Yes. The globe is warming. There's irrefutable proof of this. You don't have to take Al Gore's word for it. The planet itself is telling us.

The causes (note, causes plural!) are debatable, but only a moron would say that it is all our fault. Also, only a moron would say that we have nothing to do with it.

The fact is, global warming is complicated. People assumed there was no way human activity could ever hurt the planet, but over the last century we have discovered eco-disasters that are completely our fault. Ozone layer, and the hole? Yeah, that was our fault... and by our actions, we did fix it.

I hear what you say Tyna, but as this planet is 3/4 water, and there is underwater vulcano's as well as surface ones, the toxic gases released into the atmosphere is as bad as car gases ... I agree we don't help matters, but it seems that now a Cows burp is also to blame, and that they are to be fed different food ... cows have been eating grass for years, now we're told that they also are effecting Global Warming ... I know it sounds daft, but the next thing we'll be told is that we gotta stop releasing body gases too ... imagine that .... boom .. internal combustion YUK

Oh yes, volcanoes on and under the water are one of the numerous causes for global warming; certainly! There are hundreds of causes... and there is startling evidence unfortunately stacked against us.

Since the industrial revolution began, the amount of warming we have seen on the planet has been higher ... than ever seen in the earth's history.

We don't need human documentation to see that. The ice in antartica and elsewhere tells us this. The geological surveys tell us this...

Looking at the Earth with a very long time span point of view, we are actually in an ice age right now. I just read that in some magazine, I think a National Geographic. Anyways, it is clear the Earth is warming up at a staggering rate compared to previous warming periods. That was in there, too. Scientists do not debate this warming trend, they do debate the reasons.

I think 7 billion people on Earth probably have something to do with it. I also think that the Earth cycles through these periods (duh) and we are along for the ride, and stepping on the gas pedal. Pun intended.

YES, that's exactly what I'm saying (even that heretic Al Gore! lol). The issue to worry about now (for "believers") is whether or not we can pull back off the throttle.

the inconvienet truth

Global warming is happening, and its so scary I think we need to change our ways and start helping the environment

In a reference to the title of this topic... at least in America, the government is still trying to deny global warming exists... but that's because this country is run by big business who are worried that "clean running" will lose them money.

exactamo!!!!!!

This was my point .... so they raise taxes to compensate for it. We in England, just like you guys have banned smoking in pubs .. good idea..
so if smoking kills, why don't they ban smoking altogether?! Cos we are heavily taxed on it .. they'd have to seek thier 'pocket money' from elsewhere, raising tax on alcohol and petrol (gas), and other contributes which make us humans tick. Give it a few years and they'll start taxing us on the Air we breathe to I wasn't saying Global Warming doesn't exist, and Tyna has put her finger straight on the button, this is why we've been penalised for having bigger cars etc.

"Global warming is happening, and its so scary I think we need to change our ways and start helping the environment "

As birch unknowingly pointed out the climate has been changing since the dawn of time, long before man, I see no reason why Global Warming should be attributed to mankind _ i think they are using this naturally occuring climate change to raise taxes and introduce nucular power stations.

however I agree we need to change our ways and start helping the environment

We have all the energy we need without using fosil fule, we have the ocean that is so huge it could power the world and vegatable oil to run cars.

i agree with you here- on the helping the environment part

the climate has changed
but its always been changing
yeah throw a few billion people and a few billion cars and factories and houses and a whole group of machines onto the planet- hell yeah its gunna do something tot he way the earth is!!! to the climate and the precipitation and the lakes and the trees...and the air
we are working machines...humans. have turned a beautiful plante into a giant mass economy that survives on money,and work. and we drive to work. we use gas in our cars every day. we pollute the air and we think nothing of it while were doing it
t be honest ill be going shopping in a few hours
and while we are driving to the mall i wont think for one second that we are hurting the planet
because i am a selfish american
thats all ive been brought up to know

I pointed it out knowingly. Not everyone has the reading comprehension of a marmot.

You are truly foolish if you believe seven billion (give or take) industrialized creatures have zero effect on the environment. It's just denial. "Like a child who doesnt want to hear sticks their fingers in her ears and repeats "la, la, la, la" you dont want to know, you want to stick your head in the sand".

At least you've got the right idea about renewable energy resources.

I believe some is definetly humans fault. Did you guys read about the Pascua Lama mining project? They discovered somewhere between Argentina and Chile is huge amount of gold and it's very near very important glaciers. Well the project has been approved by both the chilean and argentina goverments and they are going to dig a huge hole very near those glaciers just to suck all the gold they can find there. They claim it won't affect the glaciers but come'on how can something like that won't affect the ecosystem and the glaciers in the long run? Oh well but it's all about the gold and money. Amazing how humans can destroy the earth for a rock that only the humans have placed value to it.

They are paid off to think that way.

It's funny how humans do almost everything over two things that don't exists: 1. Money and 2. Borders.

scientists don't raise taxes. they've been trying to drill it into everyone's heads, including goverments, that this is real and that there are things that can be done by human beings to alleviate it. can you seriously say with a straight face that there is a huge group of hundreds, if not thousands, of top scientists conspiring together to make you pay more taxes on your SUV? the governments are reacting to the public's demand to respond to a problem because people are finally starting to accept some responsibility for taking care of the only planet we have to live in. if we mess this one up to the point where we can't live comfortably in it anymore, our SUV's are not going to be much solace to us. the only reason it is hard to accept for a lot of people in industrialized countries is because we live in excessive comfort and convenience and are not as vulnerable as people in developing countries who are the first ones affected. it wasn't until Katrina hit that people in the states really took a good hard look at what some of the ramifications of global warming could be.

not only katrina but look at the freakin weather?! i live in texas where every year around may we have 100 degree PLUS temps all summer long
well this year on easter it snowed here
and on christmas of 2006 it was 89 degrees when its usually 50

and weve had flooding for weeks already
we got 22 inches of rain in 13 days
this is the first time texas has EVER flooded during the summer
we usually have a drought

I'm glad you mentioned that, girlfriend.

What many people don't realize is that "global warming", while an accurate name, is more understandable when called "global change".

Global warming F's everything up. The gulf stream could stop working, and that would plunge Europe into another cold-age. Yes, global warming can cause cooling. It's basically an unbalancing of the environment.

I like how it was stated in a Discovery Channel program... The change is coming. We can't stop it at this point (if we ever could). Our actions since the industrial revolution (not picking on it; so many good things resulted!) have simply accelerated a natural upswing. We're actually due for another ice age any day now (according to geological records).

We have accelerated the warming that may already have been happening. The crash and change that is resulting from this may be slowed down/made less severe if we change our ways. Otherwise, drastic climate change is going to be harsh, severe, and (as far as the planet is concerned) very sudden. It my even be sudden in the eyes of humans.

We can do something to ease ourselves into this change; but we have to start now, just as we stopped putting CFC's into the atmosphere. We have proven we can have an adverse effect and we have proven we can help the planet fix itself.

yup yup!!!

if you think about it its so much more than just an ice age

the glaciers melt
and cause water to cover the contenets
waves get bigger and bigger
heck what about that tsunami that hit india (i think it was) a few years ago out of no where??!?!?

we can do something to stop it
we can help in some way
if everyone in the world replaced just ONE house hold lightbulb with one of those energy saveig bulbs do you know how much money we would save? let alone how much good we'd be doing on the earth

more solar panels
more cars that run on electricity
more hybrids