|
Your opinion on Global Warming / Climate Change: [259 votes] | |
| It is real, and is largely caused by human activity (128) |  49% |
| It is real, but not sure about causes (72) |
28% |
| It is not real (49) |
19% |
| Don't follow the climate debate (10) |
4% |
Comments
Gregory PS, Climate Change Causes
While almost 50% of KDnuggets readers believe the current climate change is largely caused by human activity, there were significant number of doubters.
In particular, a few people commented that there should have been an option
"climate change is real, but not caused by human activity".
My mistake - I did not include this option.
I can understand that there are people who doubt climate change (especially when it snows in their neighborhood).
However, among people who follow the science and see that climate change is real, I was surprised that some can be certain that it is not caused by humans adding greenhouse gases into atmosphere.
Of course, climate is complex and scientists are not claiming that human activity is the sole cause of climate change. However, there is strong consensus that human activity is one of the major causes, according to The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - produced by scientists from almost all UN countries.
NF, Climate Change
Based on a scientific examination of gases captured from an ice core sample from Antarctica a few years ago, scientists reported results (CSPAN presentation -- sorry, I cannot find the CSPAN archive) that 2% of the estimated total global warming that has occurred over the last hundreds of thousands of years can accurately be attributed to human activity. To me, it is clear that we are witnessing natural climatic change. Some scientists project that we actually are
heading toward the next Ice Age.
That is not to say that we shouldn't care about responsible stewardship of this wonderful planet.
See
Ice core process analysis
Ruben Behnke, climate change poll
I agree with the second comment that says the option of "climate change change is real, but not caused by humans" in order to have at least something closer to a legitimate poll. The current options reek of political correctness and bias, but most definitely not of science. I am a graduate student in atmospheric science at a highly regarded university and it is clear that the science is much more complex (which most definitely does NOT all point to dangerous anthropogenically caused warming) than nearly always conveyed by the media. I fail to understand why this fact is not carried over into the conclusions of the 'concensus' science (leading to biased, bad, hyped up, or just plain junk science). Well, actually I do. It's called political agendas, business and personal agendas, money, personal careers and egos, etc. Polls like this one do not help - that's for sure.
Graham of St Ives, Worthless Poll
"It is real, but not caused by human activity."
Without that option, your poll is biased and meaningless.
Tom H. C. Anderson, not sure
Was looking for a "not sure" or "not enough info" option ;)
Steve Gallant, Issues with human-caused global warming
If you look at graphs over a longer period, there is indeed a correlation between CO2 and temperature, but changes in temperature lead changes in CO2. That's a huge red flag for anybody who has worked with time series.
In particular, there have been periods (after temperature peaks) where both temperature and CO2 were much higher than current levels, but temperature was droping. Other periods (at warming/cooling changes) where CO2 was rising, but temperature was dropping.
I've asked around, but never gotten a satisfying explanation for this fundamental "sanity check" for human-caused global warming.
d.y., extinction
At this rate, the human species (as we know it)faces extinction in less than 300 years. We are destroying the critical basic environmental elements (air and water) that we need to survive. As those basic elements become more scarce, the fight to control what is left will become more brutal and we will eventually destroy our selves in the trying. It's our destiny.....you think??