Do you believe it's really happening?

No answer too far fetched!

Put it this way, mankind has hardly helped Mother Earth with his habits save for those very few people/tribes who give back when they take from her.

Whatever is happening we are obviously an accelerant at best and the overall cause at worst.

And 'yes' global warming is real. The evidence is there. I am here sat in my t-shirt in January. 35 years ago I would have had thermal vest and thermal pants underneath jeans and a jumper.

Having said that it is -25 in M-M-Moscow.

Big chest and massive boobs

[Link]

We are currently in an interglacial period within the Quaternary ice age. The factors that drive global temperatures over time are:

- solar energy output which increases approximately at the rate of 9% per billion years but which is variable around this
- orbital forcing, periodic changes in the Earth's orbit in two cycles ("Milankovitch cycles" of about 41,000 and 100,000 years
- density of gas and dust in the space between the Earth and the Sun, which is mostly driven by the Earth's proximity to the galactic plane where gas and dust are densest; this follows a cycle of about 33 million years and is also a factor in the disruption of the Oort cloud, producing temporary increases in comet flux
- the quantities in the atmosphere of gases which cause heat retention ("greenhouse effect", which include carbon dioxide, methane and water. Sources of these include vulcanism (the rate of which varies), absorbtion and release of gases by rocks and vegetation ("sinks", human activity, biological processes, evaporation of sea water
- the quantity of ice and snow on the surface of the Earth, which reflects sunlight and reduces the heating effect of insolation
- the distribution of landmass over the surface, which increases or decreases the flow of ocean water between polar and tropical regions, and which follows the approximately 400-million year Wilson cycle between widely distributed continents (as now) and a single supercontinent (Rodinia, Pangaea, etc).

Notice that some of these mechanisms are feedback cycles which serve to amplify effects. For example, if the earth cools, there is more snow and ice, which reflects sunlight, so the earth cools further. Conversely, if the earth warms up, water evaporates from the oceans, and this is a greenhouse gas.

The current ice age has been going on for about 2.5 million years. The present interglacial has been going on for about 12,000 years. Within the present interglacial there have been a number of climate changes, in some cases abrupt, and before the rise of industry. Some may have been caused by man's agricultural, rather than industrial, activities. Others are certainly attributable to vulcanism. Current rises in carbon dioxide concentration began before industrialisation, may be driven by temperature changes rather than being their cause, and are one part of one factor in the complex and chaotic systems that drive changes in local and global climates over time. For example, Edward Whymper in his works about Alpine mountaineering in the 1860s notes sharp reductions in the extent of Alpine glaciation between the 18th and 19th centuries.

Most people who do x, y, and z because of "global warming" do not understand that they are living in an ice age, or what that means.

Edited by chateauferret (07 Jan 2017 10.33pm)

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The Ferret
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global warming could switch off the Gulf Stream, again.

if that happens, Europe is plunged into a spectacular ice age, again. Everything North of the Canary islands will be entombed in a mile of ice....again.

its only happened four or five times previously....each one lasting an eternity. the experts reckon the Basques somehow survived as a remnant of previous european people....and later the empty europe was resettled from Turkey and morocco with modern europeans.....hence the Basque language being totally unrelated to everything.

Eze Peasy at Anfield....

Parry on Talksport said he did an experiment by measuring the level of a glass of water with ice cubes in it pre and post melting and the level was still the same. Well of course it is you ignorant scouse fossil tw&t. It's kept in the glass. Now leave some ice on a table and leave it to melt and watch the effect.

Angers me but it's multi nationals who are at fault and probably the Chinese fulfilling our demand.

I also hate the w&nkers in places where there is a bin specifically for plastic or paper in a premises 1 door away or 10 yards away from the general bin they've dumped it in. Oh well, then and their offspring who are more likely to suffer the rise in land value and homes. Makes me sick they don't care and that's the only thing that helps me deal with their ignorance.

COYP

Didn't the last Ice Age get down as far as Finchley? Clearly there will be no games at Wembley.

Taking the bungy jump since 1964. Never to see John Jackson in a shirt again

Sorry to see Lee Hills go, did we ever see Alex Marrow? We did January 2013