Global warming:help us!

[Kamikaze]

I've been reading about global warming for some time and i watched [/u]the day after tomorrow and i was devastated. The British government is 'too busy' fighting that slaggin war in iraq. And as for the USA government(no offense to any americans on the boards) mr Bush isnt bothered about the sea levels rising by about 100 meters! I have my whole life ahead of me and i'm not gonna want to drown in the sea!

[CabooseMoose7103]

Actually, the Earth has mechanisms for dealing with shifts in temperature and truth be told global warming isn't really that much of a problem. Once the temperature rises too high the Earth will cool itself. If I am remembering correctly, the more pollution we spew into the atmosphere, the colder the Earth gets since the pollution blocks out sunlight. The colder the Earth gets, the more water vapor in the atmosphere condenses around the pollution and falls back to the ground, clearing the air and alllowing the sunlight back in which allows the Earth to heat up again and build up more CO2 gas. Or at least it's something like that, I'm more of a Chemistry or Physics guy myself rather than Earth Science or Biology, so I may not have that completely right. At any rate, the Earth can and is compensating for any shifts in temperature. I mean think about it, the Earth recovered from the Ice Age, and there are many defenses our planet possesses that have kept it alive for millenia.

One thing to remember is that The Day After Tomorrow and other movies like it, such as The Core, are creations of Hollywood and not very accurate. I'd be more worried about the Moon drifting away from us and causing the Earth to go into a tail-spin, leaving the climate in chaos and threatening all life on it by disrupting the electromagnetic field that protects us from the solar winds (just thought I'd brighten eveybody's day ).

[Beastbot]

Yeah, global warming's effect is negligible at worst, beneficial at best. "The Day After Tomorrow" isn't based on a lick of science. You really need to read up on this stuff, Kamikaze-- I recommend this book, it will really put your fears at rest:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookse ... 5791&itm=1

[Miss Special]

The biggest reason the planet's getting warmer is because we're still getting out of an ice age. We're just cylcing normally, it's silly to expect the climate to stay the same forever.

(And, actually, the sea levels are dropping in a few places due to isostatic rebound. )

[Nurann]

Yeah, but then there's still the couple of holes in the ozone layer, and the fact that all that air pollution is giving us some nasty cancers. And I thought the air pollution trapped IN the heat, rather than the other way around?

Anyways, basic eco message; don't litter, recycle and...

"By YOUR powers combined, I am Captain Planet!"

;P

http://www.turner.com/planet/index_splash.html

[Kamikaze]

Well the day after tomorrow has some nice FX though! And i have been reading up about it. If the moon does move away,we could go colliding into the sun But i'll be gone by then,but my beast wars collection will as well

[CabooseMoose7103]

Yes, I know the moon is moving away, but it's about 1 cm per year or ten years or something like that. Not really much to worry about really.

[Beastbot]

Yeah, but then there's still the couple of holes in the ozone layer, and the fact that all that air pollution is giving us some nasty cancers. And I thought the air pollution trapped IN the heat, rather than the other way around?

The holes in the ozone layer are part of the Earth's natural processes, and wax and wane constantly. They nearly disappeared a few years ago, I think, but then came back again.

And the whole "air pollution traps in heat" thing ties into global warming anyways-- in other words, yes, it does affect the temperature some, but it's negligible.

(Yeah, I've read up a LOT on this stuff. Pol Sci geek here, guilty as charged.)