[Ge. Stankov]

Well, I came across a fun little factoid, actually gathered from my parents on thier trip to the southern Aleutian Islands.

In Alaska, there is a massive bay formed from several rivers empyting into the sea. These rivers don't hold water, rather ice. They are Glaciers. Since the first man dipped oar in what's known as Glacier Bay, the glaciers have been retreating a few inches to a foot or so a year.

Glacier bay was once a several-score square mile ice field, only the mouth was adjacent to the sea. Today, cruise liners can go a few miles into the bay on ice-less seas.

Why? The glaciers have retreated almost to the shore.

Heres a photo of today's Glacier Bay, courtsey of the NPS.
http://www.nps.gov/glba/photosmultim...le&startRow=1#

As you can see, most of the bay is liquid water. So, they are retreating.

But the catch is this: We first discovered Glacier Bay around 1700-1705 AD. So in the span of 3 hundred years, they retreated at a steady rate.

But many say we are solely responsible for Global Warming. If so, the glaciers wouldn't be a few miles retreated. They would be retreating, but a few miles in the 90 or so years of agressive industrial pollution?

I am not saying we aren't hurting the atmosphere or the Earth, but what I am saying is that it's not all our fault, and really, we're having almost a minimal effect on the Earth.

Volcanic eruptions release millions of pounds of ash and dust, as well as sulfur, CO, CO2, and other dangerous chemicals into the air.

We couldn't match that if we tried, honestly. Eruptions have been happening every few decades, and some are ongoing. So, we are hurting the atmosphere, but the Earth seems to be taking a nautral course towards warmer climes.

So in 300 years, the glaciers have steadily retreated. In the past 90 years, we claim to have had a huge impact on global warming.

The problem is, volcanoes and natural disasters have been contirbuting far more!

So, my theory is that we will vainly try to cut pollution until of quality of living is so low, we gradually eschew environmentalism and return to our normal lives.

Now, I may be making an overstatement, but I just want to know if you guys agreed with this theory or not.

Thanks!
Stankov

[shasocastris]

We truly don't know all the causes of global warming. We do know for a fact that we help it along, but the real question is how much. We know that Earth goes through periodic coolings and heatings of itself, and I don't even know if we know what causes that. The main problem right now is that Earth's magnetic field is weakening, and will most likely in the near (100-200 years)future, flip. The problem with a flip is a loss of the magnetic field which will increase the solar particles hitting our atmosphere, heating it up. This is happening right now, but again, we don't know how much. IT's a work in progress of trying to figure out what's going on, but us stopping burning fossil fuels would certainly help.

[Tau Fanatic]

As shasocastris said, we know about as much about the Earth's cycle of life and craziness as we do about how the human mind works (almost nil). We should stop, and prepare for the crap to hit the fan.

[Spiritbw]

That is pretty much it. We don't know what the result of human action has on global warming. It could be minor, it could be major. Thing is without knowing how bad it actually is it'sbetter to err on the side of caution and consider the worst case scenario. It's not like doing that is really going to hurt us in the long run any how, but actually push a few technologies that otherwise might be neglected. If we don't pursue the worst case and we're wrong, it could be the end of all life on earth.

[Impulse]

I went to a "creation of earth" lecture a few months back. Yes, it did talk about God creating the earth (please don't start a war over this), but it was back up by sevearl facts. However, this is not the piont, the piont was that during the lecture the speaker (forgot the name) says that methane is the major source of greenhouse gases. This can be comfirmed in the gr. 11 Chem textbook. Accordingly it's 20x more potent than Co2. And what's more interesting is that cows actually are the 2nd biggest producer of methance. Accordingly, when they burp they release a small amount of methane. Now, that alone won't do a lot of damage (otherwise, why would cows be created?), but it was the fact that there are millions of cows. (We eat of steak, hambugers, drink milk and wear leather right?). Dunno about the 1st largest contrubutor.

Another thing I saw on the Discovery Channel was concerning the Burrumda Triangle. Accordingly there is a huge reserve of frozen methane in the bottom of it. Accordingly it was said if an underground volcano errupted, the amount of methane released would have catrophic effects. Dunno if this happened in the past (if it did, maybe it could expalin a bit of the glaciers retreating).

[Solourus]

Yes it is at fault, more accuratly we ARE effecting our wether patterns. More later when i come back from a BBQ

Also a volcanic eruption should reduce Global tempratures due to the particals in the ash clouds reflecting sunlight.

[Gada Mazaha]

Originally Posted by Impulse

Another thing I saw on the Discovery Channel was concerning the Burrumda Triangle. Accordingly there is a huge reserve of frozen methane in the bottom of it. Accordingly it was said if an underground volcano errupted, the amount of methane released would have catrophic effects. Dunno if this happened in the past (if it did, maybe it could expalin a bit of the glaciers retreating).

That's actually thought why so many ships have disappeared there. When methane rises from the bottom of the ocean floor, it makes the water much, much less dense, so thing normally that would float sink instantly, including ships and people with life vests on.

Kinda creepy, eh?

On the whole global warming thing, I don't think we are nearly as responsible for global warming as we are told. The Earth does go through natural heating and cooling periods periodically, and we probably are just moving through one of those stages now.

[Impulse]

Originally Posted by Ga' da Ma' 'za'ha

On the whole global warming thing, I don't think we are nearly as responsible for global warming as we are told. The Earth does go through natural heating and cooling periods periodically, and we probably are just moving through one of those stages now.

The problem is that we're still affecting those periods. We're about 1000 or some years late for the next ice age.

[Aftercresent]

I think our own ignorance will be the problem in the end.
We always seem to be expecting the generation after ours to make it right, but no one does.
We're too greedy, or too lazy to make a difference, but only a few people do something helpful (aside from the few fluorescent lightbulbs you installed last year...)

[Praying Mantidae]

I don't think its entirely our fault, but I also definitely don't think we're helping any.

I actually just read an interesting article about how Exxon misdirects the general public on the effects we have on the global climate. I'll make a run-down if I have time.

Originally Posted by Ga' da Ma' 'za'ha

On the whole global warming thing, I don't think we are nearly as responsible for global warming as we are told. The Earth does go through natural heating and cooling periods periodically, and we probably are just moving through one of those stages now.

If you'd like to know more information on the theories of why the earth goes through cooling and warming trends, read my little article on the Little Ice Age.

Very interesting stuff, IMO.