Are humans really powerful enough to create or accelerate global warming?

Question

Ponder this... 70-71% of the earth is covered by water. That means 29-30% is covered by land. The earth is 200 million square miles. Humans take up 58 million square miles of the earth's land. That's 29% of the earth's land that we inhabit.
About 25% of that land is occupied by poor/3rd world countries.The world population is around 6.5 billion humans. 20%-30% live in those poor, undeveloped countries.

My point? I’m getting there…
So you have around 80% of humans who are polluting and even less that are adding significant amounts of pollution to the earth. Put all these humans in one place and let them pollute. You know how much of the earth they would be affecting? Most definitely less than 5% of the entire earth. It’s actually more like 1%, but I wanted to account for any math error I may have made. So our pollution is like a needle in a haystack.

I would like to ask how it is possible that we are ruining the ozone when we account for less 5% of the entire earth?

Answer 1

pink,



Human arrogance and narcissism assumes we have control over things where we actually have none. this is a good example.



To address the "Supercomputer modeling" the assumptions were made with exponential rather then logarithmic data. The dolts that claim "the models tell" are part of the problem. I am a scientist, I know statistics, I know how to use statistics to get the data I desire to make my point, the same hold true for these ecoidiots.

Manipulate data, feed it to the sheep and see if they will eat it. Doh!!



Simple common sense.. The ecomarxists are exploiting fear (and ignorance) for political gain. The eco-marxist religion is clearly agenda driven. It lacks scientific validity. It is a "belief" not fact.



One fact they have correct, the earth's mean temperature has risen 7/10s of 1 degree over the last hundred years. That is the end of their factual evidence.



There is no evidence it is human caused.



Here is a website that contain a large compendium of valid scientific climate information. I could list dozens if not hundred or thousands, this is a good place to start your own research on the subject.



http://www.junkscience.com



Any time the word "BELIEF or BELIEVE" enters the conversation think "RELIGION". It is cult of epic proportion. The only way to deprogram yourself or others is with facts and understanding.



I am a lifelong student. when I first heard of "Global Warming" I recall in my environmental studies in college the "prevailing" wind was around a new Ice Age.



With certainty climate changes, and has been doing so for 4.6 billion years. Sometimes quickly sometime slowly.



Man is inherently narcissistic and our cultural shapers have found ways to manipulate this for the purpose of gaining power.



The validity of IPCC report fails based on inadequate peer review, Most of the supposed 2500 scientists involved are saying the content of the report is NOT what they recommended of even wrote.



What we can do about it? nothing. Don't believe it. Use your common sense. If there is money involved, someone's pocket will be lined.



Al Gore's is definitely one of the primary pocket liners of the ecomarxist religion.

Answer 2

You set up a false dichotomy. Accepting all the facts about land, sea, humans - the fact is that pollution travels in the air. We are polluting 100% of the atmosphere, and it is changes in the atmosphere that cause global warming.



It is also true from the paleontology record that there have been natural shifts in global temperature over time - and it's also true that the rate of change in the last 50 years far exceeds anything we can see in ice core and rock samples from the last few million years. Yes, there may well be a natural warming happening anyway, but it is absolutely true that we have accelerated that process with pollution by adding millions of tons of unnatural carbon dioxide and other green house gases to our air.



Other changes, such as the release of CFCs over a 30 year period, have substantially damaged the structure of the atmosphere, affecting not only global warming but our overall exposure to radiation from the sun. The fact is that there is an uneven distribution of ozone anyway, and it is thinnest at the polls. CFCs moving through the atmosphere end up at the polls, further reducing the ozone layer. This may well have genetic consequences in some parts of the globe.

Answer 3

If Global Warming is occuring naturally, I don't want to do anything to stop it, even if it gets to the point where no one can survive in the heat. But the problem is that it's not. Turn the lights off in your room, and light a little candle. The room is the earth, and the candle is those 5% you were talking about. However much of the room is being illuminated, that's how much you're affecting the earth.

Even if it's not real, and we don't exaggerate it to the point calling it Global Warming, we should just stop polluting the air. Nobody wants to live in a place where the air is so polluted. So we should stop. It's simple.

Answer 4

I love how everyone argues with unsupported "facts" and expects you to take them seriously.



I agree with what you say. I have my own ideas that I would like to contribute for your acceptance/use or denial/rejection.

Entirely up to you.



I think government funded activities-that account for data on the political, and media announced "problems"(which open doors for infinite spending of american tax dollars) cannot be trusted as accurate based on the idea that scientists must be professionals.



All of the entire solar system is heating up.

This is because the solar system has a combined force.

A compilation of planetary and solar energies creates a capacitor or spherical store (like a battery) of energy.

If additional energy is added by an outside source, then the whole capacitor absorbs the energy and it is distributed amonst the planets by the increased output of the sun.



The sun is like a generator, and the planets draw from it.

If another source creates a draw then the sun heats up to compensate. Only we are affected, because there is not seperate links between the suns output and each individual planet.



Its like being in a room full of people that produce body heat and carbon dioxide. With every added person, the room gets hotter and stuffier. It is nature's course to then balance out the changes. Someone opens a window or props a door open, they wave books and papers at their faces...



If you're in a company and there is an increase in demand because a new country opened a market for your product,

you increase production. The consequence is increased consumption of resources, with increased profits.



When you add something to the equation, you get more.

The earth already had everything that is on it. Moving it around and even changing the form of things chemically has such a miniscule effect on a planet that is so wrapped up in bigger forces that control it.

The earth is influenced by all of the surrounding balls of mass and energy.



If anything, we are en extention of earth's "personality" and all that we do is drawn out of us by the bigger forces that influence earth.

What choice or free will do we actually have?



My point here has been that you don't end up eith extra energy for no reason. Something has been added.

Either there is a large body (planet X) entering the solar system (I hear there is a large scale project to construct 4 giant land -based telescopes across the southern hemisphere of earth. To measure distance and movement of an object you need at least 3 points of reference.)

It's that or the sun is just randomly burning at a fast rate producing extra rays.

What else causes cancer except radiation?

Why has cancer become so prominate? Extra radiation from the sun. Why the higher SPF sunblocks now? Because there are more UV rays and Infared.



On another note, wouldn't we first be most likely to have an impact through our deforestation and exponentially increasing carbon dioxide production from 6.5 billion people?



Im willing to bet that oxygen levels are diminishing.

Answer 5

You have to consider that the 80% that are polluting aren't just having a campfire and trip to the store in the car. Energy production as well as cars and regular households produce millions of tons of CO2. Then add all the CO2 that's been produced since the industrial revolution to the natural CO2 that is produced by the earth and yes suddenly when you add up all these factors, tiny little humans can have a huge impact. The earth naturally reabsorbs CO2 through trees and water, but when we are cutting down those trees the CO2 isn't being reabsorbed.

Answer 6

When I was in college, I was having breathing problems and a doctor ordered xrays of my sinuses.



He said there was nothing more wrong with them than having lived in the city.



I was only 20 at the time and had lived in Boston for less than two years. My previous 18 were on a farm in the country.



If more people worried about how negative behaviors are affecting the health of themselves and their loved ones on a daily basis, the Earth would become a generally better place to live.



By using terms like, "global warming," I believe it desensitizes the issue and makes it easier for people to believe their individual behavior doesn't matter.

Answer 7

Actually, I don't care if the global warming arguments are accurate or false.



The things that are good for reducing global warming, like reducing energy consumption of fossil fuels are good in the long term because fossil fuels just won't last forever. That just makes economic sense, even if one disagrees with global warming theory.



I tend to look at our addiction to petroleum much like I look at addiction to cocaine. I don't like who gets the money from the addiction (oil sheiks, terrorists or organized crime thugs) and I don't like how those people use the money to destabilize society. So I would love to see different energy sources and different ways of handling waste. One need not be a hardcore environmentalist to prefer change.



As to your question about how a small percentage of humans can destroy the environment, it is not just 5% of the planet involved. Europe, Asia and South America also contribute to air pollution, water pollution and overfishing of the oceans.



If you were a student of the First World War, you would know that a relatively small amount of mustard gas could kill people because the gas expanded into a larger airspace. That is somewhat like we are doing on a larger scale with Earth's atmosphere. Sure, it takes time to make the atmosphere filthy, but humans have been doing it for at least 100 years now, and are doing so at an accelerating pace worldwide. I don't need to believe in global warming or environmetalism to recognize that I now travel to places I first visited 30 years ago and see that the quality of the air and water have dramatically gotten worse.



I have lost a loved one to lung cancer that was probably the result of copper smelter emissions in her home town when she was a child and have seen an amazing string of relatively rare cancers in that community that are probably due to the same conditions. Sure, my observations are "unscientific", but I know what I see.



Students of biology have learned that there are species that are actually too successful -- they reproduce and essentially destroy the basis of their existence. Humans are not any different and the same rules apply to us. Like other creatures, we can soil out own nest to our own destruction. And I am an optimist.

Answer 8

you are right on and dont listen to these blind mice.if we are so arrogent to think that the ant farm civiliation we have created for ourselves can destroy a part of this universe as large and in charge as this earth, then we are not as smart as we think.this planet can and will shake us off like a bad case of fleas.lets see huricane katrina,mass flooding along mississippi cold snaps on east coast, the sunami that recently happend,tornados in the rockies,shall i go on?wake up people we're only one step above our pets ruffly speaking.globle warming,itl'll do its thing with or without us this land has been here how long and surrvived it'll be here long after the human race has been forgotten.dont get me wronge im all for cleaning up after ourselves.i hate dirty roads,and camp sites just hate trash.but lets get off the high horse.your scientists will be gone with the rest of us.lets concintrate on something a little more now like raiseing our children the right way.then we might not have to ask these sort of questions.

Answer 9

Nearly 100% of the land is involved in farming / ranching / mining / landfills. We have changed the surface reflectivity of Earth, including "oils slicks" on ocean surfaces. Take each human and multiply it by the 2 - 4 animals (equivalent mass to humans) required to feed each human on average annually. More meat than this planet has ever supported. Take the US alone, and add the CO2 of something on the order of 9 trillion human beings (normal respiration) just from combustion of fuel made from crude oil, to say nothing of coal. Extend that to other countries. Now factor in change of ocean currents when we capture and evaporate nearly every drop of water on land, and under the land, and send out pollutant-rich water in the rivers, that quickly consume all the available oxygen. We know water vapor, CO2, and methane have increased by a factor of 3 or more, worldwide since the 1700s. We know this "blanket" (that keeps heat in) is getting thicker. We know we are capturing more insolation due to surface changes. We know temperatures have been climbing, globally, on average. So, here comes your answer: Water vapor both blocks production of ozone, and provides a decay path for ozone. Since aircraft belch out water vapor at altitude (even flying through the ozone layer on polar overflights), since more water vapor has been noted with the Rise of Man, and since global temperatures are on the rise which weakens the thermocline that keeps water vapor out of the ozone layer, then add in the little CFC debacle uniquely sourced by Man... you've got plenty of evidence that the cause of increased cataracts, cancer, mutation, loss of crop yields, and loss of arable land... points squarely at Mankind and him breeding like a virus.

Answer 10

the ozone hole is repairing itself now (that's how we know :-) )

But it's important to save on gas by driving less and using other means to depend on it less because other very large countries are now coming up to production levels and they are no longer poor countries and they are using gasoline (us too) at alarming levels and so are we...keep that up and the resources diminish quickly. So we in the US have to plan ahead as to what will we do in the future and for the next generation. We didn't create global warming but we sure are adding to it a lot and quickly.

Answer 11

Global warming is Earth's way of moderating its climate. Humans cannot stop it. The Earth goes through warming and cooling stages...Remember the Ice age?:) Years ago, the Earth was much warmer than it is now. Ponder that!!

Answer 12

I think you have to look at the sources of who is saying what about the subject. Then think about the first question that pops into mind about any political (and criminal) issue:



Cui bono?



Who benefits. When all of the scientific studies that do not agree with the global warming theorists come from the energy industry, the energy lobby, people invested heavily in energy and nations that use it to increase their economic output, you might find it difficult to take with a straight face their output.



Now, if you take someone like Al Gore, who benefits almost zero from what he is saying, and in fact is finished in US politics because of his stand on this issue, or the global scientists that fear for the world as a biologically viable habitat for all of the life on this planet, or the millions of people that want to survive the outcome of this next round of climate change, I'm going to likely believe them first.



Now, especially with respect to the climatologists and their basis of comparison between global carbon levels as found in the Antarctic ice and global temperatures, I defy anyone to disagree with the data. No one can, and yet you hear people still poo-pooing this information as "pseudoscience".



These, of course, are the same people that continue to attempt to bring "intelligent design" into schools as a scientific theory, but I digress. These people are owned and operated by the Republican Party, which itself is owned and operated by Big Business and the Religious Right. If they had an original thought in their brains, it escaped a long time ago.



In short, you believe all of these people that believe global warming is a reality to be cranks, idiots, unscientific and completely wrong. In other words, you believe that the less informed you are about a subject, the more likely YOU are to be right about it.



Not very scientific, is it?

Answer 13

You make some good points, but look at the graph in the source. The CO2 levels in that graph are accepted by all. You will not find any scientist who disputes it. Even George Bush will not dispute it. Then extrapolate that trend out a couple thousand years and tell me that isn't alarming, even without considering global warming. I know, a couple thousand years is a long time, but still...

Answer 14

Yeah, but compare all those stats to what it was 100 years ago. We are taking up EXPONENTIALLY more space, and each person in the industrial areas is using up EXPONENTIALLY more resources every year. America, with its limited amount of urban space, uses more oil and gas and electricity than the rest of the world combined. In other words, we take up only 5% of the space, but we use well over 100% more resources. The amount of space we take up is completely and utterly irrelevant in this debate. You underestimate us. I think you need to take some classes in statistics and evironmental science. You don't know what you are talking about.

Answer 15

Indeed, I think that we should bury our heads in the sand, ignore global warming and keep on living the good life in the hopes that the science community is wrong and the oil company lobbyists are right. The worst that can happen is that our children suffer horrendously in 40 or 50 years. But so what? My kids lives aren't nearly as important to me as having a big SUV in my driveway to impress my neighbors.

Answer 16

think about this, 1 person with a car, a propane bbq grill, a central heating system as well as small misc things such as aerosol products(like hairspray, paint even cleaning products)

even electric power genration that keeps your lights on and your "energy efficient" refrigerator

can destroy miles of ozone every year just doing what they normally do

now multiply that by all the people in major cities who do the same thing!

Answer 17

Think about this. In the Jurassic period the dino's enjoyed average earth temperatures 9°F than now. Plant love the sun and the CO2. Antartica will become uncovered and forests will grow there again. More heat, more evaporation of the oceans, more rain. Desserts will become tropical. Rain forests will thive there. Endangered animals will spead to the forests and thrive. Man will have more areas to grow food for the starving and biofuels. All for the small cost of costal flooding.

Answer 18

Global Warming is completely false. There have been studies where it has been found that COWS FARTING create more hazardous fumes than all of the worlds burning fossil fuels combined.



I'm glad that you're smart and you saw past dumbass gore's hysteria. He just wants to be cool... and hes not.

Answer 19

As cocky and dangerous as humans are, no we are not to blame for Global Warming. We are not that good and vile.

Answer 20

If you want to prevent global warming then you need to find a way to plug all the volcanoes, stop all the natural gas from seeping out of the earth's crust, stop plants from decomposing and stop cows from burping. Do you know how much OZONE a volcano destroys? Do ya?

Answer 21

well, i am not a scholar, but the air is flowing everywhere so i dont think it just stays where the polluters are.....and i believe we are accelerating a natural process.....everything i do affects something and so on and so on ......

Answer 22

Then it will really bother you to learn that the most powerful supercomputers ever built are the ones that did the modeling that figured this out, and that Nobel Prize winning scientists agree that it is very real - go ahead and tell them that you are smarter than they are - if you think you should. It doesn't make sense to YOU - that doesn't mean that it doesn't make sense to SCIENCE.

Answer 23

if i am not mistaken,the global warming we are experiencing is not caused by the depletion of ozone.

Answer 24

yes, The united states alone produces 700 trillion tons of Co2 every year!!!!!

Answer 25

You go girl!! I love hearing what you are saying! I agree with you 100%!

Answer 26

you state where the people are ,not what lands they are using ,

and on that they have definately changed everything ,wiped out whole eco systems and replaced it with unsustainable farming ,not counting the space the world roads systems have robbed from Nature ,apart from that peoples effects supercede the territories they ocupy



here is a laymans consensus of some of our effects .but also some things we can do to be more positive ,



Although the forces of Nature are imense and we ,even collectively as a specie ,will be too insignificant to change what is in motion ,



about that you are right.



WHO OR WHAT IS TO BLAME



Irresponsible Agriculture , expanding populations and its effects are the planets biggest enemies.



This text only covers some aspects of Climate change ,i.e.effects of deforestation and subsequent man made desertification ,because of irresponsible farming using chemicals ,over pumping carbon aquifers,over grazing ,wild fires (because of slash and burn gone out of control).



Water and air polution ,such as caused by

industrial contamination ,the contaminating effects of the cities(the internal combustion engine) ,are other stories.



All of these are also man made ,such as the high industrial chimneys pumping contamination into the clouds and the burning of tires,some of this polution has been found in the ice in the polar regions.



There are natural cycles in the planets life

but a lot is influenced by mans existance ,this is increasing with overpopulation,putting strains on Natural resources and increasing contaminations .



The thinner ozone layer helps to speed this up. This is caused mainly by air polution ,also as a result of mans actions.



In North Africa,India,Mexico ,millions of people are effected by land loss , desertification and some have died as a result.



Now many animals are becoming sick because of changes in temperature .

Vital links in the food chains are disapearing affecting other species further along in the chain .



We are witness to a mass exstinction ,for the first time since the dinosaurs.

Of the earth's estimated 10 million species, 300,000 have vanished in the past 50 years.

Each year, 3,000 to 30,000 species become extinct.



Everything is happening so fast it is not possible to monitor things any more.



The Sahara is growing by 7 kilometers a year.

Most of the desserts are as a results of mans actions.And they are increasing .In the dinosaurs days ,there were few desserts.



Collectively this planet is drying up .



Each degree rise in temperature means 10%crop loss



There is less and less water (because of deforestation),to irrigate Agriculture.



Arable lands and their farms are lost all over the globe. Many farmers sons abandon farming and head for the cities.



Northern China is drying up, what once were millions of food producing people, are now hungry refugees ,running for their lives from the all consuming dust storms.



This will have a great effect on world food prices when they start buying at what ever cost, to feed their people.



The farmers that are left have to feed some 70 million more people than the year before but with less topsoil(because of desertification and irreverible erosion)



Over the last half century,

Population growth & rising incomes have tripled world grain demand from 640 million tons to 1,855 million



In the near future the global farming community will not be able to feed every body ,food prices will continue to rise. .



RISING SEAS

The northpole is melting ,and we will know it without ice in our life times.

This does not affect the sea level ,because it is ice that is already in the water.but the melting ice from Green land and the south pole ,and the Glaziers is potable water lost forever and rises the sea levels.



Are We responsible ?

Is it the Sun?

Is it God who wants to punish us?

Is it Gaia who wants to clean some parasitic infestation?

Is it a Natural cycle?



Who cares ? that is not important any more

WHAT IS important -is that we are gonna be in trouble



WHAT CAN WE DO????????????????



The best we can do as individuals is be more responsible ,in our own neck of the woods



Organise well publicized clean up parties ,talk on the radio,hold citizan meetings, get the shools involved to plant trees and listen to environmental awareness talks.



If you do any cleaning up ,leave signs behind saying who cleaned,why and ask people not to start dumping rubbish again ,leave a hole or bins ,in case people come back with trash ,and they always do.



We have done a lot of comunity cleaning and if you dont leave alternatives or try to work on peoples guilt feelings (some people actually have those ,but not many) ,than your efforts are a waste of time.



That is what we do in Mexico.



POSITIVE ACTIONS

Print Tshirts with slogans ,hang posters all over the place (with recycled paper if possible).



Classify trash, take out all the organic waste and make compost with it ,the worst you can do is throw it with the trash,or burn it .



70% of contamination is due to organic waste that is mixed in with the garbage .

and it is just as bad in the sewer where it helps to breed rats and in the landfill it poisons the ground .



This is the easiest to take care of .



First of all we have to clasify trash ,at least keep the organic to one side ,like in a plastic bin with a lid .



If you got a few meters of ground ,you only need 1 or 2 square meters in a shallow hole ,(in the shade) ,that you can wet now and again .



Where you dump everything that is organic .

Toilet paper,bones vegetable cuttings ,eggshells,

deadbodies ,excrement ,cardboard,leaves,

shredded paper,old clothes (if they are organic),



Cover regularly with leaves or a piece of plastic,

to keep humid and to hide any smell .

REGULARLY spray some water over it ,but do not saturate it or the worms will die or leave.

The worms will decompose the wastes, turning it into beautifull black soil for the garden of flower pots .



If you are in a apartment ,if you have a balcony get a big plastic bin drill some holes in the side and lid ,



and add a few buckets of sand now and again to put over the trash ,you should realy stir or move the stuff at times to airate it ,and ensure that the decomposition is even ,keep moist



this rubbish does not get big very fast and the thing works for a long time with out getting full



----------------------Some more Positive thoughts

Global warming cannot be stopped but being friendlier to our Environment cannot be bad and maybe we buy some time.



If you want to help the planet ,plant a tree every week ,if everyone on the planet did we we would be able to slowdown the destructive processes.



Reduce carbon emisions,and they are already working on that ,by alternative forms of energy We need more regulations on carbon production.

Dont use aerosol cans,

Dont burn trash

Limit water use

Recicling wastes.



AGRICULTURE must invest in

Waterharvesting projects ,(such as thousands of small dams).to redirect over ground waterflows from the rains into the ground to supply subteranian water supplies.



Assist the capture of carbon and the production of water by promoting Reforestation.



The world bank pays large subsidies for reforrestation to capture carbon and the best tree for this is the Pawlonia .



Agricultural education and improvements to follow the principals of sustainability and soil management



GOVERNMENT

The protection of existing forrests.

Stop building more highways,

Urban planning to include vegetation

Stop building cities encourage people to return to the land to conduct their business from there ,which now has become possible thanks to the internet.



More environmental or land ,design to prevent bush fires,such as--fire breaks .

More dams,regulations and control for public behaviour.

Alternative effeciant public transport to discourage the use of the internal conbustion engine.



SCHOOL SYSTEMS

Education to motivate people to auto sufficiency by building more home food gardens.

Education on environmental awareness.

Education on family planning ,to curb overpopulation.



Here are a 100 more ways

http://www.eco-gaia.net/forum-pt/index.p... Source(s) Lester E Brown is the director and founder of the global institute of Environment in the United states .he has compiled a report based on all the satalite information available from NASA,and all the information that has

come from Universities and American embassies WORLD WIDE ,

his little book--a planet under stress , Plan B has been trans lated into many languages and won the best book award in 2003

Answer 27

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange

Answer 28

no