I just wanted to get an idea of what the percentage of people believe, or don't, in Climate change and that it is partly or mostly caused by man.

The Earth has been through these cycles for millions of years and I think this is just the cycle of Earth.

Whereas I totally agree with the cycles I can not help but to look at how coastlines have been affected by man's structures. The deforestation of areas that not necessarily would have lost their treeline so quickly (argueable), limiting the areas for rain water to drain through infrastructure, contrails reflecting at high level and so on all affect to some degree the jet streams and so on. Only minor changes created (trying to keep away from the CO2 debate here), but surely have an affect, so I opted for man to have some involvement, but not totally.

Would we be in this situation without man being on Earth? Quite possibly, but not for another few hundred (thousand?) years, and possibly not to the peak that may or may not happen.

I think we should take better care of earth, stop acting like there is no tomorrow, because there might not be no tomorrow.

But, I find it strange that the ice-caps (south pole) of Mars are melting too. That's not from us.

mhm I totally agree...

though I also find it rather a big coincidence that Mars' icecaps are melting too. It would be interesting to see if theirs are declining at the same rate as ours, or slower. I find it hard to believe that all the CO2 we have pumped up there has had no effect...

Let's hope it's nothing to do with the Supervolcano in Yellowstone Park, they did a documentary on TV a while back about this and said that it erupted around every 650,000 years, the last eruption was over that and the water in that area is rising which they reckon is due to a build-up of magma underground. Makes my blood run cold!

Was that the one that went hand in hand with the telemovie? That documentary made me scared for ages!. Especially when they say that the next one is 20 000 years overdue!

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/sola...w_011206-1.html

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/07aug_southpole.htm

No that would have to errupt first before any major climate changes were felt.

A new report was just released on climate change. The biggest most reliable one yet. Man does contribute to climate change, there is no doubt about that. I am surprised by some of the votes!

Posted on Saturday, February 03, 2007 @ 12:35 PM CST by admin

The world's scientists Friday have warned that that we, humans, are the blame for a climate change that could cause a Earth catastrophe within a few decades.

The blame is being placed on emissions which reports say could increase average temperatures by as much as 6.4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century if emissions continue to rise. This comes according to a report of an expert panel set up by the U.N. to study the problem.

Scientists have discovered that Earth's land and oceans are becoming less able to absorb carbon dioxide.

An average global temperature rise of 4C could wipe out hundreds of species, bring extreme food and water shortages in vulnerable countries and cause catastrophic floods that would displace hundreds of millions of people. Warming would be much more severe towards the poles, which could accelerate melting of the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets. This would lead to a 21-foot increase in sea level, forcing the relocation of more than 300 million people living in low-lying areas worldwide.

The new warning comes as world governments face increasing pressure to agree a new global deal to reduce emissions.

"The world's scientists have spoken," said Timothy E. Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation. "It is time now to hear from the world's policymakers. The so-called and long-overstated 'debate' about global warming is now over."

The most significant effort to reach a common solution was the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which so far has not had much impact.

Although most of the scientific data behind the report have come out before, their aggregation into a single report, phrased in the boldest of terms, sparked an intense reaction Friday.

The report could be summed up in the one statement made by Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) who called the report "a scientific smoking gun."

More scientific studies have shown that the U.S. is the single largest contributor to global warming, producing about a quarter of the world's carbon dioxide emissions even though it accounts for about 4.5% of its population.

China, with 20% of the world's population, produces 14.5% of global emissions

Though global warming cannot be reversed, it can be mitigated, said climatologist Gerald Meehl of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. If emissions are reduced, "we'll have fewer climate changes and less warming. If they are higher, we'll have much greater changes. The longer you wait to begin reducing emissions, the worse the problem gets and the more you have to do to do something about it."

It has been estimated that the whole island nation of Kiribati will be submerged underwater in less than a hundred years. In fact parts of Kiribati, specifically Bikeman islands had submerged since the 1990's.

According to the South Pacific Regional Environment Program, two small uninhabited Kiribati islets, Tebua Tarawa and Abanuea, disappeared underwater in 1999. The islet of Tepuka Savilivili (Tuvalu; not a Gilbertese name) no longer has any coconut trees due to salination. [1] The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that sea levels will rise by about half a meter (20 in) by 2100 due to global warming and a further rise would be inevitable. It is thus likely that within a century the nation's arable land will become subject to increased soil salination and will be largely submerged.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiribati

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vfrUpyi8U-M

http://www.unescap.org/mced2000/pacific/ba...und/climate.htm

Maybe this is how atlantis (if it is real) dissapeared. They caused to much global warming and because they lived on an island, it was submerged.

I don't think we are totaly to blame for GW, but we can't of helped it. We cut down way to many trees. I agree that the earth is going through a cycle, and so is the sun (or could be), and even galacticaly as we pass through parts of the galaxy, that can effect us as there are denser parts with more stars, which may give off more heat.

Rather than speculate how real it is i wish the governments would start to prepare for it, like start building cruise ships for coastal people to live on.

Voted the only reasonable answer: Happening, but Not because of Man.

Happening partly because of man.

The earth goes through cycles of change, but the changes are happening more rapidly due to the aid of man.

So your saying the vast majority of climatologists are unreasonable?

(sigh) here we go again ...

I believe the Earth's climate is ALWAYS changing!

I also think we'd be better off researching ways to insure we survive as the Earth's climate continues it's inexorable change, instead of wasting all this time and money trying to figure out a way to both blame man and also increase his status as an actual significant participant in the Earth's climate.

No, this one was a separate documentary about eighteen months ago, really interesting it was. I know the one you are talking about though, that was good, seen that twice now lol. Scary isn't it.

Well concidering in the recent years it can be warm and sunny outside oneday and then cold and snowing the next sure i believe in climate change!

Yes but I chose undecided because I'm not sure if its happening because of man, due to cycles, or a little bit of both. Although I'm leaning towards cycles.

I've realized it's not worth it to argue with the deniers anymore, there will always be ignorant people out there like that. They are only stalling your progress and casting doubt into your mind. Wasting your time on them means they win, it's what they want. Go with what you feel would be the right thing to do. Spend your time conversing with people who really care and share the same concerns. Instead of posting threads saying human influenced climate change is the real deal, let's start posting some threads on good energy saving ideas.

I grew up just north of Yellowstone Park in Montana. Many of my family members worked at Chico Hot Springs resort. My aunt and sister both had the job of measuring water temperatures and taking samples daily out of the main hot spring that eventually gets piped to the pools. My aunt told me that the temperature had been gradually increasing over the years, although very slowly.

The waters of the UK have increased at an alarming rate recently, the University of Plymouth has a coastal research station and it has recorded temperatures since the early 80's rise by 5° which is rather dramatic.

I do believe that the climate is changing but, I find it hard to believe that it is all mans fault. (Women are involved too!). In the early to mid 1980's the dominant opinion was that we were in a "global cooling". Actually, a lot of the evidence still points to that being a possibility. If you look at the natural cycles of the earth over the eons, you see that it warms and cools with some regularity. Of course, none of this is something that you would notice over a life time. Geologists seem to indicate that we are going through a slight warming that is part of a "little Ice Age".

That being said, if the globe is indeed heating up, and most evdence seems to indicate that it is, I really don't believe that humans are the main culpret. I'm sure that our efforts do have an effect but, I think that net effect is more akin to spitting in the ocean than filling a wine glass with a fire hose.

Maybe this is how the Earth got rid of the dinosaurs. Maybe Earth only allowed us to evolve because it wanted plastic and now that it has enough plastic to last millions of years, it's trying to shake us off.

You know, 99% of all the lifeforms that have ever lived on Earth are extinct. Most of them died before we ever even got the chance to taste them. It is entirely possible that in ten thousand years, due to no fault of our own, we will no longer part of that lucky one percent.

We pump out billions of tons of green house gases and the world climate effects just happen to coincide with increased fossil fuel consumption and it just happens to be occuring at a much accellerated rate tying in with a massive decrease in carbon sinks, it is not just coincedence.. Most scientists including geologists believe global warming is caused by the effects of humans on the atmosphere btw

Here is an interesting fact from Thomas Stocker from the University of Bern, Switzerland. This was taken from a BBC news article.

Thomas Stocker: “We find that CO2 is about 30% higher than at any time, and methane 130% higher than at any time; and the rates of increase are absolutely exceptional: for CO2, 200 times faster than at any time in the last 650,000 years.”

This is very substantial. If humans haven't at least contributed in part or in full to this, then what has? Nay sayers claim that either 1)It's not happening or 2)It's the natural cycles of the earth. Where is the evidence that this is from the so-called natural cycles of the earth? I haven't come across any articles supporting that theory outside of the Opinion column in the daily paper or on certain politically biased websites.

Climate Change is inevitable, it is going to happen whether we want it to or not, but i have said it before, from what i know of history, and vulcanology(which is slightly more than the average joe though not by much) since before the beginning of the industrial age we have had very profound affect on our planets various ecosystems, we have wiped out several species of whale in the atlantic, we have nearly cut down every tree in northern america and most of europe, while stripping the lands of metals both precious and useful, using chemicals and other materials which are now; thankfully; banned, yet we refuse to see that our impact can actually change the weather, and not in our favor. we have had a very profound effect on our world, just read your ever loving history texts, dating back 50 years at least and you will see that it is fairly well documented.

just to be fair the earth warms and cools on its own, but that process take thousands of years, even several hundred, but never a couple hundred years.