a dominant factor.
It is far more irresponsible to deny the influence of human activities on the climate than to claim that human activities are the ONLY factor influencing the climate. The latter is a simplification which must be constructed to feed an illiterate public who will not understand the detailed, more nuanced picture.
The former is a denial of facts.
This is why we can forgive the climatologists who simplify the picture in order to better convey their research to the public, but we cannot forgive those who spread misinformation about the climate.
- Satan ClawsLv 71 decade ago
"Global warming" is a mysnomer made popular by the media (who else?). Fortunately, mainstream media has started using a more adequate designation, climate change.
Anyway, climate can change without human intervention. It has happened in the past, it'll continue happening. The difference this time is that human activity is making it change faster than it normally does. Don't worry, nothing bad is going to happen to the planet, it has gone through a lot worse than we've been doing. However, what happens to *US* is another story...
The late George Carlin had something to say about this which I'd like to share with you. The language is a little strong, but I figure that you kids are already using this language so there shouldn't be any problem. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw
- 1 decade ago
Humans are causing Global Warming buddy, and now the earth shouldn't have to go thru it. All the bad smoke causing air pollution and all those other things that hurts our environment. Now we had made a hole in the Ozone Layer and the heat of the sun increases (global warming) which can cause the ice to melt and the water in the sea to rise up and some countries might experience weather changes.
Some corporation is created to try to stop it and to prevent the worse scenario, the small island near the sea will be covered by water and will be gone forever. :[ pls try to prevent this from happening, I used to leave in the P.I. and some part of it might vanish in the future if this continues! :[
- How do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.
- esauLv 45 years ago
ok, I comprehend your arguments, yet once you seem on the information, it exhibits the organic warming and cooling cycles of the earth, and then it exhibits what we are dealing with good now, and that's plenty extra advantageous than something that has occurred in the previous. i in my view have faith that we people have had an marvelous effect on those organic cycles using fact we are utilising extra organic ingredients than have ever been used in the past, using fact we've not got any precedent for what effect we could have on the international around us (and we can't deny that we could have a skill) i've got faith that we would desire to look for the extra severe, in the different case we can ignore approximately any ability issues till that's purely too late for us to act. I additionally ought to upload, besides the undeniable fact that it is not on your question, that i do no longer probably think of it concerns what the source of the present climate exchange (using fact worldwide warming is a misnomer) is. If the present developments proceed, we can quickly discover ourselves on a globe it extremely is uninhabitable. we are utilising all of our organic ingredients devoid of fixing them. some might say that it extremely is additionally a organic cycle, and that each and each physique species will finally go extinct, yet it extremely is additionally purely an opinion. i desire you think approximately what I even have mentioned. in case you choose directly to get right into a communicate approximately this subject, i could be chuffed to pay attention extra on your point of view.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
No one is really sure if indeed global warming, rather politically correct global climate change, is caused by humans. This is the reason why many advocates of global climate change are sponsoring studies on climate change. For sure, impact to humans is sustained but we could not fully attribute climate change to humans. Natural processes like volcanic eruptions can reduce global temperature by one degree due to particulate matter, such as dust and ash, effused into the atmosphere.
Source(s): http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/cli... http://factoidz.com/two-major-agricultural-causes-... - cosmoLv 71 decade ago
There is no doubt that the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere is increasing as a result of humans burning fossil fuels.
There is no doubt that increasing the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes surface temperatures to increase.
An easy calculation shows that the human-induced carbon dioxide is enough to cause the observed warming.
There are natural effects that also drive the overall climate, but the added carbon dioxide has long term effects, over hundred of years.
EDIT: look out, the deniers found your question.
- Facts MatterLv 71 decade ago
You just don't get natural cycles moving that fast. Moreover, the warming pattern doesn't fit any known natural cycle. And there'slots of other evidence that it's a greenhouse gas effect; decreasing day/night and summer/winter difference, cooling stratosphere while lower atmosphere warms.
So it's us.
- ?Lv 71 decade ago
It is universally agreed among scientists that global warming is caused by human activity.
Source(s): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming - 1 decade ago
it could be caused by humans and possiby(but extremely unoticable) the gradual warming of the sun