Intelligent people look at an issue with an open mind and investigate about a subject on two sides of an issue instead of deciding a situation first and blocking out things we know.

We know as a fact that increased carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas cause the atmosphere to retain heat. We know that based on glacial core studies that the CO2 levels are above history levels for very many years. We know that people increase the CO2 levels by cutting down forests and burning fossil fuels. We know there is a general trending of increased temperatures in the past hundred years or so at least. We speculate that a leveling off of the rise may be attributed to particulate matter also added to the air and that ocean currents have an effect. We know the sun has a cycle and that overlays on the situation that is not controllable. We also know that there is weather, warming, and climate and their changes, and cannot say a warm or dry or cold or wet in any area is any indication of anything. We can see a melting of the arctic region.

There is a respected view that a mini-ice age is also a potential in the cycles, and global warming may help to lessen the impact if that is in the works. We know that fossil fuels are a limited resource even if there is at least 40 years of petroleum left(my own calculation) and that natural gas is an under-utilized resource. We know the development and advancement of China and India and other countries is increasing use of natural resources. There is reasonable speculation that one day fresh water may be extremely valuable.

It is improper to call global warming and climate change a hoax. That is an obstinate opinionated view lacking scientific evidence to the contrary. On the opposite side, it is better to look at it as a theory supported by most well respected scientists. Evolution and the origins of humans is a theory that has believability. The start of the universe in a big bang is more speculated.

Reducing carbon emissions and development of alternative fuel sources that are renewable are generally good things. Pesticides and plastics ending in the ocean and over harvesting of seafood are bad things.

These things that can be improved are for the benefit of the youth of today and future generations. For the wealthy and large corporations to exploit the planet cannot be called of benefit to society.

At a minimum it is best to say learn and examine and support the studies. It is fine to say "still inconclusive", but hoax is no better than conspiracy theories without solid evidence.

Add: Politics, which is based on rhetoric, tirades, and teams at war with each other, is a terrible addition into any serious subject. "Leftist, Liberal, Conservative, Right Wing" are self-destructive to any issue.

Add: More and more I avoid the "hidden" Ids in questions that an asker should have nothing to hide. I do not hide my Q's+A's or history on Y/A and made an exception for this question.

Trevor:

4.567 billion years, so closer to 5 billion then 4 billion.

Oh you can remember that far back? Wow! You passed the retirement age long ago. Besides, what's a few billion years between friends?

"No we don’t. Different unbroken weather records have commenced from 1659 onwards."

For once I agree with you. It is from England and I guess you know where that is. Only thing, it doesn't support your GW theory. In fact it proves that there is no catastrophic global warming.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/10/30/ho...

0.87 degrees in 353 years coming out of a Little Ice Age is hardly catastrophic. I bet the temperature in your house varies more than that.

"No we’re not and it wasn’t an ice-age. Temperatures recovered from the Little Ice Age the best part of 100 years ago." Jimmy the commie called it a Little Ice Age and It bottomed out around 1650. Just look at the 1990 IPCC report on page 202 section seven and one of the charts will verify this. Are you smarter than Jimmy and the IPCC? JIMMY HANSEN said it was an ICE AGE!

"Gore is 66 years old, the science of global warming is 203 years old."

WRONG! In the 70s they were preaching an oncoming ice age.

Life magazine of January 30, 1970, stated: “Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support . . . predictions” such as: “In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution,” and “increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will affect earth’s temperature, leading to mass flooding or a new ice age.” AGW is a Johnny come lately thing. Yah there were a few nut cases that alluded to GW many years ago but there was also just as many alluding to an Ice Age. You cannot call that SCIENCE.

"No they haven’t. Professor Wieslaw Maslowski stated in December 2007 that the Arctic could be ice-free by 2013" Ha! Ha! Even al Gore said it. Many Many so called scientists alluded to it. Get real!

"No they don’t. The explanations as to why temperatures are rising more slowly in recent years have been known about since the 1940’s and 50’s." Then why are the climate models so wrong, if they really knew.

Trevor: You are the biggest bluster on this site. You have proven many times over that you are a clutz as far as GW. You have proven to lie ( I even caught you three times on one question. Remember that?) quite frequently. In case you don't remember.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...

You may get this removed but everyone knows you for the fool you are. You can't stop that.

In direct answer to the question GW is a big HOAX!

And Josh, your ICON is an old Communist symbol used back in the 40s.

Do you see how fast the earth has changed since the industrial revolution?

The point I'd like to make is this: global warming may be a hoax. I concede it could be entirely made up for environmental activists to make lots of money on. Absolutely a possibility.

However, we are essentially running an uncontrolled experiment on earth, and we don't (yet) have a backup plan if we do push the earth, which is responsible for all of our survival, to the brink. Is it worth it to take such a passive stance on global warming? I don't think so.

At the end of the day, working to conserve resources, promote cleaner air and water, and be more environmentally conscious won't hurt us anywhere near as much as losing earth, which also remains a possibility.

of the 4,000,000,000 years the earth has existed, humans have existed for 400,000 years. That is 0.001% of the Earths history. As such, it is not meaningful how "the earth" was before our existence, as we have no confidence that the food we rely upon would grow in other climates. When we say we are destroying the earth, what we mean is we are destroying human's capacity to continue living on the earth at current levels. If global warming causes us to experience a significant drop in food yield, we will see mass starvation around the world, and subsequently huge wars. To most people it doesn't matter if life will survive, if society crumbles in response to food shortages.

Here's the answer I gave to the same question yesterday. Apparently, you weren't really interested in facts today any more than you were yesterday.

The facts are that we actually DO have information about those thousands of years ago climates, in analyses of tree rings, stone layers, and ice cores. While there have been periods of increasing temperature, they were always occurring without the contribution of mankind. And even since mankind first settled down and became agriculturally dependent, there was little change. It is only since the Industrial Revolution, when concentrated carbon based energy forms began to be used in massive amounts, that things have accelerated this rapidly. When the only thing burned was wood, there were only people burning it to keep warm and to cook food. Then came factories which burned coal and later oil in massive amounts.

There are plenty of facts out there, like the island chains that are losing ground every year, the sudden loss of control of the polar stream, increasing droughts, increasing desert areas like in the Sahara, losses of animals that depend on cooler climates for their habitats, etc.

And even though some claim that it the people who pay the scientists that count, one of the Koch brothers paid scientists which originally denied climate change reversed himself when he repeated all his experiments.

<< Earth has been around for about 4 BILLION YEARS or 4,000,000,000 for those of you that don't understand word numbers. >>

4.567 billion years, so closer to 5 billion then 4 billion.

<< We ONLY have 122 years of weather recording >>

No we don’t. Different unbroken weather records have commenced from 1659 onwards. There are weather records that go back thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians based their tax system on the weather and maintained detailed records that exist to this day (lots of rain meant bumper harvests and higher taxes).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilometer

Whilst the instrumental record is comparatively new, the reconstructed record extends back some 542 million years. The ice-core records go back 850,000 years, the dendrological record about 10,000 years.

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Tem...

<< which is 0.0000000305% of Mother Earths weather history. >>

No it isn’t. You’re out by a factor of 1,000. It’s actually 0.0000035% (using your figures).

<< We also had a "Mimi Iceage" a little over 200 years ago which put us in a big cooling stage. >>

Hang on. According to you we only have weather records for 122 years. The Little Ice Age (not mini iceage) was the result of 700 years of very slow cooling during which time Earth cooled by the sum total of 0.55°C.

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Fil...

<< With warming stage happening at the end of a Iceage, so we are in a Natural Global Warming from that alone. >>

No we’re not and it wasn’t an ice-age. Temperatures recovered from the Little Ice Age the best part of 100 years ago. Since then they’ve risen way beyond the temps prior to the onset of the LIA. There’s been as much warming since 1980 as there was cooling on the 700 years that led to the LIA.

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Fil...

<< So HOW do we know it's man made and not another Al Gore and Leftist lie? >>

Gore is 66 years old, the science of global warming is 203 years old.

The science is very easy to demonstrate (to anyone that’s not anti-science). It’s based on simple principles, namely that greenhouse gases trap heat energy. This can be demonstrated in a lab and observed in the real world, you can even set up an experiment at home to see the heat retaining properties of greenhouse gases.

http://www.aps.org/policy/reports/popa-r...

<< Can someone give me hard core facts and not the "oh just because we say so". >>

I don’t think you want facts, you want people to agree with you that GW isn’t happening. Tell me what facts you want and I’ll provide them for you.

<< They've said about dozen times that Ice Caps would have already melted. >>

No they haven’t. Professor Wieslaw Maslowski stated in December 2007 that the Arctic could be ice-free by 2013. The climate science community disagreed, even his own research team disagreed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7139...

<< That summers would be nothing but in the 100's and almost no winters. >>

No they didn’t. Please back up your claims.

<< But when it doesn't happen they come up with some explantion saying why they're wrong. >>

No they don’t. The explanations as to why temperatures are rising more slowly in recent years have been known about since the 1940’s and 50’s. We’re currently in the negative phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation which is bound to suppress the rise in temps, just as it did 60 years ago before it returned to the positive phase and warming recommenced. Here’s some bad news for you – the PDO is near the end of the negative (cooling) phase, when it switches temps will take another step upwards.

http://www.aip.org/history/climate/20ctr...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_dec...

<< So can I have real facts? Not that "No Rian and Hot Summer" BS. Some of America has had lots of rain and cold summer it year. No year or season will ever be the same for weather and temp.......Where are the facts? >>

The above links contain lots of facts.

I wouldn't call it a hoax. I would call it a ridiculous exaggeration. Global warming is ill defined. It might mean human caused warming, or it might mean any warming. Who knows? There is a great deal of confusion among alarmists about what we know. No wonder they are so confused. I don't know if they just don't care about the facts or if they are too lazy to find out.

Ice cores in glaciers can give temp and carbon dioxide levels over many thousands of years.

Ocean creature shells and many other fossils can give carbon dioxide levels and temperatures over millions of years.

Rocks made by combining chemicals in the air and water can give a rough idea of temperatures and levels of some things like oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide. That can go back hundreds of millions of years.

Now some people say--life on Earth has survived these changes many times. The temperatures changed. The weather patterns changed.

Yes, all true. But in the past were there 7 billion people trying to find something to eat? When the earth went through big weather changes from whatever cause, there were only thousands to a few million people and the many animals and plants they used to support themselves.

We got rid of many of the animals because they were yummy or ate the ones we raised or the crops we farmed. We have millions of acres of rice, corn and wheat that need good rainfall, moderate temperatures to produce high yields we need.

If America cannot produce much, much more than Americans eat, there will be no exports to aid and feed others in many countries. Like food riots, violence by desperate people? Plenty of those are coming. Like paying double or triple your current grocery prices? Coming. Like worrying about how to feed your kids without getting shot? Just wait. Do nothing about global warming, changing environment.

Where are all the fish? We caught them or they are dying. Why are there sharks off the beach? Their food supply moved because of ocean temperature level changing. Beach sand disappeared? Look behind all those dams on rivers.

Want facts? Go out and look around you. Smell the air. Look for earthworms and lizards. Listen for frogs. You will be shocked how much it is different in just a few years.

The last dozen years, eight of them in USA were hottest ever on record, with 2013 having the highest yearly average temperature.

In California, there is a drought. The street where I live was repaved in early June. Rain has not yet washed the dirt off it for the first time. This is a coastal desert, but it is getting cruel. Last year we got less than 4 inches of rain. Normally we get more than 15. The owls and hawks are gone, since all the mice died. The rabbits sneak into my yard to eat my sprinklered grass. They hide from the few coyotes remaining in my canyon. The deer, roadrunner bird, and the wildcat disappeared years to a decade ago. Butterflies are rare. Only a few lizards are left. Ants seem on the move all the time, attacking the few earthworms I see. The little pill or doodlebugs, snails, caterpillars? None now. Heard a tree frog last week, first one in a year. He will be gone soon.

Getting the picture?

We were told in 2006 that by 2013 the Arctic polar ice cap would be gone yet last year the ice grew by 60% and 20 ships got stuck in the Northwest Passage. Somebody is full of sh!t.

Anywhere other than America 4 Billion has 12 zeroes but I guess Americans are too stupid to deal with numbers that big

Earth has been around for about 4 BILLION YEARS or 4,000,000,000 for those of you that don't understand word numbers. We ONLY have 122 years of weather recording which is 0.0000000305% of Mother Earths weather history. We also had a "Mimi Iceage" a little over 200 years ago which put us in a big cooling stage. With warming stage happening at the end of a Iceage, so we are in a Natrual Global Warming from that alone.

So HOW do we know it's man made and not another Al Gore and Leftist lie?

Can someone give me hard core facts and not the "oh just because we say so". They've said about dozen times that Ice Caps would have already melted. That summers would be nothing but in the 100's and almost no winters. But when it doesn't happen they come up with some explantion saying why they're wrong.

So can I have real facts? Not that "No Rian and Hot Summer" BS. Some of America has had lots of rain and cold summer it year. No year or season will ever be the same for weather and temp.......Where are the facts?

Well, we had a warm summer here in the United States, and that brought some of the climate change alarmists out again.

The people pushing the hoax tend to ignore the obvious importance of statistical significance. A statististician would throw that data out because it is not a significant sample size of the population.

again, what we know about the natural trends from sediment layers and the ice core samples seem to paint a picture that our current warming trends don't fit natural trends...

in short, the same reason that we know we had ice ages, is the same reason that we think man may be at fault...

and while we don't have enough evidence to consider it full "proof" yet, it is pointing in that direction...

The hoax part is when there are people who tell you that global warming/cooling can be controlled by man and/or government. And that they can do it if you and/or businesses pay more taxes and give government more power over your life.

40 years ago everybody thought there was going to be a big ice-age coming

Science for the last century has been controlled by the Reptilian Illuminati Conspiracy, and now they are closing in on their final takeover. At least 20 questions recycled from Wattsup or less technically advanced blogs per day are needed here, or our precious bodily fluids will be drained from us all.