In this article, http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/global-warming-report-finds-time-running/story?id=9159815, it is stated that, "Sea level rise, ocean acidification and the rapid melting of massive ice sheets are among the significantly increased effects of human-induced global warming assessed in the survey, which also examines the emissions of heat-trapping gases that are causing the climate change."

Apparently, scientists now say that we have less time to try to curb global warming. Some people believe that Global Warming and/or Climate Change is a joke, a way to make money, a "farce", etc, and that it is not real... That it is "natural". While the Earth goes through cycles, humans can and do contribute to the changes in our climate right now...but some people don't believe that. Yet, when you try to find evidence that polluting the ocean or the air is "good", none can be found...

How do animals benefit when we have huge oil spills and they are covered in oil? When we pollute the air and it comes back down on us as acid rain, how is it that we benefit from that? Can anyone else find research which suggests that our environment is not harmed when we pour chemical waste into the oceans and put CO2 into the air?

Do you think that Global Warming/Climate Change is real? Do you think humans have anything to do with it? Do you think it's just "natural" and is not affected at all by the pollution that people put into the environment? Do you think said pollution is good for the animals? Why or why not?

From what I understand (and I do not understand nearly enough about it, I'm not sure anyone does), I tend to agree with Aiure. What I find particularly entertaining is people don't seem to understand that we're speeding the process up. Look at it this way, if it's a hot day outside you're more likely to wear a white t-shirt that reflects the sun rather than a black one that absorbs it. So what happens when we start covering the earth with black roads and heat absorbing concrete????? ;)

That is 100% not how global warming works.

Well, it almost does work like that to an extent actually. I mean not really, black pavement isn't what is causing the increase of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, but the reason the arctic is experiencing such a fast decline in ice is because heat reflects off all the dark water and dirty snow. True story.

That's not a cause of global warming, however. It's the UV rays that are being trapped within our atmosphere that is causing the issues. Black streets absorbing sunlight isn't a cause of the issue.

Urban Heat Island Effect: Here are some sites and journal articles that you can access through places like google.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VH3-4J2TVXW-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1110335168&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=60e5acec64427a402f4719b5851eb0ff

http://www.epa.gov/hiri/

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VH3-4C829NM-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1110339090&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=2bec620a99e0d72ed552ff86a7e7f6a4

I have others but they're through Proquest Central and there's some old school ones on Jstor. But yeah, Against the Grain is right, it doesn't totally work the way I described it, but cities do absorb and radiate heat. You can feel the road radiating heat when you walk on it after a hot day.

honestly, i don't understand how smart and logical people think that global warming isn't real. i mean, seriously people? if you treat something like crap for years and years, eventually its going to bite you in the ass. thats the same for everything in life.

Climate change is a natural cycle, but human interference is messing with the entire process. Evolutionarily speaking, human interference isn't natural, because we knowingly and willingly play god with our surroundings, whereas lesser creatures (note usage of sarcasm) simply try to survive. And the reaction the earth is having to our constant presence ("global warming," etc) may be an attempt to rid itself of a problem, or it could be simply the natural consequence of our tampering. That said, it's incredibly difficult to tell whether or not the climate change is simply part of the cycle or the result of human presence, but it's also incredibly difficult not to use humanity as a scapegoat until we find out the truth.

I think it's happening... but nothing to do with us. I don't buy into the story that we have exacerbated it. The problem is that we don't have reliable past information to go on, so it's all just conjecture that this 'has never happened before at this rate.'

I'm currently reading a book on Medieval England and there were two years in the 1300s where it pretty much constantly rained. That was put down to 'global warming'. If it's happened in the past with little human interference, then it can easily happen again.
Also they can't get tomorrow's weather bloody right so I am highly skeptical as to why they should be able to forecast it years in advance.

Our government are always going on at us to reduce our energy consumption, but I think people are so skeptical because drive down any high street in England and count how many shops have their lights on all night. David Cameron (leader of the Tory party) cycles - yet has his briefcase follow him around in a car. I think if the politicians and businesses set an example then the public would follow. As it is, a lot of the public see it as a way to tax us and why should businesses and MPs be exempt?

Obviously pollution is no good (for humans as well as animals) but how can we offset the damage that is done by countries such as China? The difference that a little country like England makes by using energy saving light bulbs (which I hate - give me headaches) is probably negligible.

China's main source of electricity is nuclear power, if you took an england sized piece of China with the same amount of people as England, we are more polluting where carbon dioxide and methane is concerned. If you read the met offices site, the weather is always right, I assume you are watching bbc or itv weather, which well, you might as well flip a coin and trust that.

I've read the Met Office site and seen it be wrong quite a few times!

Oh and did you SEE the smog over Beijing? What, did that just magically appear?

It is because of the Geomorphology of the area, similar to San Francisco fog, the fog can also trap gases released into the atmosphere, which is why in Beijing and SF dimming is worse during times of high fog.

But how? You don't see news reports on pollution in San Francisco.
And 'Geomorphology'? I didn't study Geography past year 9 so... :-S

Geomorphology is just the geography of the area.
Basically, warm damp air (damp from the sea) and cool air meet forming a fog (like warm air hitting your cold windows) which due to the geography of the area (hilly) becomes trapped, the fog (water vapor) is denser (heavier) that most gases. A gas that weights less than the water vapor cannot pass up through the fog, so instead it is trapped under the fog until the fog eventually clears.

Oh right ok, thanks for explaining that.

I believe it's real, and that we're making it worse. Years of scientific research have shown this. :P

This is the weird thing.
Person 1 does not believe man is making climate change worse as we don't have reliable evidence to use.
Person 1 does believe that we are in a solely natural cycle of global warming based on evidence of past climates.
Hmmm.

It's real, it's scary, and we're going to kick ourselves really hard in the ass when we don't do anything about it and our entire planet is suffering even more than it currently is due to climate change. "An Inconvenient Truth" (by Al Gore obviously) is actually a pretty good book, I read it for a class this year, that puts global warming in really simple terms. Plus it has lots of nice pictures ;D. I never saw the movie so I don't know how it compares. I fear for the future of this world if we as people don't get our heads out of our asses and realize we need to take care of the planet that takes care of us. I don't think people realize that climate change doesn't just mean that the earth is going to get hotter (in fact some places could get colder, or stay the same) and the ice caps could melt, there are a lot of other scary things that could (and have already) happened that would greatly hurt how we use and live on Earth.

I honestly don't think people will ever know the answer. I personally favour the view that we are heading into a next ice age. Why doesn't that theory get as much attention? It's based on the same climate models. Maybe because that way we have no one to blame.

And why are people saying 'oh noez it's all our fault we need to do something!' Are YOU doing something about it? What else can you do aside from taking public transport (which can be difficult depending on where you live, and expensive), recycling, growing your own vegetables (if you have the time and a garden) and not consuming as much meat? I do all these and I am certainly not an environmentalist. Why is everyone so keen to blame everyone else when there is really very little individuals can do? It's big businesses that are making the most problems (if indeed they are exacerbating it), so why not go and rally them instead of a single person? THIS is what pisses me off about the global warming debate. People whine and whine to the general public but the people who actually cause the perceived problems aren't being whined at!

We aren't heading into an ice age, we are currently in an inter-glacier period of an ice age, if you are reading things that are telling you we are going into an ice age, then stop, what ever publications you are reading are clearly shit. Read something like Newscientist, Nature etc, or use google scholar when doing research, so you are reading actual papers and journals, not the press.

People have seen Inconvenient Truth one too many times. Al Gore explained that colder waters from the ice caps melting will cause a rise in sea levels (which IS a real threat), and mess up the currents in the ocean due to much colder, fresh water mixing and diluting salt water. That evaporates, and all of a sudden, super-saiyan cold fronts come in and fuck shit up where it shouldn't be. You could, I guess call it an ice age...

But it's not an ice age in the sense that the whole world is going to turn into a popsicle. That's what people actually believe.

I saw an inconvenient truth at school, it was crap, plus after its release he had to admit that most figures had been altered.

An ice age does not mean loads of ice, it is about global temperatures, in theory you could have an ice age without any ice, most people seem to think that areas which are normally temperate need to be covered in ice (or be like the film ice age!) for the Earth to actually be in an ice age.

Do you have proof of that? I've never read anywhere that he admitted that the figures were altered.

One of the things he did was use images from the film a day after tomorrow to show ice caps which had totally disappeared!
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2008/04/22/abc-s-20-20-gore-used-fictional-film-clip-inconvenient-truth

Then he went back on the comments he made in the film about his own view through 'research' on Co2, the reason he went back on his statement is because he was bombarded with actual research.
http://peopleforfreedom.com/new-world-order-news/rogue-government/al-gore-admits-co2-does-not-cause-majority-of-global-warming/

He also paid British scientist to fake their figures (which he uses in his graphs and such), this ended up being picked apart in a British court