1. cindy reyes | 09.25.08

i think global warming is making a big effect on the world.ever summer its been getting hotter and hotter every year.i think its time to make a change.especiall the species if polar bears is dropping.the glaciers are melting in the north and south pole.and i think the huge affects on this are:the cars that waste to much gasoline,factories and pollute hte air,oil spills that contaminate the ocean.and i think that there has to be a start and start taking charge for it

(cindy,14)

2. Jill 23 | 09.25.08

I think the above article shows that a lot of climate change is so hopelessly beyond human control you have to question why we think we can control it. If man refocused a bit more on managing the environment rather than one one element, I think a lot of the ‘forecast’ issues with global warming will cease. As it is, it is clear people mix up global warming with man-induced environmental effects - witness the comment above by Cindy Reyes - polar bear numbers are currently INCREASING because hunting has been banned - nothing to do with global warming. Further more, ice is not melting at the south pole, it is increasing due to increased precipitation. I am 100% behind efforts to reduce man’s impact on the climate, but I get annoyed when people focus it all on one thing - C02 emissions. Most of the Earth’s CO2 emissions are from natural geologic forces beyond our control as this article demonstrates. Lets clean up our act at the local scale and see what a difference it makes to preserving the environment and polar bears!

3. Eve | 09.25.08

I agree with the above statement. Yes, the polar bear population is growing. No, no glaciers are melting and neither is the polar ice.
Humans have no impact on the climate and the thinking that we do is just stupid. So is the idea of taxing us for it. C02 is not nor has ever been a climate driver. C02 rises after temperatures rise, not before.
On the other hand the planets history shows that it likes 22C and it likes higher C02 levels. This is only the third time in this planet’s history that temperatures have been this low and C02 levels have been this low.
We cannot do anything about these things and those that think that we can do not realize we are on a planet revolving around a sun and humans are nothing.

4. kfw38C | 09.25.08

If you do some real research polar bear numbers are not increasing. Their average weight is decreasing and their child mortality rates are increasing. Some of the information regarding the increase in polar bears is supplied by Inuit tribes that are motivated to show higher numbers to justify hunting.

I find comments about natural cycles and humans having little to no control so sad and so repetitive. I get angered by the ideological comments about taxing when we have pissed away $500MM in Iraq and are now about to fritter away another $700B to bail out banks, hedge funds and investors who made stupid investment decisions, but enjoyed extraordinary profits until it was obvious that the emperor wore no clothes. How can one complain about taxing polluters when we subsidize the oil industry via military exdpenditures in the Middle East?

Eve, do you know what you are talking about? Can you provide sources to bakc up what you are saying?

5. milt | 09.25.08

The poles are melting. Both of them. There is some ice accumulation in some parts of Antarctica,but the over all effect is less ice. The glaciers on the rest of the planet are also melting and they alone will raise sea levels 3ft. this will happen by 2030. I often go to Glacier Park and there is no question what is happening there. Goodbye Miami,New Orleans….etc. CO2 rates are the highest in 400,000 years. Someone should quit watching faux news,the fascist news channel and broaden their horizons by reading a little more scientifically based literature. Then at least you might get the facts a little closer to the target.

6. Robert Taylor | 09.26.08

The finding of lost cities under the ocean at depths of 18 to 35 feet off of the coast of Sicily, in the Black Sea, and off of the coast of Japan, are indications of water rising (or continents sinking). A map donated to the US sets in the National Archives, which may is estimated to be approximately 6000 years old, depicts Greenland as a verdant land composed of 3 islands. It wasn’t until satellite images proved this to be true. The Vikings had agricultural settlements along the coast. An mini-ice age appeared in Europe about the end of the 13th century and caused massive crop failures, poor health, and weakness of the population. That is why the bubonic plague (which exists today in my home state of Arizona) took such a toll on people during the 14th century. Mt. Pinatubo, when it blew near Manila, produced more CO2 than the entire industrial revolution including automobiles (I read this in the newspaper while in Tokyo.

7. Peter | 09.26.08

Interesting research and I agree with the above comments. However I think CO2 is just a side show and the cold periods now, 140, 280 & 450 million years ago coincided with the solar system passing through the spiral arms of the Milky Way and picking up the effects of greater cosmic radiation. The major historical fluctuations of CO2 (4x to 10x today’s concentrations) could have more to do with major geological disturbances or space impacts, rather than changes in temperature as there appears to be no direct correlation over geological time. It is correct to say CO2 concentrations have not normally been as low as they are now, and it’s also thought that the earth has normally been 10 degrees warmer than it is today as we are in an ice age. This points to the fact that CO2 does not drive climate, but rather a combination of sun, geology and cosmic radiation are the drivers. Any attempt to pin fluctuations in our climate on just one factor demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of the little bit that we do know about how our world works.

8. Tony | 09.26.08

Sounds like you’ve read Henrik Svensmark’s book ‘The chilling stars’. I find that the evidence for Sun related climate change far more compelling than for Anthropogenic Global Warming. Furthermore, I am far more worried about an impending cold period than I ever will be by global warming. A number of solar physicists are warning that the Sun’s weakening activity may lead to a period of global cooling similar to the Maunder minimum of 1645-1750.

9. Kiwiiano | 09.26.08

Quoting Jill23: the above article shows that a lot of climate change is so hopelessly beyond human control you have to question why we think we can control it.
So the Indian Ocean floor, migrating northward toward Asia at around 1″ per year (and carrying the Indian continent with it) delivers enough methane clathrate etc to the subduction zone for the eruptions from the Kohistan Arc to tickle the delicate balance of the atmosphere enough to cause several million years of warmer temperatures and higher sea levels, a process that tapered off when India reached Asia, resulting in a slow drop in temperature.
But in the blink of a geological eye, Humanity arrived and is furiously releasing into the atmosphere 7 gigatonnes per year, every year (and rising) of fossil carbon from all over the planet, with an eye to releasing more clathrates, tar sands and every last skerrick of carbon we can find, while cutting down or burning every forest on the planet, then naively claiming it couldn’t possibly affect the climate.

10. Lila Jean | 09.27.08

In the late 1940s or early 1950s when I was about 12 or so I read an article saying that the earth is getting colder. I don’t remember if it was in the “Chicago Tribune” or some magazine. I was near to tears thinking there would be no more summers, that school vacations would be icy and miserable, no more iced tea, watermelon, fireflys, Good Humor Men or swimming in Lake Michigan. I tucked that notion into the back of my mind until all the talk of global warming. Oh, no. No more icescating or skiing, or luging. Whether warming or cooling I don’t own a car, don’t use papertowels or paperplates but draw the line on toiletpaper. I want to help but draw the line at listening to politicians with their half-truth alarmist warnings of impending doom who are trying to scare me into voting for them or their candidate or to join their annoying marches that create tons of litter from the forests of trees felled to print their endless flyers.

11. River Valley Rob | 09.27.08

SO when the concensus gets around that it’s the Sun or something else celestial, Governments will change their “Emmissions Taxes” to “wearing-out-ol-Sol” taxes by all them solar panels on our roofs.
You know what causes CO2? ( lets entertain for a moment that CO2 does drive climate ) Human Activity. From reading off paper what to purchase, driving to the store to do the purchasing, working ( and driving ) to afford said purchase, all the paper work involved in said work plus the unneccessary extra silly rot to stay in “compliance” to QA ( or whatever you Countries Standards Association demands you do to cover your backside so Insurance companies can say ” you’ve been told” ) and on and on , and then there’s a multiplier effect of what your companies clients/suppliers put in train because of equipmant to be manufactured and employees to pay for . . .
Now they want to save the world by Taxing the Populace to implement more CO2 in putting their schemes into place.
Remember the mantra: CO2 comes from Human Activity. Taxes ask Humans to work more. Humans working more makes more CO2. There’s a baseline of work to be done to cover living essentials, then Humans can attend to the looking after the Environs. Emissions Taxes stall peoples efforts to reach that baseline.
Like Lila Jean i’ve been “doing my bit” since the mid sixties, L-o-n-g beofre it became obligatory. I dont need any government to tell me how to assess what is really happening.

12. Jim Beebe | 09.28.08

Forget all the data, the research, everything that 99% of the scientific community is telling us about global warming. All you have to do is use your common sense. Go out in your yard and take a good look at your Daddy’s 1966 Apache pickup that became yours after he died 15 years ago or the Ford Ranger sporting 4 different tire sizes, including a bald donut spare. Better yet, take a look at that 4 cylinder Kia Sportage bought only last year that gets a whopping 20 MPG, the same as a six cylinder Trail Blazer. Start “it” up and then multiply whatever you see or smell coming from the exhaust pipe by say 600 million (gas powered vehicles) then times that by 60 seconds and times that by 60 minutes, then times that by 24 hours and, finally, times that by 365-1/4 days. It’s a simple case of denial to suggest that we “I want it all and I want it now” humans are not impacting the environment with our emissions, especially when you consider that the United States alone produces 9 tons of CO2 for every American just to generate electricity. And, though we’re not the worst ratio in the world, we are by far the biggest in number.
In 1952, when I was only 10, I can remember thinking that something would eventually have to give. That thought came to me while waiting for the light to change so I could get safely to the other side of Hempstead Turnpike, the main road cutting through most of the towns on Long Island. I didn’t know what would change or when or how or how we could avoid it but I did have a notion at to why…emissions. I’m not a person with a sparkling IQ or even a deep thinker but you don’t have to be to have common sense. It’s my impression that those that wish to remain in denial usually have ego-centric interests motivating their position. They never see beyond the mirror.

1. NAS reports: 50 million year cooling trend « Watts Up With That? | 09.25.08

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