Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Pockets
I know this might be a tad off topic, but as some comments have been made in reference to global warming I have a quick question: why are people so convinced that human activity is dominant cause of global warming. I'm not saying it isn't (I'm hardly anything remotely resembling an expert on the area), but warming and cooling far beyond what we are experiencing has happened in the past (way before humans industrialized). Take the end of the ice age, when the glaciers covering a massive portion of the northern hemisphere receded. There were no people spreading greenhouse gases at that point, so it's not as if natural warming has never occurred. I don't doubt that human activity plays a role in global warming (or cooling), but I think people might be a little quick to exaggerate it.
Just my $0.02
|
I'm not convinced that we're the
dominant cause of global warming or climate change overall. I do believe that the profound impact we have on the environment creates a domino effect with sometimes unimaginable consequences. What we do cause, almost incontrovertibly I postulate, is rapid acceleration and amplification of localized events that slowly accelerate global change over what it would have been had we not made our impacts in the way we did. I believe it's been happening for centuries, yet it was nearly undetectable in the 1800's due to lack of global communications and the non-linear development characteristic of anything the human species does.
As an example, I'm pretty sure the French didn't analyze environmental impact in Haiti when they cut down 95% of the forests for, essentially, cash crops a long long time ago. Now, not only is the Haitian soil not quite suitable for food crops it also creates a localized effect of erosion and dust bowls. While seemingly minute, those logically contribute to the region's weather patterns (localized heating, high winds) which also effect the Gulf of Mexico.