Can anyone give me a clear social defination of what is global warming?

[♪Nkauj Hli♪]

I am not a science person, so please explain it to me in simple terms. What are some of the causes and effects? What can I do, or a community or a country do to in order to slow down the process of global warming? How would we do it?

[Jeff]

Global warming: A scientific hypothesis which states that the earth is, on average, getting warmer than it was in previous centuries.

The cause: An increase in CO2 in the atmosphere.

The effects: ice caps melt, fertile farmland becomes desert.

The politics: It's industrialization that's the cause, therefore the solution is to de-industrialize.

Or, more recently, let the "free market" solve it by forcing everyone to buy "carbon credits", to offset the problem (or guilty feelings toward the problem).

It sounds a lot like "selling indulgences", with Al Gore playing the part of Pope Leo X, and Rush Limbaugh/Glenn Beck playing the part of Martin Luther. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ninety-Five_Theses

[johndoe3214]

Global warming is a hoax invented by Al Gore sometime in the 1990's to jump start his bid for the US presidency. It is now used by several wacko who are just a step away from the nut house. It is also used by a few greedy corporations to promote overpriced products and to make a quick buck.
All evidence says it is a hoax:
1. The ice caps on both poles are not melting as claimed by the loons. ALL reputable scientists say only 2% of the ice is melting. The other ice caps are either increasing or staying the same
2. The 2% in the Antartic is due to long thought to be dormant volcano underneath. This volcano erupted 2,000 years ago and just recently have scientists discovered it has eruped again.
3. The weather in several parts of the world is actually cooling and not warming as commonly thought. Take California as an example.
4. 1934 was the hottest year in recorded history. That year does not sit well with the global warmist loonies.
5. The temperature over the last several decades has risen faster on Mars compared to Earth. Now the loons I guess are trying to say there must be Martians there doing a lot fossil fuel burning.
6 It seems that what is forgotten is the econmic cost of fighting a non existant problem. A conservative estimate agreed upon buy all major economists is several trillion US dollars. The cost however is not all in money. It is known that if the loons have their way it will result in a minimum of several thousand premature deaths daily worldwide. Most of these deaths are children in undeveloped countries.
7 Those who are not affected by 6 above will see their standard of living drop dramatically. The great depression of the 1930's will be considered happy dyas compared to the economy after we spend trillions a global warming hoax.
8 Due to lack of funds and research being considered anti green. diseases which were wiped out or nearly so will become prevalent. so if 6 or 7 above don't affect there is a good chance some new rare disease.will

The above is not meant to scare you. It is just facts which hopefully will wake us up to the dangers of this crual hoax.

[rhsaunders]

The effect isn't a social thing -- it's a scientific thing, and a controversial one. However, any solutions to the problem (if it is a problem) will certainly require some social engineering to implement -- mostly because anything which is likely to have a significant effect will cost an unbelievable amount of money.

[louy lefty]

Google Global warming carbon Tax its a scam

Temperature Monitors Report Worldwide Global Cooling
Michael Asher - February 26, 2008 12:55 PM


World Temperatures according to the Hadley Center for Climate Prediction. Note the steep drop over the last year.
A twelve-month long drop in world temperatures erases global warming

Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.

No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.

Meteorologist Anthony Watts compiled the results of all the sources. The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C -- a value large enough to erase nearly all the global warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year time. For all sources, it's the single fastest temperature change every recorded, either up or down.

Scientists quoted in a past DailyTech article link the cooling to reduced solar activity which they claim is a much larger driver of climate change than man-made greenhouse gases. The dramatic cooling seen in just 12 months time seems to bear that out. While the data doesn't itself disprove that carbon dioxide is acting to warm the planet, it does demonstrate clearly that more powerful factors are now cooling it.

Let's hope those factors stop fast. Cold is more damaging than heat. The mean temperature of the planet is about 54 degrees. Humans -- and most of the crops and animals we depend on -- prefer a temperature closer to 70.

Historically, the warm periods such as the Medieval Climate Optimum were beneficial for civilization. Corresponding cooling events such as the Little Ice Age, though, were uniformly bad news.