Global Warming

[KarenLee]

Global warming has been a threat to our planet. Our planet weather and environment has been changing over the last 20 years. The sea levels are at an all time high, the arctic is melting and animals are finding it difficult to survive. Green house gases which trap heat in the atmosphere is at a high time level and our forest which is home to many wildlife is slowly vanishing. It is believed that humans are the greatest threat to our planet. We continue to destroy our environment by cutting down trees without replanting. The population is increasing while food conservation is decreasing. It is time for human to look into their actions and help to take care of our planet. As we talk care of our planet, the planet will take care of us.

 

[Anchovyforestbane]

On 12/1/2020 at 7:16 PM, KarenLee said:

Global warming has been a threat to our planet. Our planet weather and environment has been changing over the last 20 years. The sea levels are at an all time high, the arctic is melting and animals are finding it difficult to survive. Green house gases which trap heat in the atmosphere is at a high time level and our forest which is home to many wildlife is slowly vanishing. It is believed that humans are the greatest threat to our planet. We continue to destroy our environment by cutting down trees without replanting. The population is increasing while food conservation is decreasing. It is time for human to look into their actions and help to take care of our planet. As we talk care of our planet, the planet will take care of us.

 

I agree with only two things you've said; that global warming is a threat, and that we need to stop unreciprocated deforestation. 

Contrary to popular belief however, we don't need to be worrying about the ocean or CO2 output. The earth has released more CO2 into its own atmosphere through volcanic activity and other natural processes than we humans could ever think of even producing. And as for the ocean; it is a self-regulating system. Most of the atmosphere's CO2 is dissolved into the ocean, and much of the planet's heat is also absorbed into the ocean. It gets hotter, polar ice melts, the increased seawater leads to increased CO2 dissolution and heat absorption by the ocean, which leads to cooler temperatures, which leads to more polar ice, which leads to less seawater, and the cycle continues. Climate change is not a global cataclysm; it is a natural, typical process. And it only seems like it isn't stopping to us humans because of our own short lifespan; these processes take many, many years to cycle through. And as for animals dying; that isn't anything new or alarming. Species dying off as the natural fluctuations in climate go through their cycles has been happening for as long as life has been around. 

That being said; it is true that we need to be actively engaged in improving how we handle forestry. Another one of Earth's "defense mechanisms" against greenhouse gases, are trees; not only that, but all multicellular carbon-based life depends on them. As a collective, we need to be caring for plant life much more than many of us do in order to keep the Earth's climate cycles as stable as possible. Additionally, while we don't need to be worrying about CO2 emissions, that isn't to say chemical emissions aren't a problem. There are plenty of chemicals we need to be diligent about not  releasing into our climate with reckless abandon (synthetic polymers and chlorofluorocarbons, for example); CO2 simply isn't one of them. 
 

[OceanBreeze]

On 12/2/2020 at 8:16 AM, KarenLee said:

Global warming has been a threat to our planet. Our planet weather and environment has been changing over the last 20 years. The sea levels are at an all time high, the arctic is melting and animals are finding it difficult to survive. Green house gases which trap heat in the atmosphere is at a high time level and our forest which is home to many wildlife is slowly vanishing. It is believed that humans are the greatest threat to our planet. We continue to destroy our environment by cutting down trees without replanting. The population is increasing while food conservation is decreasing. It is time for human to look into their actions and help to take care of our planet. As we talk care of our planet, the planet will take care of us.

 

Hello KarenLee and welcome to Hypography Science Forum.

While I do agree with you that humans do need to “look into their actions and help to take care of our planet”, I do not agree with your claims that “the sea levels are at an all time high” and  “Green house gases which trap heat in the atmosphere is at a high time”.

During the last interglacial, (the Eemian period) which began about 130,000 years ago and ended about 115,000 years ago, temperatures were about 2-4 °C higher than today and sea levels were about 6 to 9 metres (20 to 30 feet) higher than today. During that time most of the Greenland ice sheet was gone and ice at both the poles was much less than today.

By comparison, the present interglacial period, the Holocene, is fairly mild with relatively stable temperatures. There is considerable uncertainty if this current interglacial has already passed through its peak warming period or the peak has not yet been reached.

Whatever the cause, the climate is warming and no rational person can dispute that. The question is about how much of the current climate trend is actually anthropogenic, and how much is due to the normal cyclical trends which have been going on for many hundreds of thousands of years, long before there was any human influence on climate.

I personally prefer to keep an open mind on this question and evaluate the evidence without any bias.

As for CO2, for most of the Cenozoic Era (66 mya to today) carbon dioxide would have been measured in many hundreds (perhaps thousands) of ppm higher than today.

 

 

 

Keep in mind that, rather than being a toxic pollutant, as some alarmists portray it, CO2 is vital for all life on earth. Indeed, at a level of 150 ppm photosynthesis shuts down and pretty much all multicellular life would go extinct.

 

 

[Evolute]

On 12/1/2020 at 8:16 PM, KarenLee said:

It is time for human to look into their actions and help to take care of our planet. As we talk care of our planet, the planet will take care of us.

Plenty of room for concern but today's attitudes are not the same as they were regarding our home planet either. Lots have been changed but more still needs to be done. And I am sure qualified people know that a point of no return regarding a positive GW feedback loop is lurking. !00 years of GW awareness has been slow to jump start wide spread mitigation measures but it is happening. I don't have a figure on total global power from renewables but compared to the 90's it's been quite an advance. More people though? Absolutely and over population has been the more serious issue confronting the planet and its systems. It will be a good day when I see the figure for the world's population begin to reverse, especially if it's due to knowledge and self awareness as opposed to disaster or disease.

It would take each of our 8 billion to make informed personal choices to succeed in that though. Folks simply cannot wait to be "managed", they need to manage themselves. Until that can realistically become a more universal way of thinking, then most of the world seems to have to rely on government and wealth to do the right thing. But awareness of the climate issue is high so I do think there's hope there. Not to be a cynic or anything (which is an easy thing for me to sink into) but if profit can be made off of good climate policies and GW offsetting investments and strategies then things WILL change. It pretty much comes down to change vs. time. Some actions will be forced based on science and observation, others not so much.