Climate change

[Bartman10]

There are some reports in the news about 2005 being the warmest year on record.

What’s your opinion on climate change?

Is it a serious threat to humanity, or is it a hoax conjured up by tree hugging hippies?

What is your understanding of the mechanism of climate change?

Is global warming a bigger threat than ozone depletion? Your opinions wanted.

[Colapop]

If it means more chicks in less clothes then bring it on I say!

[SimJen]

Global Warming is a theory, as is "the earth is flat".
As far as we know its has been happening for the last 100+ years, given that the earth is many 100s of millions of years old we have no idea wether it is just a standard weather cycle or not.
Greenies will always harp on about whatever to help their cause and in many ways, they are right to try and get people to better look after the environment.
Its just they often have no scientific evidence to backup their claims.
Scientists the world over are still debating the issue with seemingly no answers.

[Karma]

You suppose all the dinosaurs got together and started shitting themselves about climate change? No.

It's something that happens, you would have thought the greens of all people would understand nature. The Earth will get warmer and warmer and warmer until we all die.

But that's many many years away...

[skelstar]

I think that we have to give the greenies more credit. To make people aware of thier/our plight they must get media coverage. The media need to publish/broadcast things that make the public go 'wow'. They take reasonable quotes/opinions from the greenies and turn them into 'the world is dying/gonna end/turning to sh1t'. Think about the children!!!

All uninformed opinion of course.

[cowpoos]

I think its normal....its a cycle of the earth naturally...there has been ice ages before...and heat ages!!! [what ever its called]
and during these cool down heat up events there has be adverse weather conditions...droughts...freeazing winters,etc
eg: a few million years ago the sahara dessert used to be a jungle!!! tropical rain forest in fact....wheres the trees and water gone...climate change before motorvehicles....Shock horror!!!!

it mates quite well with my theory of the dinosaurs dying out...as reptile eggs for the most part are very heat sensitive to whether or not they are males of females...the warmer it is the more males there will be....so dying out of lack of females...but there is a huge amount of people that will disagree with my theory...its not always the most technical and far out answers that are right sometimes....and maybe because [this isn't a big theory of mine....but more of a ponder] alot of dinosaurs were rumminatry digesters...and they [rumminit's] give off alot of green house gases in the process of breaking down vegtable matter [rotting it in there guts with bacteria]...they could have excellerated the warming effect themselves....

just my apinion.....could be worth ruminating over though...lol :spudbooge

[Colapop]

If we all stop burning fossil fuels and started burning hippies would that make difference?

[Sniper]

They say every year is the hottest or the worst or something just cause they can. Same as saying there is an oil crisis.

In all honesty, I wouldn't believe them.

[SimJen]

It's something that happens, you would have thought the greens of all people would understand nature. The Earth will get warmer and warmer and warmer until we all die.
But that's many many years away...

Actually it will get colder and colder after it gets a little warmer. Then one day the sun will either go out or explode taking everything in the Milky Way with it. It will be a hell of a fireworks show

[Karma]

Actually it will get colder and colder after it gets a little warmer. Then one day the sun will either go out or explode taking everything in the Milky Way with it. It will be a hell of a fireworks show

But when that happens I won't care, cos I'll be maxing it up in the Klingon Empire!!

[ManDownUnder]

Actually it will get colder and colder after it gets a little warmer. Then one day the sun will either go out or explode taking everything in the Milky Way with it. It will be a hell of a fireworks show

wow - where would I sit?

[Bartman10]

Some interesting responses

Consider the following.

1. Every gas phase molecule with a dipole moment will contribute to the heating of the atmosphere by absorbing infrared radiation and transferring some of that radiation into kinetic energy. The kinetic energy of gas phase molecules is proportional the gas temperature. There is no denying this, its simple molecular physics.

2. Therefore every dipole containing molecule released into the atmosphere must cause it to warm by a very small amount.

3. At this point in time more carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere then is being converted to the liquid or solid phase, part of it man-made, part of it natural.

4. Conclusion: atmosphere is being warmed, both through man-made and natural dipole containing gas phase molecules, including carbon dioxide.

The big questions are – is the climate change significant? Will it disrupt life on Earth? What should/can we do about it? Do you care, at a personal level if humans (not you), animals or plants are wiped out?

The sun is predicted to run out of fuel in the range 4-6 billion years from now. At that point there will be a massive explosion from the center of the solar system to (approximately) the orbit of Jupiter. It’s gonna be a hell of a show, but it will be insignificant to the operation of the Milky Way.

[skelstar]

You are all here for my benefit so what do I care what happens after Im gone?

naaahh...I cant back that up!

[Colapop]

Just had an interesting discussion about the future of the human race - all stemmed from a book called 'Plague Species' by Reg Morris. Doomed to failure by population implosion.Whether it's global warming, genetic misappropriation or war. Really pleasant outlook on the future. Either way we're f*cked.
Have a nice weekend.

[Jantar]

Some interesting responses

Consider the following.

1. Every gas phase molecule with a dipole moment will contribute to the heating of the atmosphere by absorbing infrared radiation and transferring some of that radiation into kinetic energy. The kinetic energy of gas phase molecules is proportional the gas temperature. There is no denying this, its simple molecular physics.

2. Therefore every dipole containing molecule released into the atmosphere must cause it to warm by a very small amount.

3. At this point in time more carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere then is being converted to the liquid or solid phase, part of it man-made, part of it natural.

4. Conclusion: atmosphere is being warmed, both through man-made and natural dipole containing gas phase molecules, including carbon dioxide.

There is no doubt at all that the greenhouse effect does exist. As Bartman shows, its just simple physics.

There is no doubt at all that our climate is changing. In a dynamic system the amazing thing would be if the climate didn't change.

There is no doubt at all that the earth's surface temperature as measured by ground based thermometers has shown a dramatic increase in recent years.

But the big question as to whether or not global warming is occuring is certainly still open to question. The atmospheric temperatures for the lower troposhere, http://vortex.nsstc.uah.edu/public/m.../tltglhmam_5.2 , show only a very small decadal trend which is consistant with changes in the SOI and Sunspot Cycles, but tend to negate the greenhouse gas: global warming theory that says that the atmosphere should warm before the surface temperatures.

Global warming models, without exception, predict that warming will occur first in the lower atmosphere, then in the polar regions, and finally in the temperate zones. What we are actually seeing is that the greatest increase in temperature is being recorded in the largest cities, and that there is almost no change in temperatures in the polar regions. In Antarctica, for example, we are seeing temperature increases in the Antartic Peninsular and changes to the ice sheet there, but what we are not hearing is that the majority of the continent is actually cooling.

We are also hearing about the active hurricane season in Eastern USA and the Carribean, but if the global warming models are correct then there should be less of a thermal difference between the polar and equatorial regions, and tropical storms should be less frequent and less intense.