I sourced this image from nasa.gov

The trend is obvious. As we move further into the future and emit more CO2 gas, the global temperature average will of course increase. There hasn't been a huge increase but there is a significant amount. Think about in a century there may very well be an increase of 1 degree. With the accelerating amount of CO2 emitted. What are your thoughts? Should this worry us or do you think this is natural?

Wether or not we did or did not cause this, it is a worrisome issue. If we did cause this then we need to change what we are doing. I have heard many arguments from people that say that what is happening is a natural cycle of our planet. I have also heard just as many arguments saying it is our doing, and they are both convincing.

If we did cause this, it is not a issue we can fix in our lifetime, we need to convince our "prodigy" to continue with recycling and to develop new ways of sustainable living. If our planet is lucky it will be balanced within about a couple thousand years....

Either way we and our future children need to prepare for what is coming, and think about the planets and their future.

Whether it's natural or not, I'm fairly unconcerned about it. Almost 150 years with less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit difference with the first good bit of that being without any environmental controls at all.

As anyone who has studied the global temerature across millions of years knows the global temperature fluctuates all the time.



However it does this over thousands of years not just a few decades. Rises in global average temperature by just 1 degree typically can take up to one millenia, and we've seen a rise of 0.7 degress just in the past 50 years or so. This is very serious and can only be caused by man.

So in short, Yes, we should be very worried.

Originally posted by AnIntellectualRedneck
Whether it's natural or not, I'm fairly unconcerned about it. Almost 150 years with less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit difference with the first good bit of that being without any environmental controls at all.

Well you should be.

2 degrees may not seem much when you’re adjusting your air conditioning, but it can push the snowline up mountains by several hundred feet, push the territory of malaria carrying mosquitoes hundreds of miles further than it has previously ever been (Malaria by the way kills more people per year than any other disease in the world), and can push temperature zones much further north at a pace which cannot be adapted by native flora and fauna, even assuming we had not created all these blockages by building roads and fragmenting forests through our ‘progress’. And this is just the 'tip of the iceberg' so to speak.

Increased temperature means increased energy in the atmosphere, which means far more intense storms and hurricanes heading further north than ever before. Hasn’t the U.S. been battered enough for you to open your eyes? It also effects the world in a feedback loop meaning the wetter places will become far wetter and the drier places will fry even more, meaning more droughts in areas which are already on the brink.

The global temp seems to act much like a pendulum as I see it. Looking at that graph, it swings up and then down just as much in the opposite direction. The graph shows we are in a downswing. Perhaps it will go down faster than people expect. Doing just the opposite of what people think currently. A very fast ice age.

Earths climate does go through cycles from ice age periods to warm periods. These cycles are due to the orbit and tilt of the planet. Our planets cycle has just come from an iceage to a warm period. However this cycle we are in now the makeup of the planet has changed. The entire chemistry of this planet has changed through the actions of humankind. The planet has a delicate balance to maintain the right conditions to support life, plants animals and the planets chemical soup all contribute to making the planet hospitable for life. Humankind has disturbed the chemical makeup of this planet slaughtering animals in the millions in which they contributed to the health of the planet, alongside with the mass destruction of the planets fragile eco system. Ask yourself this. You think we can continue carrying on like we are continuing to do and have no consequences?
Whenever there is rapid warming it always is followed by a rapid cooling.

Is everyone forgetting that these temperature changes and other oddities of climate and local conditions are also being observed on other planets within our solar system? Our own moon seems to have magically developed trace atmosphere when no one was looking..among many other signs. Signs of what? Great question...in fact, I'd call that the question of a lifetime and hope I'm not being literal.

Humans are sure causing pollution, no question. Let's knock off the misdirection into literally looking at the sky falling though and look back closer to ground level at fracking which destroys our bedrock and pollutes our very deep water. Perhaps looking at the pollution in the Pacific that can be tracked from space. Or just GMO pollution of food crops globally.

It's all real and not debatable. It's right there to see and touch and smell....and oh good lord the smell, depending on the locale, eh?

Blame the volcanoes and methane. Our puny little emissions ain't got # on our planet itself. As someone else pointed out, earth has cycles, and they seem pretty consistent. Humans aren't warming the globe, though we are destroying it's species.... Which should we be worrying about? The scientists trying to make man-bear-pig a reality, or the politicians trying to scam people into carbon taxes?

One is more easily dealt with than the other... I mean, there is a 99.999 % chance everyone reading this thread ate food made in a lab, or was fed something made in a lab

You should only worry if you are going to do something about and then you don't need to worry because you activly trying to fix the problem.