Is Global Warming really an issue?

[Jed K]

Is it really upon us? Is it really a concern? Is Al Gore right? Will the repercussions of not taking action now be as severe as some believe? If so, do we honestly have the capability to reverse it? Are people truly willing to make the sacrifices that are necessary? How do you think things should be handled?

[Niki L]

Let's face it. If we don't do immediately whatever we can to slow the climate change, we will be in a real trouble in a few decades. The signs of global warming can already be seen: melting of ice (polar bears can't continue hunting (the seals) efficiently on the ice floes) in Canada, increasing number of hurricanes in America, mild winters in Finland, increasing sea levels and temperatures all around the world etc.

We should tell people how essential it is to take action for the future of our planet. Al Gore opened the discussion with excellent success, and Barack Obama is going to take a leading role in this issue when he becomes a president. I hope Mr Gore will work as a presidential advisor or minister when Obama gets elected.

Obama has already told people in his speeches to take the climate change seriously. He doesn't only tell us what happened if we didn't change our habits to live our lives, but he gives also some of the solutions and advice that are needed. Obama seems to support renewable energy sources, as wind, solar and water power (which is fantastic), and he is a great advocate for the development of cleaner bio fuels.

He tells people to change the light bulbs at their homes, recycle and make all kinds of other environmentally friendly decisions in everyday life. He doesn't claim to be the only hope of America and the world, but he tells people it's actually all of us that run this world and make improvements in our lives.

One of the numerous great lines I have heard him say was something like this: "I don't tell people what they want to hear. I tell them what they need to hear." This line alone shows how honest and wise a man he is. He doesn't seek for personal glory, but he inspires so many people and is genuinely in search of a better world for all of us.

I absolutely agree with Mr Gore and Mr Obama. People should realize how much power they have to slow or even prevent the effects of global warming. If most of the people (or preferably all of us) took action with a whole new attitude and life style, we wouldn't have to be so worry about the future of Planet Earth.

What we can do is for example to recycle our daily waste, buy green electricity, use public transport instead of personal cars, walk or ride a bicycle more often, lower the temperature level with 1 degree of Celsius in our houses, buy organic foods, switch off the lights when we're leaving a room, go vegan/vegetarian and support Fair Trade.

I feel positive and happy because the U.S. is going to get such a superb president and because people are finally waking up to see the state of our planet in a more realistic light.

[soccercomplexity]

Okay, I'll bite. I'm waiting for my wife to finish the newspaper on a Sunday before we go for a walk so I'll contribute (hopefully) to this topic.

Complexity is a fascinating and surprising mathematical science dealing with what is known as multiple degree of freedom non-linear initial value problems with positive feedback. It is remarkably descriptive of natural systems but (as far as I know) limited in its prediction capabilities.

It's use, check out The Santa Fe Institute, to model biological systems, social behavioral systems, and a host of other complex problems is fascinating and provocative.

Complexity or a form of it, chaos and fractal mathematics have been used for digital photography compression effectively. And a group have applied these new mathematical approaches to the stock market with limited success.

Weather remains a large degree of freedom problem that can be predicted to certain resolution, but extrapolation is dangerous beyond certain time scales.

That said, predicting climate change with models that are somewhat incomplete and are applied over the entire planet with results extrapolated for decades is a sure fire way of creating controversy.

Minute changes in the inputs or parameters being modeled can create huge discrepancies in the results.

That point was made just in the last few days by one of NASA's top meteorologists who lamented conclusions being drawn on such a basis.

So alas, the world is changing and there's no direct results in terms of predictions that indicate we know why, for example, the temperature has statistically stabilized by some people's estimation while CO2 concentrations continue to rise, challenging the nature of the positive feedback mechanism espoused by the IPCC.

Thankfully for all of us, my wife is ready for the walk.

take care,
david

PS it was the NYT Google Joanne Simpson

"A prominent meteorologist and former NASA scientist has gone public with her questions about the global warming movement. Joanne Simpson was chief scientist for meteorology at the Earth Sciences Directorate at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Institute. She has authored more than 190 studies. She contends the conventional wisdom that man-made greenhouse gasses are fueling climate change is based almost entirely upon computer models she describes as "frail."

[PoliticsGuru]

The question is whether Global Warming is even happening to us. Through past records, we can see the carbon dioxide record does fluctuate. Is this just another time where the carbon dioxide level is extremely high. I don't believe so but it is a possibility.

I honestly think that we will figure something out before we have any real issues. In the 1800's, they believed that New York City would be inhabitable in 1950 because there would be so much horse waste on the ground because of carriages and such.

To my knowledge, New York City is habitable and that was because of the invention of the car. I bet something will happen that turns this all around and we don't have to worry about it.

[tsmaster]

I think global warming is a huge issue, and if we don't do somethign about it now we'll end up regretting it. I just can't believe some people are ignoring the signs, and saying that it's all natural. It's the carbon we burn off thats causing the pollution.

[PoliticsGuru]

I completely understand your point and actually agree with you. I just think that people shouldn't be fretting about it. There are thousands of scientists working on this issue and people fretting about it is just causing our world to be even more crazy. Let the people do their jobs and we will be alright.