http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/0....agkxud01.html

Based on the idea that burning enormous amounts of oil unnaturally cultivated from the earth causes climate change, one might say that the Tang dynasty burned enormous amounts of oil unnaturally cultivated from the earth. Apparently, three climate changes have occurred since the last ice age so there might be alternative, natural causes to climate change.

What does everyone else think?

 

I tend to use empirical means and peer reviewed sources. So far, the models appear to be reasonable and the data seems to match the predictions. In short, the experiment has begun and we'll find out soon enough what happens.

My understanding is low-lying countries and islands will be innundated and the peoples there either migrate or die. The coastal areas will become barrier islands and eventually submerged causing coastal populations to migrate or die (aka., New Orleans.)

I strongly suspect that after a while, we will reach a tipping point were other biomass carbon will be released from frozen tundra and possibly submerged entrapments. As for what happens to any given species, even our own, well our ancestors, if any, will decide.

Bob Wilson

 

I believe that there are natural cooling/heating cycles that the earth goes through. Past historical data show to that effect. The fact that we have been burning carbon fuels by the billions of gallons/tons for the last 150 years or so has probably thrown another wild card into the mix. Some scientists now believe that greenhouse gasses are a contributing factor to the warming that we are seeing. A good article from Yahoo is attached. Predictions are that 2007 will be the warmest ever in earth's recorded history.

Here in the boston area it will be in the high 50's and low 60's with no real winter cold in sight. No doubt, because of El Nino.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070104/...global_warming

 

Has anyone ever listed the green house gases that get so much press coverage? They include far more than carbon dioxide, which when considering the carbon cycle, is far too insignificant to have any effect on the atmosphere. There was a recent report from the UN blaming cows for global warming, citing the methane that they produce as a much more potent green house gas than carbon dioxide.

Given that Antarctica was a tropical rain forest 65 million years ago and there was an ice age 10,000 years ago, we can expect the planet's climate to naturally vary between ice age conditions and scorching heat, so whether or not we are having any effect on the climate is a big if.