AndieHyde:
My brother, look at where you are right now.
You are stood on the cool portion of a molten rock that takes 365 rotations to orbit its local dying star in the hostile vacuum space.It has been doing this dance for 100’s of millennia.
Human caused global warming? BWAHWHAHWAHHWHAHWHAHWAHHWHAHWHAHWHAHWAHHWHAHWHAWHAHWHWAHWHAHWAHHHHAHWHAHHWAHHAHHWHAHHHWHAAAHWAHHAWHAHHAWHAHAHHBAWWAAAAAAAA…Breath…BWAHAWHAAHWHAAHHWWHAHHWHAHAHHWHHWHAHWHAAHWHAAHAAWAAAHWHAHWWHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHHHHAHHHWHAAHWHAHHAHWHAHWHAHAHAHHAHHAHWHAHHHWHAWH… and I am done.
The Sun is still expanding, so can`t really be said to be dying, can it?
The Earth has been orbiting the Sun for 4.5 billion years. But it was then a lump of bare rock with no atmosphere. Not very relevant to today.
Water was around quite soon after, and single celled life appeared 4.0 billion yrs ago.
The first atmospheric oxygen about 2.5bn yrs.
The first multi-cellular plants 1.0bn yrs.
Mammals 200m yrs.
Primates 80m yrs.
Man, homo sapiens, less than 2million yrs.
Anyway the atmosphere has been affected firstly by geological events, then plants and more recently animals. It is affected by what acts upon it. Everything has an effect upon it.
But to look at what effects us today, CO2 and the GreenHouse Effect. Just look at the past 1million years, OK?
climate.nasa.gov/system/content … 061219.jpg
Yes, weve had cycles in the CO2 level, but never have we had an upswing like we presently have. So, why is that? Why this steep rise in atmospheric CO2 if not due to us? Could there be another cause? Its not 100% sure that what we are doing is the cause of this, it`s true.
I think of it as being like the old smoking and cancer arguments:
There is no easy, straight-line cause effect graph between smoking and cancer. Some non-smokers get lung cancer, some heavy smokers die of old age, with no cancer.
But surely we all know that smoking increases the chances of cancer? The weight of evidence shows it to be so.
Similarly with anthropogenic climate change: there is no “smoking gun” (sorry!) single fact, but there is an over whelming body of evidence.
The chances of climate not being our fault does exist, but it`s silly to gamble our futures on that small chance. Smoking may not kill us, but how many see starting to smoke as a sensible option?
Anyways, check out the NASA climate site. Good explanation of the evidence for climate change, of probable causes, and of FAQs
climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
Worried about the independence of NASA?
history.nasa.gov/spaceact.html
“The expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space;”
“(3) provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof.”
Even “oil funded” and “big -business” biased presidents and rich climate deniers haven`t shut them up… yet.