Global warming
By tonyjms
@tonyjms (75)
April 28, 2007 6:40am CST
Do anyone think that humans are solely repsonsible for global warming or is it just the natural course of the planet?
For example, the earth has recently come out of an iceage (approx 10,000years ago) and now it is still warming up.
3 responses
@yasaran (788)
• India
28 Apr 07
Of course We are to a large extent responsible for the global warming. Who is polluting the atmosphere by building more and more polluting plants, vehicles and improper use of energy ?
WE ARE and WE MUST DO THE CORRECTION.
@glra2222 (492)
• Australia
28 Apr 07
yes, you are correct. i think many people have misconceptions about global warming and will shoot you down if you question it without properly explaining it to you first.
You see, the real reason why scientists are so concerned about global warming is not really that the earth is warming up and i will explain to you why in the proper manner.
You see, the earth is a very sensitive system as nature is very sensitive - many times when we disturb the earth's natural systems we tend to destroy them as well. For example, we've managed to cause the complete extinction of many species through hunting. We can destroy a piece of land almost permanantly just through agriculture. We can allow a hurricane to increase in intensity just by clearing off some natural hurricane absorbing marshes. And the list goes on...
For the past couple of hundred years we have industrialised the planet and emitted uncountable volumes of poisonous human altered chemicals as well as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We have cut down a majority of our earth's carbon dioxide eating forests.
Now, when you get the statistics - the amount of carbon dioxide caused by humans contributing to global warming does not appear to be very significant - around 1 percent of the atmosphere.
but here's the thing - as i said before, the earth is a very sensitive system. This 1 percent could in fact be very significant - if you poke at a balloon with a very sharp - small pin pointed object, it will pop.
here's the part about global warming.
when sunlight hits the earth - our earth's natural greenhouse absorbs the heat from this and keeps us at a survivable temperature - if not then it would be too cold for life to exist here.
our earth has a natural system of cycles that keep its temperature at the right temperature. when it becomes too hot - water evaporates - this goes up into the sky as clouds which reflect sunlight back out into space- cooling the earth - when it becomes cool again, the clouds condensate and it rains and the water falls back onto the earth.
The thing about greenhouse gases induced by humans is they may disturb this system, as the earth is a very sensitive system.
The question that scientists are facing today is - have humans essentially pushed the earth out of its natural system? Think about it - our moon affects the earth in a certain way - keeping it in a certain orbit- certain rotation, etc. this is what is keeping our planet the way it is for us to live on. If someone destroyed the moon - it would affect the earth's orbit - temperatures would change- many things will change in unpredictable ways - it will be a different habitat which we may not be able to adapt to.
If the earth is pushed out of its natural system by human industrialism - even by a small 1 percent amount - maybe it will drastically change our environment making it uninhabitable for our current species.
We cannot take that risk.
@haedescanes (592)
• Philippines
28 Apr 07
Yes i guess.Chloroflourocarbon is one reason why the ozone layer is being destroyed. his phenomenon contributes to global warming. Pollution is another factor and people are just so careless. all they care about is money and they don't think of the environment. Massive illegal logging also contributes to global warming because of lost of trees, rain is affected causing the heat to be trapped inside earth's atmosphere.Goodluck!