Places to Chat
Climate Change:
Chatterbox: Down to Earth
Climate Change:
Climate Change:
Hi, I was wondering what everyone thinks about climate change and global warming? Does anyone not believe in climate change? If you don't, could you maybe explain why not? Also, everyone be respectful and kind.
submitted by Someone Curious, Wondering
(September 11, 2019 - 7:44 pm)
(September 11, 2019 - 7:44 pm)
Yes, I do believe in climate change. The tempratures of the world have fluctuated throughout recorded history. Twenty or so years ago, the big media 'thing' was global cooling! I honestly think we should be careful not to aggrivate these spikes and drops, but that we shouldn't try to stop it. As far as teh evidence I've seen has shown, it's a natural fluctuation.
(September 11, 2019 - 11:12 pm)
(September 12, 2019 - 8:57 am)
Okay, global warming and climate change definitely exist and are a concern. While it's true that the earth has warmed and cooled considerably in the past, what's going on right now is much faster than anything that's ever happened before. That's why pretty much every scientist out there is concerned. There have been loads of research and data and evidence. And everything shows that it's being caused by humans and what we're doing to the earth. Not to mention it's also causing massive extinctions, which is a different but related problem. In school, we're reading the book The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert, and it's basically about how in all of Earth's history, there have been five massive extinctions on a scale larger than any before. One of those was the extinction of the dinosaurs. And right now all evidence shows that we're in the middle of a sixth one, and that it's being caused by us. I don't think it's just that we should beware of further aggravating all of this, but that we should take steps to stop it or at least slow it down, before it's too late. Because this is our mess, and I feel like it's our responsibility to clean it up and take care of our home planet.
Admins, just curious, what are your thoughts on this topic?
I agree. A really excellent resource on climate change is on the NASA website, under their "climate.nasa" page. --admin
(September 12, 2019 - 4:24 pm)
But it's not completely by human actions. Our actions are aggravating the changes, but we shouldn't try to cancel them out completely. If we did, catastrophic consequences would commence.
However, you are very correct that the spikes and drops are getting out of hand. We must be good stewards of the earth and the living things that live on it.
(September 13, 2019 - 1:40 am)
(September 13, 2019 - 1:51 pm)
If its not completely caused by humans than wouldn't it be almost impossible to cancel them out completely anyway?
(September 13, 2019 - 3:12 pm)
Yes! That is a very good point! However, that is what a lot of the people I've interacted with about this in the past were pushing for, and they may still be pushing for complete negation... IDK
(September 13, 2019 - 3:54 pm)
Just curious, what catastrophic consequences do you think would come from attempting to reverse the effects of climate change? I agree that there should be a small variation in global temperatures from year to year, but I also believe in human-caused climate change, and that this is a totally different thing from the usual slight variations, and it should be reversed as much as possible
(September 13, 2019 - 5:05 pm)
So... *Long sigh*... Climate change.
I agree with most things that have been said so far, but I want to make a few points here. Climate change does not look dramatic on a chart- In fact, it's only a variation of a few degrees. However. If you see it on a chart, it is the average temperature for the year (Or every five years or whatnot.) The average temperature has raised by only 1.9 fahrenheit since 1880 (According to climate.nasa.gov). But like I said, this is the average. It is enough to melt the glaciers, though.
Here's another interesting fact; while yes, human-caused climate change has been way, way more dramatic in the last hundred-some years, it actually started with the first major-scale agriculture and tree cutting: rice. I don't understand it fully, being thirteen and not really wanting to read a hundred-some paragraphs long paper on rice contributing to climate change, but what I gather is that there are two main reasons. One: Cutting down trees in large quantities, which causes carbon dioxide to gather more, with nothing to breath it, and two: rice produces methane due to... Some decomposition process? I dunno. But yeah, as already stated, climate.nasa.gov is a great resource on this topic.
(September 13, 2019 - 10:20 pm)
(October 2, 2019 - 7:08 pm)
I didn't say that catastrophic events would occur if we tried to reverse climate change. Only if we negated it completely. If there were no differences in the Earth's tempratures, there would be no wind, for one. Airborne seeds wouldn't be able to spread, and some species of plants would go extinct. The lack of wind would also influence the currents on the surface of the ocean, possibly resulting in errors of some migrations and reducing waves on the beach or anywhere else to formless surges. The lack of the waves would mean that the water's surface isn't disturbed much, and that would affepct the oxygen levels in the water, which would affect the fish and plankton levels, indirectly harming countless ecosystems. Fluctuation in tempratures is vital.
(September 13, 2019 - 11:52 pm)
Wind is the horizontal movement of air from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure. It would be impossible to stop winds because they originate from the sun heating earth's surface unequally which result in convection currents. When air is heated it rises and as it rises it cools which causes it to fall again. This is a convection current. There is virtually nothing that can be done to stop this from happening unless you somehow found a way to block out all sunlight and heat for the entire planet. This has also been happening basically since Earth gained an atmosphere. On this I agree with you. Wind and other natural temperature fluctuation is necessary to survive. However I don't believe that by doing things such as halting major deforestation, taking gas-guzzling cars off the road, and eliminating food waste would stop these natural fluctuations from happening since they were occuring before humans even existed.
(September 14, 2019 - 8:21 am)
@Rogue Wilding
That's all true, but when people talk about trying to negate climate change, it doesn't mean that they want to stop fluctuation in temperature- Seasons would still exist!
Climate change is a different thing from temperature change. It's not like "summer is coming, so the sun will be warmer in our hemisphere", it's like "our entire atmosphere is trapping more heat than it used to".
Part of the point of negating global warming is to preserve fluctuating temperatures throughout the seasons. If the entire globe is warming because of the greenhouse effect, we're probably going to end up with less difference in temperature as a whole. And that's going to be a problem.
(September 14, 2019 - 8:51 am)
I think, respectfully, That climate change is a big problem and we all need to do something about it.
(September 15, 2019 - 7:25 pm)
I definitely think climate change is a problem that we need to come together and deal with.
(September 15, 2019 - 7:34 pm)