So we've been getting a lot of off topic stuff in the Recycle or Die thread, which has led to it being closed twice now, so i decided we needed a more focused thread in which much of that off topic debate can find a clear focus.
I have followed much of the debate and science on the subject over the last few decades and it became an important topic in my life as i started to understand the basic problem of where we are and how we got here and where we are heading in relation to the man made rise in CO2 levels we currently have. In that context i can't dispute the vast majority of the science that has been telling us (for a while now), that this era's fast rise in CO2 levels has been down to man's activities.
So as per the thread title, yes i do think man made climate change is real, and even likely to be civilization threatening if not dealt with asap (like over the next 20-30 years).
I offer a few links to back up why i'm off the opinion i am on the topic:
I offer those three sources as the basic framework that explains why man made climate change (also known as AGW for short) is real, as they cover some of the basic scientific data to support the notion that AGW is indeed a scientific fact. Not a personal opinion or distorted truth, but a real genuine fact and one much of the rational world is starting to take note off in earnest.
We now have Exxon-mobile in court over it's role in covering up what their own scientific studies into man made climate change had revealed to them over 50 years ago; the short story is that many of the big oil corporations knew their products (derived from burning fossil fuel) would lead to a global rise in CO2 levels and chose to bury that info, and worse create a narrative to confuse the global understanding on the issue, which is where the majority of man made climate change denial comes from.
We have the leading financial markets and business people start to want to divest from fossil fuels, and some are even issuing stark warnings about the need to totally remove fossil fuel from our lives (as to para-quote the CEO of Morgan Stanley, "what use is an economy when there is no world to have it in")
We have a growing student and social movement that is seeing people prepared to go to prison to force governments to respond to the threats of AGW to our socities.
We have the 'scientific consensus' as given in that wiki link to describe the basic common agreement across most of the scientific disciplines in relation to the acceptance that AGW is real and a real danger to all our lives.
We now need the action, from ourselves and our governments and corporations, to ensure that this historic CO2 rise in earths history is not going to be the symbol of our future extinction.
So this thread is 100% about what side of the argument you fall into and why, it is upto to each of us to prove our opinion on the subject. Can you?
Edit: a couple more links to explain the subject:
1. Global Warming & Climate Change Myths
2. Climate warnings from the distant past
I have followed much of the debate and science on the subject over the last few decades and it became an important topic in my life as i started to understand the basic problem of where we are and how we got here and where we are heading in relation to the man made rise in CO2 levels we currently have. In that context i can't dispute the vast majority of the science that has been telling us (for a while now), that this era's fast rise in CO2 levels has been down to man's activities.
So as per the thread title, yes i do think man made climate change is real, and even likely to be civilization threatening if not dealt with asap (like over the next 20-30 years).
I offer a few links to back up why i'm off the opinion i am on the topic:
Evidence
Takeaways The rate of change since the mid-20th century is unprecedented over millennia. Earth’s climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 800,000 years, there have been eight cycles of ice ages and warmer periods, with the end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago marking...
climate.nasa.gov
The Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 7,000 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives.
The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is extremely likely (greater than 95 percent probability) to be the result of human activity since the mid-20th century and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over decades to millennia.1
Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale. This body of data, collected over many years, reveals the signals of a changing climate.
The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was demonstrated in the mid-19th century.2 Their ability to affect the transfer of infrared energy through the atmosphere is the scientific basis of many instruments flown by NASA. There is no question that increased levels of greenhouse gases must cause the Earth to warm in response.
How can man-made climate change be proven?
If observed climate variables such as temperature or precipitation change over time, it raises the question as to whether human influence plays a role. To investigate this, scientists are applying a method for estimating causal relationships.
phys.org
The fact that greenhouse gases emitted by humans are changing the global climate system is scientifically undisputed. Climate researchers often look to the future with their models and try to calculate how the increasing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere will affect various climate variables such as temperature or precipitation.
Scientific consensus on climate change - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Scientific consensus on climate change is the consensus of climate scientists regarding the degree to which global warming is occurring, its likely causes, and its probable consequences. Currently, there is a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports.
Nearly all publishing climate scientists (97–98%[1]) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change,[2][3] and the remaining 3% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.[4]
I offer those three sources as the basic framework that explains why man made climate change (also known as AGW for short) is real, as they cover some of the basic scientific data to support the notion that AGW is indeed a scientific fact. Not a personal opinion or distorted truth, but a real genuine fact and one much of the rational world is starting to take note off in earnest.
We now have Exxon-mobile in court over it's role in covering up what their own scientific studies into man made climate change had revealed to them over 50 years ago; the short story is that many of the big oil corporations knew their products (derived from burning fossil fuel) would lead to a global rise in CO2 levels and chose to bury that info, and worse create a narrative to confuse the global understanding on the issue, which is where the majority of man made climate change denial comes from.
We have the leading financial markets and business people start to want to divest from fossil fuels, and some are even issuing stark warnings about the need to totally remove fossil fuel from our lives (as to para-quote the CEO of Morgan Stanley, "what use is an economy when there is no world to have it in")
We have a growing student and social movement that is seeing people prepared to go to prison to force governments to respond to the threats of AGW to our socities.
We have the 'scientific consensus' as given in that wiki link to describe the basic common agreement across most of the scientific disciplines in relation to the acceptance that AGW is real and a real danger to all our lives.
We now need the action, from ourselves and our governments and corporations, to ensure that this historic CO2 rise in earths history is not going to be the symbol of our future extinction.
So this thread is 100% about what side of the argument you fall into and why, it is upto to each of us to prove our opinion on the subject. Can you?
Edit: a couple more links to explain the subject:
1. Global Warming & Climate Change Myths
2. Climate warnings from the distant past
Climate warning from the distant past
We looked at sea levels 125,000 years ago. The results are terrifying.
cosmosmagazine.com
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