Global Warming: Is it real or is it propaganda?

To me, it is real. I see the earth’s surface temperature charts and
how it has risen so, and even more so in recent years, and I’m not
sure how to interpret that any other way.

What say you, wise one? :)

I am not wise, but I am a believer. I believe global warming is real :)

The planet has its ice ages, they come and they go..I do not
think we have any control over that.

The question is, do our actions speed up the process in this
window of weather we now enjoy, or at the least appreciate.

I do not think it out of the realm of possibility.

Another thing to keep in mind,
is that we're in the early stages of a
Grand Solar Minimum.

Can be both and/or neither.
Too vague/simplistic of a question.

Global Warming again?

Giving up steak for Climate Change
http://mingle2.com/topic/585001

Mother Nature Refutes Global Warming
http://mingle2.com/topic/585765

THE ULTIMATE IN FAKE NEWS IS CLIMATE CHANGE
http://mingle2.com/topic/576497

That is just three threads focused on it.
It doesn't include all the threads where the discussion has lead to it.

Global warming is a natural process of the Earth.
Global warming will increase as time goes on because the Sun is getting hotter.
Natural processes of the Earth have a greater influence on global warming than people.
People do contribute to global warming.
There will be a point in the future where the climate will be hostile to our form of life.
If we cannot evolve, we will perish.

Other people had no problem...

Once Scientists can explain why El Nino and La Nina happen in the Pacific Ocean, then I might listen to what they claim regarding human impact on "Global Warming" or um "Climate Change" as it is now known.

Until then it sure seems like propaganda to make people rich... Both those reporting it that rely on listeners or viewers or web clickers and those that have the "Solution" such as CO2 with Cap and Trade... Yup let's make money solving this problem...

This ^^^^
And aside from the natural shifts of the planet and its weather I think it's a lot of BS to exploit us by milking this natural phenomenon.
So many scientific research keeps turning up that it is NOT us, but the ones in power ignore that and focus on what we should stop doing.
Like we having a nitrogen crisis in our country and we all have to stop driving petrol cars, cooking on gas and so on, costing the people a fortune.
Thing is, why aren't other countries having a nitrogen crisis? Does it all gather within the Dutch borders? I feel it is total bullcrap. Yes, we'll have to change the way we live worldwide, but not like this. It shouldn't be about people filling their pockets with it at our expense.

The likes of Greenpeace, WWF or David Attenborough were warning us years ago about the impacts of global warning. But most of us did not listen. Now we pay the consequences

I think that I've made it clear that man-made climate change, global warming or climate catastrophy is not happening, at least as far as I can tell. The biggest driver of Earth's climate is the Sun, which as Rockgnome pointed out, is entering a grand solar minimum and means things are probably going to get a lot colder down here. I would be more concerned about that and the effects on agriculture than I would be almost any amount of warming. Carbon Dioxide is not a pollutant, it is one of the signs of life on a planet and as a "greenhouse" gas, our contribution is dwarfed by every volcanic eruption on the planet. It might have escaped notice but "we" or "The West" are no longer the major source of pollution on the planet but the East, in particular India and China. Finally, when they can produce a weather forecast that is accurate for more than ten days, I might pay some attention to projections that exist only inside computers and depend on the information and parameters programmed into them. Garbage In, Garbage Out.
And relax

What you say about the sun, and the East being major problems with causing serious pollution is spot on. I doubt much has changed since I was there in the late 80s, and the amount of plastic (bags) they go through is insane! If you buy a plastic bag they put it in a plastic bag for you to take home. Buy a hairclip and they put it in a plastic bag.
We went to the garbage belt of Jakarta one day. Much of what's there is plastic, plastic, plastic.
Then the amount of cars and mopeds...
So yep, totally agree.

Volcanoes... not sure whether these are a problem. Maybe because we cut down way too many forests... As it is it might be a problem, with much of the Amazon gone, forests in Australia, and Siberia.

Yes, I think we can always do with planting more trees. Luckily, as I said in a previous post, Lancashire is planting more trees to reforest what was lost in the industrial revolution.

Thirty to twenty years ago scientists told us it would happen, but what did we do - business as usual = greed is good. Now wildfires are more frequent, corals are dying from heat, rivers and lakes are drying up, more violent storms cause more soil erosion, which pollutes rivers and coasts, and the remains of the natural world seem earmarked for "jobs and prosperity", because the governments you elect are hooked on wasting your tax money and demanding more. And you need a job because you don't grow your own food. We are trapped until we change.

Everything is connected, even on the other side of the world, eg. the Southern Oscillation Index, pressure differences between Tahiti and Darwin, indicating a decrease in the strength of the Pacific Trade Winds, and a reduction in winter and spring rainfall over much of eastern Australia and the Top End.

Burning coal, peat, natural gas, petroleum products and more, which took millions of years to build up and be compressed underground by some catastrophe heaving dirt, and we burn billions of tons of it over just a few hundred years, causing an unprecedented increase in gases which reflect heat back to earth. There is a lag time, meaning if we stop now it will be decades before any improvement is seen - better to err on the side of caution.
Add on that the sun is going through cycles of slowly ever increasing heat, and we need to make things easier on ourselves and the rest of nature, in the future.
Politicians and industrialists may ensure you have a job, (they profit), but they can't ensure you have a liveable place to live in a hundred or thousand years. They won't try, but you can.
Ice storms are not the end of global warming, they will become more severe, because the increased oceanic and atmospheric heat = energy, which can go into storms of all types, or help create dry lightning, causing wild fires.
It's all about energy.
AND, if we clean the atmosphere, the current pollution which filters the sunlight a bit, will be gone and the sun will feel and act hotter again.
A catch 22, but we have to do it for the long run.

It is both.

Planet Earth has gone through cycles of warming and cooling for as long as planet Earth has existed.

Does human activity influence climate change?
Answer: Of course.

Would planet Earth continue to get warmer even if humans didn't exist?
Answer: Absolutely.
Why: Because the Sun is slowly growing brighter.

The last #GrandSolarMinimum known to have occurred
was the Maunder Minimum, which lasted from 1645 to 1715. 
During that frigid 70-year period, temperatures plummeted
across the globe and famous waterways in
Europe including the Thames and Amsterdam
canal completely froze over.

This, in conjunction with a massive
volcanic eruption, produced what is
commonly referred to, as the Mini Ice-Age.

Without the Mini Ice-Age, the world of music.
YES, music, would never have known the
Stradivarius violin.


I believe, we can effect the environment.
Pollute it, poison it, make it unliveable.
We can move mountains, and destroy entire
ecosystems. But, none of that, will phase the
climate in the slightest

I know you all care what I think so allow me to interject. Global warming is real, as well as global cooling. It's never going to stop. Not lighting your BBQ or buying a coal powered car won't change anything. But, the bright side of the situation is if you look at a map there are some great real estate opportunities available if you really want to believe. It's political, nothing more nothing less. That's where the term "watermelon" comes from. It's a thinly disguised political agenda. Please, don't bite.

The Earth has witnessed Eras of global warming and cooling before. There have been five Ice Ages, with one or more Snowball Earth Eras included. Now is obviously a global warming era, so it's a reality, but it might be a part of the life cycle of our planet. The point though is that human industrial activities could accelerate this warming.

If the earth didn't change constantly there would have been no "Indians" in My mother country of the U.S of A. They walked here, people seem to forget that. So Don't think of it a catastrophe, think of it as an opportunity. If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.