Blog Action Day: Is Climate Change / Global Warming Real?

i think it's quite real- the world has undergone several heating and cooling cycles...but i think we're REALLY helping this one along.

sort of a poorly phrased question.

there's very little dispute that global warming/global climate change is real. there is a lot of empirical evidence to back that up.

so the first question is whether this is caused by or exacerbated by industrial carbon emissions, or whether it is part of some natural cycle. now, here again we have evidence in comparing the current swing to the existing historical record and finding something unprecedented. this points strongly to a human cause, but maybe there is something we don't understand about natural swings in climate that isn't encompassed in the historical record.

ultimately, that's supposition. based on what we do know, the strong, strong implication is that this swing is caused or "helped along" by human generated carbon emissions. most of the responsible reactions to these changes tie into other concerns like sustainability and energy independence anyway, and really shouldn't be particularly controversial.

I work for an organisation called addsmore.org and we think that global warming is real and that humans are partly responsible for the current cycle.
Our aim is to raise public awareness about the little gestures we could do in order to preserve our habitat.
We think that we should get the biggest communicators talking about it. But Who are they? Brands.
Imagine if giants such as Coca Cola, McDonalds, H&M and others would incorporate climate messages in their advertisement campaigns?
The impact would be huge - millions would be able to read about the little gestures that are needed to save the planet.
Just like Hopenhagen & tck tck tck: Time for Climate Justice, that are trying to get citizens to put pressure on their leaders, we are trying to gather citizen support in order to convince brands that they should also get involved.
We created Addsmore.org: an initiative to convince brands to add climate prevention messages in their ads such as "turn off your electronic devices", "recycle your garbage", "use less hot water", and of course "350".
How can people help us? By writing on their hands, arms climate preservation messages and send to us the pics - either via http://www.facebook.com/addsmore and/or http://www.twitter.com/addsmore
Once we get as many pictures as possible we shall send them to all big brands and try to get to use their advertisement space... just for the planet!

Did you mean for the poll title to have 'Global Warning' or 'Global Warming' or perhaps something else entirely

I'm always suspicious of popular opinion. Even if it's of so-called "experts." Carbon dioxide makes up a very small part of the atmosphere. That which can be traced to man-made causes, even less. Is the climate changing? It would be abnormal if it weren't. Can anything we do reverse it? Probably not. Unless you want to forgo civilization, drop 90% of the population and go back to stone implements.

does it really matter what we think?will it change the weather? could we have avoided the last ice age if we were there back then?

Yes it is there. But I still wonder very much if we humans have that much influence on it as we credit ourselves with it.

As Striatic said, there is little dispute that global warming is happening. The real question is whether it's caused by humans.

Voted "Not Sure" due to the lack of any good answers to an incredibly simplistic, yet loaded question. I think it's rather arrogant to imply that humans are the be-all and end-all to this issue. Water Vapor still remains a huge majority of the greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere, making up up to 85% of it at one time. Yes. Water. More than anything else. Combined. At any given time.

A volcanic eruption puts out more pollutants than man does in 100 years.

We certainly are making things worse for ourselves due to impacting the QUALITY of the air... but when it comes to Global Warming/Cooling/Climate Change and whatever they're calling it now... We've gotten a bit full of ourselves by pretending that we can: Predict any long term patterns beyond our short term occupancy on this planet and rely on old data when accuracy is only as good as it is now.

I'm far, far more concerned about all the crap in the ocean, (dead zones, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch) overfishing, overfarming, eradication of natural zones and life, overpopulation, toxic waste, the garbage we generate... than I am about the weather. Which, in the year almost 2010... we still can't predict more than 3 days in advance, throughout the year, with consistency.

I'm no right wing shill nor am I a hippy. I don't deny that we have some impact, I just don't think we're the only reason why anything happens and we're the only ones who can "fix" the problem. ALMOST everyone has valid points, but we're vastly overlooking bigger problems by freaking out over the weather. FYI, last year was Chicago's longest, coldest winter with record amounts of snowfall. I noticed that during this winter, which actually reached quite far south in the form of ice storms, that the terms mutated from "Global Warming" to "Climate Change." Climate changes occur on a longer scale due to influences much bigger than us. Like... the SUN, for example...

I could go on, but then I run the risk of being another tl;dr neatorama comment.

I agree. In Germany we were introduced to so-called "environmental zones" which cars with a certain CO2 emission may not enter. It was meant to reduce the fine particles in and around these zones.
Well, after quite some time now the authorities had to admit that nothing was reduced. These zones are total nonsense but it cost a lot of money. Our tax money, of course. Thanks a lot! I'm really pissed of by this debate.
Recently native Norwegians were interviewed about the melting of their glaciers. Well, they didn't even understand why they were asked. It's totally normal. Actually they expected an even faster melting.
Sorry, but I believe it's all scaremongering.

Asking if global warming is true or not is like killing an infant panda. No good will come, seriously :D

Carbon dioxide a pollutant ? Insanity. Does the earth have warming and cooling periods ? Of course. Do some people have a need to keep others under control ? Sadly it is true.

In my opinion, arguing that global warming is not caused or sped up by humans sounds a lot like an excuse to stay rooted in our habits. Humans are creatures of habit, and we can't deny we've already destroyed a lot in our time here, whether or not we are destroying the atmosphere. I personally believe we are. I say, even if we aren't the cause, why not be cleaner? Afterall, it can only help, besides the prospect of opportunity and ingenuity. A few people will develop some viable businesses while this is on everyone's mind. I think people do more arguing to keep from acting.

When has developing efficient practice ever hurt?

The fact that there is almost zero debate in climatologist circles should be an indicator to people that it probably is real and caused greatly by human interference on Earth.

I mean honestly the people who are railing against the idea of man made global warming are almost always not even proper scientists themselves.

Here are the facts ladies and gentlemen whether you like them or not. The Earth's climate is an incredibly complex system that is difficult for even the most intelligent of climatologists to fully understand. That said, don't you think that it makes more sense to listen to these experts as opposed to the ramblings of an internet conspiracy nut? Or the guy on TV who doesn't even have a proper education in the field?

I read a lot about climate change but I don't really understand the complicated mathematical sciences behind it. And the fact is neither do you. This is why we listen to "experts" in the field.

Because they actually understand it better than us.

That's really all it boils down to.

Well, of course it's real! It's not a matter for a poll, just like the earth being round isn't a matter for an opinion poll. It's a fact.

Here’s my post for Blog Action Day:

http://selfdestructivebastards.blogspot.com/2009/10/wake-up-humanity.html

Everyone else go make one too!

The weather is inherently unpredictable. But its a way to beat people up over, and raise the price of such things as scientific advance, food, travel, heating, transport, cultural exchange, international trade. Because of that, its threat to freedom and human liberation is immense. This theory has terrifying implications for us all as there will be few activities soon that are not seen as bad for the planet, and these same people always kill solutions before they can happen (nuclear power, GM food, nanotechnology etc) so that they can rule over us and what we do.

I think that global warming is bad. The world is going to end because we are careless and ruin it. Its all very bad. I would like to live on this earth for many years to come and we cant do that if its dead!!!!!!!

I don't think many people think the world is going to end. But the planet will change dramatically over the coming centuries unless we try to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

"Blog action day" followed by "is climate change real"? Only in America.

If you live in Chicago, you'd know climate change is real. We have had the most schizophrenic weather this year... and it only keeps getting worse! It was freezing temperatures before Halloween! The real effects of climate change is a massive cooling, actually... not a heat wave like the term "global warming" would lead you to believe. Some scientists actually think the Earth is going to be in a relative ice age soon.

There's no question that CO2 is a "greenhouse gas," meaning that it traps heat in the atmosphere. The question is whether the effect of CO2 is significant given all the other things that affect climate.

The current climate is not sacred. The earth has been both warmer and cooler in the past, and these changes had nothing to do with human activity. IOW, there are natural cycles (sun activity, ocean currents, changes in the earth's orbit, etc.) that have been affecting climate for a very long time.

I've been following this story for a very long time, and it's clear to me that the people who promote the idea of anthropogenic global warming have been ignoring some key evidence. The very fact that they try to shout down opposition -- rather than address their arguments -- shows the weakness of their position.

Fortunately, AGW skeptics are finally starting to get more media attention.

You question is not complete. Climate change is real of course, it has been going on for millions of years and will continue for millions more. The question should be "Are people reposonsible for changing the climate?" and the answer to that is no.

Images of calving glaciers are evidence of climate change only, not evidence that people are responsible for it. A huge part of the public does not make this distinction and are being fooled every time they see it on TV.

It was warmer 4000 years ago, as evidenced by the northern extent of the treeline in Scandinavia. It was warmer during the Medieval time period as evidenced by Oxygen isotope ratios in several places around the globe, but certainly in the rocks formed in caves in New Zealand. We haven't passed this level of warmth yet, and much of the hue and cry over "runaway" warming is based on the warming causing other warming, which has been predicted, but not shown to be true now, or the other times which it was warmer than today.

Over the last 30 years in Antarctica, a peer reviewed paper published in the Geophysical Research Letters
by Tedesco and Monaghan, 2009 says that the melt this year was the lowest yet.

I realize that anecdotal weather events, either warm days or snowy nights, are just that - weather.

CO2 can and does warm the planet, but the affect is less than critical. It's the amount and effects of that change that's under dispute. The upper atmosphere is monitored for warming, and while that has shown a slight change, it hasn't shown the signature change it should have, conflicting with most global climate models.

The rest is politics and fearmongering.

We're too quick to accept the global warming theory as fact.

"...the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998.

But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8299079.stm

Sure, we can look at empirical data and see a general trend of the earth warming (although average temperatures in the past 11 years haven't surpassed those of 1998...), but to think that humans can control something so intrinsic to the planet and our solar system as the climate is a little naive in my opinion. People really tend to think of themselves as more important than they are.

Even if Global Warming were a myth why can't we move more towards efficiency for the sake of being more efficient.

Global COOLING?? Dang hippies...

Do we agree that we as the human race do not know a great deal about our planet and our climate ?

Even if you do not think climate change is real, are you ready to take the risk of not doing anything about it?

I sure am not.

I think climate change is real because the climate has changed many times throughout history, long before there were any humans on Earth. I am, however, skeptical about the claim that global warming is caused primarily by human activity.

@Candice

Humanity doesn't like change unless they absolutely haven’t to after screwing up big time and putting themselves in a bad situation. Oil companies will keep drilling until they have dried up that resource because they feel that if they don't, somebody else will. Sure there are external factors to climate change, but I agree that humans can be contributor to those changes and effect the environment around them. It's not bad to look at ways to reverse negative effects happening to the planet then to further them, is it not?

The poll question is stupid;

Is Climate Change real? YES
Is Global Warming real? (as in the term the media use to scare people) NO

30% of the readers of this blog dispute global warming?! Time to find a new favorite blog...

Quick, someone call Al Gore!

The Gulfstream is standing by!

Weather has been occurring on this planet for 4.5 Billion years, Man has been "accurately" studying weather for 100 years at most,any scientist or citizen that says global warming is a fact is full of it.
The only thing global warming will increase is the size of Al Gores fortune from selling carbon credits and government coffers from tax and trade swindles.

Whiskey,

Global temperatures have been going down since 1998. This is indisputable fact.

People are in hysterics about global warming, such that it has become like a religion to them. The problem is that that religion worships death and poverty (the only two things that can really reduce humanity's carbon footprint).

And honestly, you're going to leave a blog because only 2/3rds of the people believe the way you do? I guess you live in a walled compound.

The question should be is Anthropogenic Global Warming real?

No, wake up people,it is being used to scare the masses into accepting the cap and trade emission trading scheme, why is every large American/transnational corperation on board?
Exxon/mobil touts it as real for heavens sake!

Bye whiskey.

I agree with quite a few. The question is flawed. Climate Change and Global Warming are not synonymous.

Justin
I mean honestly the people who are railing against the idea of man made global warming are almost always not even proper scientists themselves.

I cant believe you are saying that when there is an endless parade of celebrities,musicians and politicians trumpeting global warming, some of which are being paid.

Unlike 'whiskey' who is dismayed by the reader comments here, I'm very pleased to find the majority of Neatonauts have not bought into the global warming hype.

My post for Blog Action Day is here on my "Learn Something New Every Day" blog: http://lsned.com/370

Basically, I'm dishing up some supporting evidence that the climate change is part of natural cycles, and human impact is minor. One interesting fact is that in the mid 1800s, when we started recording temperatures, the northern hemisphere was at an 8000 year low, so teperatures have nowhere to go but up.

I'm a medievalist and the middle ages saw a similar warming period to what people are calling Global Warming. Sure, the temperature is changing, but I have not been convinced that it is any different than the medieval warming period in which humans could not have played a part.

The argument that climate change must be real because of the so-called "consensus" among climatologists is faulty.
Look at it this way and tell me if you TRULY think climatologists can be seen as completely unbiased: The climate change monster is what has made climatology as a science matter and be prestigious (if that term can be applied at all here). Climate change has the gravy train coming in for these people and they are loathe to give that up- for the truth or not. Heretofore difficult to obtain research money and grants are now rolling in for these guys and nobody is going to say anything to upset that lifeline. Anybody who disagrees will be squashed by their colleagues and have their career endangered. The climate change brouhaha was engendered a social climate where it is unpopular to look at it critically. I'm sure these same climatologists, if asked, would deny farting in public as well (even though some of them do)because it is socailly unacceptable. Are we to beleive them on that as well?

I answered "not sure." What I really mean is, "who cares?" The way I see it (and please note I'm leaving a lot of my opinion out, here) it doesn't matter if global warming is real or not. Yes, the earth has gone through heating and cooling cycles before. I'm not really sure whether or not we're exacerbating this one, because I haven't done much research on it. Why? Because the fact is, we need to take responsibility for our planet and the impact of our actions on the environment regardless of whether global warming is natural or man-made. You only get one set of eyes. One set of teeth. One body. And we only get one planet, too. I'm really disappointed that people need the idea of global warming to be the kick in the pants that gets them caring about the environment for once. And I'm equally disappointed in people who use the "global warming isn't real" argument to shrug off responsibility for the environment.

Whether or not you think humans cause global warming, or that it even exists, no one can deny that we have an impact on the environment. All you have to do is look at the deforestation of Brazil or our own Northwest to see with your own eyes the devastation that humans can bring on. Look at how many species humans have hunted to extinction, or brought back from the brink. 6 billion people cannot live and consume without having some impact on their surroundings. It's simply common sense.

The point is, we have influence. Why not do good things with it? What's wrong with not polluting? What's wrong with saving habitat? What's wrong with efficient energy? What's wrong with wanting clean water and air? Who cares if it affects global temperature? Are people just angry because they don't want to feel like they're being blamed for messing the world up? Grow up, and do the right thing simply because it IS the right thing!

What can I say that has not been stated?
Climate change happens as part of a normal cycle, not due to human interaction with the environment.
Global warming is not widely accepted by scientists as reported and stated by many. Their is a ton of contrary evidence. I think it is just one more way for researchers to get an inflow of cash for research, so they will say what is needed to keep the cash cow flowing.
Just because scientists agree on something does not always mean they are correct. The cause of most stomach ulcers is a perfect example. Prior to bacteria causing the problem, scientists firmly believed in many other causes and ridiculed the person who first suggested otherwise.

RW

Global Warming, No......Climate Change, Yes.......2 different things, climate change.....on-going process, global warming or global cooling is deifferent

lot of people have the greenhouse effect mixed up with global warming and also many do not know that climate changes have always occurred during the history of the earth

The stats for the poll so far, around 60-30-10 for yes/no/not sure seem to fit pretty closely with the results from proper random sampling polls in the U.S. (in which the question is more specific in asking if people think humans are a significant cause of warming.)

The public is quite far behind where the science is on this question. A survey of scientists done this January found only about 3% active in climate science still question whether greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity are a major reason for global warming:
http://tigger.uic.edu/~pdoran/012009_Doran_final.pdf

I've done my own digging on the question of what scientists think, which you can review on my website listing climate scientists and those who've signed public statements either for or against the position that humans are impacting the climate (and that we thus need to cut emissions):
http://www.eecg.utoronto.ca/~prall/climate/

I also found that climate "skeptics" make up only around 2 to 3% of scientists who are widely published and/or widely cited in this field.

Why is the general public so far behind the science on this question? It's likely some mix of the inconvenience of the news and unwillingness to face the changes it calls for; a lot of active P.R. campaigning by industries that see themselves most likely to be inconvenienced, namely big oil and coal (much of that P.R. funded by careful money laundering through foundations and "think tanks"); a small number of vocal "skeptics" willing to speak out against mainstream climate science, and actively promoted by an online network of contrarians including bloggers, talk radio and cable news; and finally, a bad habit the media have of framing any story as a "debate" and inviting one 'pro' and one 'con' "expert" - giving viewers or readers the mistaken impression that scientists are about evenly divided on that question.
Take a look at the listings on my site, ranked by number of publications on climate or by number of citations by others of that author's work, and see for yourself where the climate 'skeptics' stack up against the mainstream scientists.

I got stinkbugs & palmetto bugs here in pittsburgh, it's way too far north for them... also It's supposed to snow tonight (WHY!?), the weather is CRAZY...

Whatever happened to the big "hole in the ozone" crisis in the 90's that apparently all scientists agreed was caused by us using our hairspray bottles? No one stopped using their hairspray, but it closed up anyway.

Climate change = Hole in the Ozone 2

grand, you get the "Uninformed Comment of the Day" award. Unlike the Nobel Peace prize, you get this one for actually having done the thing that you are awrded for.
The hole in the ozone was caused by aerosol cans that used chlorofluorocarbons as propellant. Using CFCs was stopped on a worldwide scale and replaced with less-damaging hydrochlorofluorocarbons for aerosols. So, yeah- nobody stopped using harispray (actually, I know some who did, so that claim of yours is false) because they swapped out the bad stuff.

For those that answer no, or think that human activity plays no part in the climate and environment changes that are upon us, consider doing some volunteer work. That just might give you some insight into where your selfness vs. selflessness balance sits.

Global warming is environment religion, it has nothing to with science. The priests of global warming cannot explain the historical periods of warming and cooling. If there is any correlation between CO2 and global temperatures, it is negative and does not support the global warming thesis. The major factor effecting temperatures on earth is the output of the sun, which varies and we cannot predict this variations with much precision. Sun spot activity was up in the 90s and this was the cause of the increase in temperatures. Sun spot has been down this decade which is why average temperatures are down this decade.

Byrdbrain, that CFC thing was a bunch of BS. grand has a very valid argument: How did a heavier than air item spray on the surface magically make it to the upper areas? Scientists were wrong and cried wolf again.

There is climate change all the time, but the real fraud is Gore and his kind pushing their junk science with lies and missing data for lots of money!

This question is nearly saying "Is gravity real?"

Obviously 'global warming' is real. The question you SHOULD be asking is are we to blame?

Well with blogs spewing out hot air like this, I'm starting to think so!

It's very strange how so many stick their heads in the sand muttering to themselves that it's natural and not at all related to our daily ignitions. Just to be clear, the US alone ignites roughly four hundred twenty million (420,000,000) gallons of petroleum a day. If it helps to have a visual, think of 55,556 12'x24'x4' deep swimming pools full of gas being set a blaze every day of the year. Or simply visualize a sea of fire that goes up into the atmosphere daily. It is totally unsustainable and very insane and then there is all of the coal that we burn daily as well...

Yes I think climate change is real. It is part of the natural cycle of things. Are humans the cause. Possibly yes to some extent. Weather or not we are, it is important to live in ways that have less of an impact on the air, water, other species, etc in our world.

About that coal, in 2002 USA burnt through 1,065 million short tons of it. By the way that year we also ignited 23,020 billion cubic feet of natural gas. Then there are all of the biofuels such as wood, waste, ethanol, so on and so forth we burn through. We burn a lot of stuff, that in conjunction with nature (forest fires, volcanoes, and whatnot) makes a superabundance of atmospheric carbon.

People who deny the human effects or worse the Carbon Dioxide effects of global warming need to look at the basic chemistry of the situation. Chemical bonds can be excited through absorption of energy, often through the absorption of photons, bit of light with distinct amounts of energy. When photons of an energy equal to the excitation of a bond interacts with said bond, the bond moves to an excited state. For some molecules, the method of returning to the more stable ground state is through the emission of a lower energy photon, which results in fluorescence. Some bonds do not return to the lower state, and instead break off. For most bonds, this is achieved through the loss of energy through heat. Thus, light is changed into heat. Greenhouse gases are gases in the atmosphere that absorb light emitted by the sun and convert them into heat. No matter how you look at it, Carbon Dioxide converts light into heat. The question is whether we are producing more carbon dioxide than natural cycles in global history. The answer provided through ice records, geological records, and even recent observation is yes.

Based on all this, none of which is speculation, the answer to whether people are causing global warming is obviously yes. There is the vast majority (upwards of 98%) of scientists who can see this basic teleology.

For those of you who deny it, I would love to see what scientific evidence you have for the non-absorption of carbon dioxide, the change in basic chemical behaviors, the lowering of carbon dioxide by man, or the magical pixies that are blocking this chain of events.

Now that we have looked at some of what we burn (in my last two posts), lets talk about those things that remove atmospheric carbon that we are quickly destroying such as coral reefs and rainforests. At the following link you can see the past nine years of some of the destruction in the Amazon: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/deforestation.php

meteorologist james spann was the guest on Oh Brother today explaining his position, which, in a nutshell, is that the notion that global warming is caused by human activity is a bunch of hoo-ha.

here's a link to the segment:
http://ohbrotherradio.com/post/213577450/thursday-october-15th-threes-a-crowd-on

Global Warming (and cooling) is a natural phenomena, you just have to look at the histories of this planet over the past 500 years or so.... Ice fairs on the River Thames in the 1600 and 1700's

The UK's winters are starting to get colder and the country is getting wetter. What the problem is at the moment is we (as the human race) seem to have made it more severe and the changes quicker.

Who got to make the judgement that a temperature increase is bad?

Its all politics and fear-mongering,nothing new there it was happing in the Roman empire.

You must forgive me for being sceptical but the sky has been falling for as long as I've been alive:

Global Cooling
Aids epidemic
Bird Flue
Y2K
Sars
Swine Flue

Gee I'm starting to get the impresssion someone is trying to scare me.

oh brother, about your hoo-ha, doesn't your ilk still use the term poppycock?

dutchboy, just so you are educated on one of the items you listed (that apparently scared you) I'd like to share with you that so far more than twenty-five million people have died from AIDS (now that does not mean you will but it does illustrate a key facet of that particular disease).

I'm just watching the trend for now... There doesn't seem to be much doubt that there is a trend. Whether it turns out to be permanent or just a trend- hard to tell. On the other hand, I find it completely impossible to believe that- given the world's population and energy consumption and our consumer habits- hard to believe we are not impacting our environment. I have a lot of friends who like to go around making smart remarks like 'Oooo- all this early snow and the cold fall- that's global warming for you.' Somehow- I think it makes them look less educated and I'm getting a bit tired of it.

umm- thanks- looks like I've wanted to say that for awhile! ;) (In the interest of continuing friendship, I haven't...)

@ Gaulder

I agree completely. There is definitely a human factor that accounts for it. My point is that in order to dispel the myths of those who oppose curbing global warming effects (for whatever ridiculous reasons) why not argue that at the least taking action is a movement towards making things run more smoothly. If we can combat the effects of global warming while we're at it then double win.

My comment is just a response I've always had to give people who think global warming isn't happening. Oddly, I find that they don't have much more to say after that. :)

fyi dutchboy- I think we need to be able to figure out the difference between things like the Y2K hype and the real stuff- AIDS, Sars, flu epidemics- those aren't 'the sky is falling' stuff- they're real.

Of course it's real. Anytime you throw a bunch of dirt in an area, change happens. Throw dirt in your living room. Of course it is going to change from being comfortable to being a trashroom!

Our dirt is called 'pollution' -- it's still dirt.

We throw it in the air and the air changes. Doesn't do what it did before. That being, filter sunlight, etc..

I think we are ignoring the real con.

I meant the fear of AIDS spreading in hetersexual community in North America/Western nations, which was proven to be overblown.

Maybe it's large government beaurocracies making themselves look usefull to secure more funding, that is a provable and old concept.

Is climate changing? Maybenot, but if it is, is it made by humans? Maybe not but if it is,is that a bad thing? Maybe not, but if it is, economic growth will continue and in a hundred years our great grandchidren will be rich enough and smart enough to cope. After all, people in the tropics manage ok the noo.

If you claim Earth's increase in temperature is caused by humans then Mars increase in temperature is caused by humans.

He have way less than 200 years of accurate temperature taking and even less for regions that is not populated by humans.

We cannot claim anything is caused by humans until we can understand how our weather works. We barely can predict what weather is going to be like in 5 days let alone 20 years.

In the 60's it was called Global Cooling. Now it is called Global Warming. It is neither. It is called Climate change and it happens everyday and we can do nothing to stop. We have survived ice ages and warm periods in time.

We are not the only planet warming. We have been watching the temperature on Mars for decades and it is warming as well. This can easily be attributed to the increasing amount of sun spots appearing on the sun in the past 100 or so years.

Global Warming is nothing more than a billion dollar business hyped up by the UN and employing millions.

^^^Yes climate IS changing. It always has and it always will.
From a more philosophical point of view:
Are we to be held responsible? NO! Why? Well, because we are not even able to do that much harm.
Even if we wanted to... We couldn't!
As many of my previous speakers said, how dare we think to be superior to nature?
I don't know... but if we could do some real damage, wouldn't we be detained from it somehow?

What I'm surprised about is the extremely low number of "maybe" votes. So 91% of Neatorama readers are seasoned climatologists with full access to all the relevant data?

I think the important thing to remember is that it is by no means a settled question.

Undeniably, as the BBC article above states, we have been cooling for ten years, and are expected to cool for at least another ten years. Mention this to the average person on the street, and they'll think you're crazy.

dutchboy, you forgot to mention the threat of nuclear annihilation, which has been lingering over our heads since at least the 1950's, died down after the fall of the USSR, and is now trying to rear its head again. But don't worry, Obama will save us.

I totally recognize Global Warming as the leftist liberal histeria propaganda that it is. A year or so ago when things (ie Atlantic Hurricanes) weren't becoming as apocolyptic as they'd tried to make everyone believe they changed Global Warming to "Climate Change". (Well duh, the climate changes from when I get up in the morning to when I go to bed at night.) I've read plenty of literature on both sides of this issue and have come to the reasoned, intelligence conclusion that we are currently in a warming trend and heading towards a cooling trend.

Mother Nature does what Mother Nature is going to do.

The last few years has seen some brave scientists setting the record straight. The bastardization of science in the name of global warming has finally been broken. CO2 cannot be proven as cause of any warming. The last 10 years have seen steady or cooling temperatures but those with an agenda are still deluding themselves with already proven fraudulent data and media stories that support anthropogenic global warming.

A real honest to goodness hoax.

Climate change is real. The world's climate has changed dramatically in historic times. Have people caused it? That's a different question from what was asked... ButI don't think the data supports that humans have caused recent climate changes... Everythng I've read and studied shows that we can't separate out the human-caused effects from the natural effects which are not well understood, even today.

if your a politician or a liberal it is very real, if your not one its higher taxes for everyone.

Antrhopogenic Global Warming (AGW) (and therefore ACC) is a mistake. All of the global average temperatures are readily calculated for the entire 20th century and until the present with no consiideration whatsoever of atmospheric carbon dioxide at http://climaterealists.com/index.php?tid=145&linkbox=true

yes the climate is changing, but HELLO? WE LIVE ON A TROPICAL PLANET.

we also live in an ice age, which while it has been fluctuating up and down for a couple hundred thousand years is only a blip on the scale of the 4 billion year old earth. the vast majority of this planets history has been spent without polar ice caps.

When this winter is over all the AGW specialists will be talking about injection of Co2 to increase temperatures.

They are cashcows for governments.

Co2 was never the problem. Just pray for the sun to wake up soon

Poorly phrased question which in turn will invalidate the poll. The climate is changing and will always change. The cause of that change is in question.

fact; the sun constantly loses matter, as it does its gravitational force increases. go figure, its not rocket science.

our sun is the black hole of the future it would seem, how far or how near in the future i cannot predict.

our solar system in terms of the cosmos is nothing but a tiny piece of energy that periodicaly pulses and contracts, to us this seems like eons, to others this maybe nothing more than a blink of the eye.

It is arrogant of man to believe he can control the weather. God is in control.

Genesis 8:22 -
“While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”