Global Warming To "Continue For Centuries"

Report From Top Scientists Urges Countries To Take Action, Calls Global Warming "Unequivocal"

(CBS/AP)  The warning from a top panel of international scientists was blunt and dire: "warming of the climate system is unequivocal," the cause is "very likely" man-made, and the menace will "continue for centuries."

Authors of the 21-page report released Friday on why the planet is warming by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change placed the onus on governments to stop prevaricating and take action.

The report highlighted "increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level," the report said.

The best climate scientists on the planet say it is clear the earth is getting warmer and greenhouse gases produced since the industrial revolution are to blame, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips from Paris.

The report said man-made emissions of greenhouse gases can already be blamed for fewer cold days, hotter nights, killer heat waves, floods and heavy rains, devastating droughts and an increase in hurricane and tropical storm strength — particularly in the Atlantic Ocean.

A top U.S. government scientist, Susan Solomon, said "there can be no question that the increase in greenhouse gases are dominated by human activities."

The message to be taken from the report is "it's later than we think," Solomon said from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during an interview with The Associated Press.

A White House science advisor praised the report, saying it "captures and summarizes the current state of client change research." A statement released Friday said the study reflects "the robust body of knowledge" on climate change science.

The statement, however, makes no mention of any forthcoming changes in the administration's policy on climate change. The statement also mirrors much of what was said by U.S. officials at the climate change meeting, CBS News correspondent Peter Maer reports.

The report and the scientists who wrote it called the document conservative — only using peer-reviewed published science, edited by representatives of 113 governments that also had to agree to every word. It is a snapshot of where the world is with global warming and where it is heading, but does not tell government officials what to do.

Yet if nothing is done, the world is looking at more than 1 million dead and hundreds of billions of dollars in costs adapting to a warmer world with more extreme weather, study co-author Kevin Trenberth said in an interview.

The next step is up to public officials, scientists said. "I want to see action — not messages," said Swiss scientist Thomas Stocker, a co-author.

"It is critical that we look at this report ... as a moment where the focus of attention will shift from whether climate change is linked to human activity, whether the science is sufficient, to what on earth are we going to do about it," U.N. Environment Program Executive Director Achim Steiner said.

"The public should not sit back and say 'There's nothing we can do'," Steiner said. "Anyone who would continue to risk inaction on the basis of the evidence presented here will one day in the history books be considered irresponsible."

Another report by the panel later this year will address the most effective measures for slowing global warming.

If it looks bad now, the harmful effects during the 21st century "would very likely be larger than those observed during the 20th century," the report said.

[andromeda5]

Gaye5,

No theory can be said to be false. As such, your belief that the sun is responsible for global warming can and should be considered. However the scientific concensus tends to point to greenhouse gases as the main agent of global warming.

Either way the environments of the planet are in worse shape than ever before. Fish are getting scarcer, desertification is on the rise, forests are slowly disappearing, water and air are becoming more and more contaminated, and wars are sprouting from all corners of the globe and, if scientists are right, the Earth is getting a lot hotter than ever before.

I am not disputing your concept. You have as much a right as anyone else to voice your opinion. Perhaps you may even be right...who knows ? The facts however concerning the way we think and live on planet Earth does not bode well for our species, and for manyh other species for that matter.

We need to change the way we think.... and we need to change it very quickly....

Jonathan Turcot



The above makes for a pretty dim

[gaye5]

andromeda5, what makes you think that the moderators limit my comments, every one of my comments have gone through, please dont make assumptions on something that you dont know anything about... as there is not enough room to put all aspects of this subject, and as many seem to be definite in their assumption that it is mans fault, all I can do is be the devils advocate and throw in some other scientific thoughts on the matter, perhaps you dont wish to know the thoughts of other intellegent scientists or do you have a stack in the profits if we are forced to totally change our ways. There are other thoughts on global warming out there, and if you wish to be blind to this then dont read my comments...personally I prefer to look at all aspects. Of course fuel could perhaps contribute to some of the problem so could the cutting down of trees, over population etc, I am just giving another aspect which a portion of the media seems to be deliberately overlook is being overlooked.. if the sun is heating up all other planets then it stands to reason that it will be heating up the earth as well, and this seems to have happened before in history, and it is also possible that when the sun cools, we and other planets could go through an ice age..scientists have proven that we go through ice ages and global warming so I would be interested to know what you blame the ice age on, it couldn't have been man's fault could it..

[andromeda5]

Gaye5,

You seem to be mired by the sun as the sole reason why the Earth is warming up. You have written numerous posts to that effect since one post does not allow you to expand so much on that one theory. That is the reason moderators limit your posts somewhat.

Of course the sun warms the Earth. There are no arguments there. We are to blame however for this particular episode. It it's not too late we can change the destiny of our species by taking care of each other, which would generate a way of thinking that would not require so much competition to stay alive, and hence reduce our ever-increasing imprints on the environment.

Jonathan Turcot

[gaye5]

Dr David Viner, the senior research scientist at the University of East Anglia's climatic research unit, said the research showed that the sun did have an effect on global warming.

Dr Gareth Jones, a climate researcher at the Met Office, said that Dr Solanki's findings were inconclusive because the study had not incorporated other potential climate change factors.

"The Sun's radiance may well have an impact on climate change but it needs to be looked at in conjunction with other factors such as greenhouse gases, sulphate aerosols and volcano activity," he said. The research adds weight to the views of David Bellamy, the conservationist. "Global warming - at least the modern nightmare version - is a myth," he said. "I am sure of it and so are a growing number of scientists. But what is really worrying is that the world's politicians and policy-makers are not.

"Instead, they have an unshakeable faith in what has, unfortunately, become one of the central credos of the environmental movement: humans burn fossil fuels, which release increased levels of carbon dioxide - the principal so-called greenhouse gas - into the atmosphere, causing the atmosphere to heat up. They say this is global warming: I say this is poppycock."

[gaye5]

To determine the Sun's role in global warming, Dr Solanki's research team measured magnetic zones on the Sun's surface known as sunspots, which are believed to intensify the Sun's energy output.

The team studied sunspot data going back several hundred years. They found that a dearth of sunspots signalled a cold period - which could last up to 50 years - but that over the past century their numbers had increased as the Earth's climate grew steadily warmer. The scientists also compared data from ice samples collected during an expedition to Greenland in 1991. The most recent samples contained the lowest recorded levels of beryllium 10 for more than 1,000 years. Beryllium 10 is a particle created by cosmic rays that decreases in the Earth's atmosphere as the magnetic energy from the Sun increases. Scientists can currently trace beryllium 10 levels back 1,150 years.

Dr Bill Burrows, a climatologist and a member of the Royal Meteorological Society, welcomed Dr Solanki's research.
"It shows that there is enough happening on the solar front to merit further research. Perhaps we are devoting too many resources to correcting human effects on the climate without being sure that we are the major contributor."

[gaye5]

The truth about global warming - it's the Sun that's to blame

By Michael Leidig and Roya Nikkhah
(Filed: 18/07/2004)

Global warming has finally been explained: the Earth is getting hotter because the Sun is burning more brightly than at any time during the past 1,000 years, according to new research.

A study by Swiss and German scientists suggests that increasing radiation from the sun is responsible for recent global climate changes.

Dr Sami Solanki, the director of the renowned Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany, who led the research, said: "The Sun has been at its strongest over the past 60 years and may now be affecting global temperatures.

Globally, 1997, 1998 and 2002 were the hottest years since worldwide weather records were first collated in 1860.

rest of article in next two posts

[gaye5]

- London Telegraph: The truth about global warming - it's the Sun that's to blame
Global warming has finally been explained: the Earth is getting hotter because the Sun is burning more brightly than at any time during the past 1,000 years, according to new research.

The simple fact is that throughout the ages the earth has swung wildly.

Global warming is cited as an excuse to meter out further control and surveillance over our daily lives.

People like Dr. Erik Pianka, advocate the mass culling of humanity via plagues and state sanctioned bio-terrorism, in order to "save" the earth from the disease of humanity. Nazi-like genocial population control measures and the environmental establishment have always held a close alliance.
Global Warming on Pluto Puzzles Scientists
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 01:25 pm ET
09 October 2002

In what is largely a reversal of an August announcement, astronomers today said Pluto is undergoing global warming in its thin atmosphere even as it moves farther from the Sun on its long, odd-shaped orbit.

[gaye5]

Are humans responsible for climate change on the outer reaches of the solar system, or is it the sun?

Paul Joseph Watson
Thursday, November 16, 2006

How do we square the fact that almost every planet in our solar system is simultaneously undergoing temperature change.

- Space.com: Global Warming on Pluto Puzzles Scientists
In what is largely a reversal of an August announcement, astronomers today said Pluto is undergoing global warming in its thin atmosphere even as it moves farther from the Sun on its long, odd-shaped orbit.

- Space.com: New Storm on Jupiter Hints at Climate Change
The latest images could provide evidence that Jupiter is in the midst of a global change.

- Current Science & Technology Center: Global Warming on Mars?
A study of the ice caps on Mars may show that the red planet is experiencing a warming trend.

- Science Agogo: Global Warming Detected on Triton
"At least since 1989, Triton has been undergoing a period of global warming," confirms astronomer James Elliot, professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

- Associated Press: Study says sun getting hotter
Solar radiation reaching the Earth is 0.036 percent warmer than it was in 1986, when the current solar cycle was beginning, a researcher reports in a study to be published Friday in the journal Science. The finding is based on an analysis of satellites that measure the temperature of sunlight.
And more on next post

[thgdriver]

If you were to come back in 100 years' time, we'll have a different climate."

If I had the power to come back in 100 years, I don't think I would be very worried about the climate or anything else..

[pensacola8-2009]

Not all science is junk science as some think. A few years ago, when some volcanoes were erupting, scientists actually reported a slight cooling in the temperatures on a global scale. I think the earliest reports in the 60's and 70's about green-house warming and thermal-runaway are clouding the thoughts of some listeners about global warming. The ideas are similar, but based on different supporting evidence. There are even some listeners who recall the massive ozone hole in the southern hemisphere that some people think allows the global warming to occur more rapidly in the south pole, than the north pole. The more ideas we hear, the less we beleive, but as we learned, it wasn't raining when Noah was building the ark.

[olgreyghost]

www.LewRockwell.com/giles/giles15

Try it, some of you will like it!

[nothappyatall]

Yes, global warming and ice ages do have cycles, but the LAST cycle occurred LONG before there were 300 MILLION people in USA and the total population of humans on the planet was probably a million spread out over the entire globe.

ALL, as in every single dinosaur, Wooly mammoth, giant raptors died out, not even one survived whatever happened 65 million years ago.

[olgreyghost]

huskerarmy:

It's childish, greedy, selfish, and it makes you nothing more than a thug if you believe you have the right to tell others how they should live their lives and back it up with government force. You are no better than the "Big Oil" that you keep complaining about - wanting to have it your way no matter who it harms or who it eventually kills in the name of uncertain science.

[nothappyatall]

The ocean levels rising is of no consequence to anyone other than those who live on the coast or shallow islands, someone in North Dakota is not going to be the least affected by the rise of the oceans 20 inches 1500 miles away.
Hurricanes hit the coasts, if the beaches and coasts are 10 or 20" under water and a stronger hurricane hits there it won't matter- people won't be able to live there in the first place because of the water.

In any case the changes will not be that great during our lives and once we are dead it won't matter what happens HERE, we'll be dead long before.

Best way to stop global warming is DONT have kids, forgetabout reducing your driving 5 miles a week, recycling your plastic soda bottles and newspapers or switching your reading lamp off to save 5 watts- the situation has gone FAR beyond this piddling little nothing actions to have any effect on. It took 150 years to get here, all through the heavy industrial coal burning and forest clear cutting/slash burning, switching your light off in the den is not going to reverse any of that in the least, it's like a little boy peeing in lake Michigan is- I'm sure- going to affect the lake level, that's the comparison.

[frankly6]

The National Academy of Sciences reviewed every published, peer-reviewed, scientific, study done on Global Warming in the last ten years. 100% of these studies agreed on three things:

1.GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL

2. THE CONSEQUENCES OF GLOBAL WARMING WILL BE DEVESTATING TO ALL LIFE ON THIS PLANET

3. GLOBAL WARMING IS CAUSED BY MAN

The scientific community has been united on this for years. The so-called debate is just a misinformation campaign funded by the fossil fuel industries who stand to lose a lot of money as we switch to more sustainable ways of living.

This is not a political issue people. It's an issue of survival.

[sharncedar]

" degree which the earth as we know it will not be able to rebound"

It is funny how the kooks keep saying that the "whole world" is doomed by global warming, when really it is only the highest level of technical and decadent society that is doomed - the wealthiest few, and the most useless people. This is like Bush saying the "whole world" is doomed if he doesn't get his way in Iraq. Hyperbole that makes you all look like liars or idiots.

[sharncedar]

This civilization, frankly, doesn't deserve to survive. The human race will go on, hopefully with a more de-centralized and interesting culture. We don't need to perpetuate idiots like Donald Trump and Miss USA for another century.

[andromeda5]

cdegolier,

You wrote "My side is simply trying to point out the facts that global warming has happened before us and before big oil and will continue whether or not we are here."

My question to you is this..." What harm does it do to your 'life-style' to think that this episode of global warming is caused by humans?

You also point out that global warming will continue whether or not we are here. Actually it seems that when all is said and done the Earth in its final throes will be totally scorched by the sun anyway...

Another scenario would be that the predictions that you are reading about could be conservative. Although I have no credentials to prove or disprove any of the following, it has been estimated that the temperatures on Mercury hover at about 350 degrees F., while on Venus they are nearer 800 degrees F, even though Venus is much farther away from the sun than is Mercury. It is also known that the atmosphere on Venus is highly made up of greenhouse gases. As such, if we fool around with our only home too much, the temperature rise could far exceed the 10 degree mark that is proposed... How about 100 degrees, would that cause you and yours to change your habits?

Is global warming real ? Even if it isn't why wait for its possibility to come about and why not find alternate sources that will not add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere? Unless of course you are a member of the oil consortiums of the world... in which case I have no comments...

[duffyn]

The big hole in the arguement below that global warming happened before (before big oil) is that, yes, it has, but this time due to the green house gases, it is going to be much much worse!! I.E. all the ice will melt so sea levels will rise much higher. Ocean temperatures will be higher than a normal global warming so the storms will be way more severe. The bigger ocean storms than push the higher sea levels and ruin more and more structures along the coast. New York will be history. Is this more important than terrorism? Yes!

[huskerarmy]

cdegolier,

You are correct. Global warming occurs in cycles. That is not the issue. The issue is that we (mankind) are contributing to it's intensity to a degree which the earth as we know it will not be able to rebound. As far as me living an "oil free" life. I do not. And no one said that all oil use is bad. Although I have long recognized the rights affinity for absolutes, I don't have any proclivity to take on the problem of global warming single handedly. Your point is moot. Regardless, mankind created this problem and mankind will have to solve it. By the way, do you drink water directly out of the river since it was those commie liberals who passed safe water standards?