We all know about the phenomenon of global warming. This term sounds like a terrible fairy tale from childhood - scientists talk about climate change for many years, but in fact ... Nothing happens! I learned about the global warming in 10 years, and since then nothing has happened - no floods, tsunamis, and in general catastrophes associated with climate change.
Donald Trump, for example, believes that it is too early to switch to alternative energy sources, oil is cheaper and more efficient, and rumors of global warming are just rumors.
So is it really worth worrying about climate change on our planet? Let's find out.
The second link is a 17-minute TED presentation for those who are interested in this topic (and who has time for it):
How do you think, is global warming can lead to a catastrophe?
If yes, do you have any idea how to stop global warming?
Comments
In my opinion Earth will be ok the same as in the past. Of course we should limit cutting trees and find alternative sources of energy.
I think that a good reason to talk about global warming is the fact that there isn't enought oil. This is good reason to teach people to use different source of energy.
While there may be no serious damage to the environment, I think that it's really important to begin switching to the alternative energy sources, it will happen sooner or later. Countries that will understand and admit that will begin innovation sooner, and countries that will continue burning fossil fuels acting that it's endless will be left behind.
It's not just about climate change, recent Warsaw issues with air pollution brings up another issue with existing energy sources. Personally I'm against climate change denial even if it's not fully true, because denying it will stop innovation in alternative energy industry.
But, the truth is scary. It's not the sea level that's the problem, it's the reflectivity of the sun's rays and the decreased salinity of the water that have the real potential to cause mass extinctions. However, a human level extinction is another matter. Humans live in the desert and in Alaska. People talk about the cockroach being tough, but they have nothing on us. The doomsday scenarios talk about an unlikely six degrees of climate change. But, that would not kill us off. Our ability to adapt is extreme. We have technology that can grow food on mars and extract water out of the atmosphere. We can walk in space. Any of the worst case scenarios for climate change don't realistically take decades - they take millennia. Over that time-frame, we would find a way to survive pretty much any extreme that has been realistically suggested. The earth has been six degrees hotter before, and six degrees colder before. There was still significant life on earth throughout all of that. So, no, we are not looking at a human level extinction event.
It’s sure that the global average temperature rises, but we don’t, and probably won’t, know how it will affect us in the nearest future.
We try to understand a process which begun millions years ago, while we started to measure it only few decades ago.
The global warming will proceed, with or without people interaction.
We should rather be concerned about that freak weather conditions, catastrophes and human ability to destroy our planet.
I agree that global warming could be a real threat, but I believe we should care for our planet regardless of that fact. The biggest problem here is that, as someone has already pointed out, there is not much we, ordinary people, can do about that. Giving an example, I don’t see how could I, as a private person, directly influence the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
On the other hand, I’m far from judging and blaming humanity for all the climate changes we can observe. Climate is always changing. Moreover, I’m almost certain that significant part of the discussions about global warming is driven by companies looking for easy money.
Summing up, we should care for the Earth but not be afraid of extinction of the human race due to climate change.
I suppose that global warming can affect on our environment making
irreparable damage on nature, which provides to extincion some animals and plants.
We don't respect our planet and slowly we are destroying it. We should start from learning how to respect our planet from simple things as burning less coal or garbage.