The melting of the polar ice caps is nothing new; it's just a part of the life-cycle of a planet. But we're quite carried away with ourselves if we actually believe we (who are little more than microbes on the surface of the planet) can actually make the ocean levels rise and create ever harsher weather conditions. I'd say that we're quite carried away with ourselves if we believe we've done all of that. Yes, we HAVE ruined our environment - we've thrown unimaginable amounts of filth into our air, water, and food - and that's truly *&%$#@! stupid of us. BUT ... we "microbes" do NOT have the power to cause the planet to tilt on its axis, nor to cause the poles to shift. Those things have been going on for aeons, long before we arrived or were genetically engineered. Whatever way we came into existence, I must point out again that we give ourselves far too much credit, for good or bad, for what happens to the planet. One more thing: The ice in Antartica is INcreasing, not DEcreasing - that's something you need to look at because I think you're quite caught up in fear. We have reason to have fear sometimes, yes, but let's get our facts straight at least ...

Were they man made problems when climate change, polar ice melt and freeze, increased CO2, ocean pollutions, erosion, deforestation, etc. occurred repeatedly for millions and millions of years? Nature is and has been far more destructive to the planet than humanity every could be. Stop living like the world originated on the day you were born.

How about direct observation on your own? The articles supporting human caused global warming are mostly opinion, and are not born out by observation.

For instance, I live less than a half mile from the Pacific Ocean, and I've been here since 1976. In those days the left proclaimed "Global Cooling"; and then they switched to "Global Warming". When they began the Global Warming pitch, they said that within 10 years the ocean would warm and the sea level near my home would rise and flood lowlands. That was over 30 years ago. Nothing has changed, the temperature is the same and the ocean level remains constant. Really.

So, you see, "testimonial" from people proclaiming to be unbiased scientists, is like all other "logical fallacies", it proves nothing. (look up Logical Fallacies) The ocean beach backs right up to highway 101 here, and sometimes driftwood is thrown onto the highway during southwest storms. It wouldn't take much to put the ocean on the highway at this spot. It hasn't changed since I've lived here.

Observation is more important than computer models or testimonial. Both are flawed and mean nothing. "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." and not political persuasion or mental foreplay. "Strongly Believe" is what they want you to do. Check it out for yourself, instead of listening to those with a political agenda.

I defy anyone to come here on the Oregon Coast and prove any change in climate, water temperature, and ocean level! I was born and raised here starting in 1934; I have a minor in Earth Science, and I spent a lifetime working in science and technology; and I know BS when I see it.

After all, as humans we are set to destroy ourselves from social pollution, and you would be better off studying the effects of nuclear weapons, because the world will destroy itself through war before anything else, and that will indeed cause global warming, and then a fatal Ice Age.

There is a way to change thing.first all people have to live where it is warm so no heat or electrical is needed. To fit everyone in these areas , everyone lives in a 8 by ten underground room per person. People can only eat stuff that don't need to be cooked. No factories everyone grows their own food . travel is only by foot. all new tenoligy is against the law When people get sick they die because no place to make medican or no hospitals. use the bodies for fertilizer for our gardens. let the earth go back to the way it was origanily, except the areas that people live which would be maybe florida Ga. Tx not more the 6 to 7 states Get rid of California let it go back to its original wilderness and dessert that it was. Get rid of all goverments and money use food for trade. This would also solve the welfare problem You don't work your family and you don't eat , then you end up being worth something fertilizer for gardens no Obama phones or food stamps What do you think It would work for me. One problem I see is wild fires out west which is caused by people living there because no one would know about them and get rid of the news. to solve this problem we sould give up our lives all of us humans. so are grandkid won't face the issue, Oh ya if we did this are grandkid would not exsist.

Hide the decline

Basically here the AGW crowds take on it tree-rings in some high-latitude locations diverge from modern instrumental temperature records after 1960. This is known as the "divergence problem". Consequently, tree-ring data in these high-latitude locations are not considered reliable after 1960 and should not be used to represent temperature in recent decades.

Sounds great right, except we only have less then 300 years where we can compare instrumental temperature to tree ring data, lets give the AGW crowd the whole 300 years, it less than that but let's give them a little help. So we have about 50 years worth of divergence or to put it another way tree ring data is wrong 16% of the time and climbing. Basically they proved SOME tree ring data is unreliable but they used it until it no longer matched what they wanted, basically they are cherry picking.

Then look at the math the IPCC put out, which shows we should be 5 degrees warmer with CO2 alone and you MUST ignore all other green house gasses.

I can go on if you wish.

Look, it's simple, I don't need to site a whole bunch of crap. I AM OLD! I've seen all kinds of weather and it isn't much different than it was when I was a kid. Yeah, I know about all the statistics, but that is recent, a hundred years maybe. The Earth is 4.8 billion, BILLION years old. I'll bet you my life that the climate changed a couple of times over that period. To make believe it is only happening now is an indication that someone is on serious drugs. For example, one person opined that glaciers were receding and uncovering bodies from WWI which was 100 years ago. If they are receding, didn't they have to originally grow to cover the bodies? Think on that.

Much of the problem is that the average ALARMIST accepts this dogmatic position on faith (or bandwagon--herd psychology), rather on genuine science...and healthy skepticism. The science simply does not exist. For one thing, carbon dioxide is innocuous, not a horrible noxious chemical substance like carbon monoxide or sulfur dioxide. In fact, plants tend to more determinedly flourish in the presence of an abundance of CO2, in light of photosynthesis.

Then, the catastrophic, apocalyptic predictions of disaster made for 2000 never materialized...much the same as the Second Coming never arrived in 100 A.D., 1000 A.D. or 2000 A.D.,.perhaps sadly.

The bottom line is that when the real stats (when corrected from the flawed ones provided by the IPCC, with the abnormal "hockey stick" artifact) are examined, they show a very modest (less than 1 degree C) temp. elevation in the nineties, which leveled off by the end of the decade. Any legitimate prediction would--of necessity--have to be based on the current data..which shows stability--at about 1 degree F--above what it was twenty years ago.

You also might want to consider that, with all the rant about polar ice melting, the overwhelming reality in the Antarctic continent is an INCREASED thickness of arctic ice sheet. I have viewed IR photographs which nicely reveal this. This is science, not pseudo-science.

Now, is there still need for a shift away from fossil fuels and nuclear energy (and fracking and "clean coal")...and a shift toward renewable energy and new forms of loco-motion for trains, planes and automobiles? ABSOL-UTELY!!! But, let's keep our heads in this. There is no need for hysterics and looney-tunes ranting....and lots of name-calling against "deniers."

“Choices made now about carbon dioxide emissions reductions will affect climate change impacts experienced not just over the next few decades but also in coming centuries and millennia…Because CO2 in the atmosphere is long lived, it can effectively lock the Earth and future generations into a range of impacts, some of which could become very severe.”

This is silly (but also dangerous) propaganda….and…fear-mongering rant. Commentator Richard Hofstadter spoke powerfully about the "politics of paranoia." Please take heed.

“It is not fundamentally a matter of believing or doubting climate change. It is fundamentally a matter of ACCEPTING or LYING about a century of solid science concerning HUMAN-CAUSED LONG TERM GLOBAL climate change. You will have difficulties understanding this unless you at least get the basics straight.”

This is very revealing. What this ACTUALLY means is that you have to get hipped to the Party-Line. What is AUTHORITY telling us? What is the IPCC or the Communist Party…or Corporate Capitalism...telling us? This is NOT about science, and intelligent, dispassionate dialog, but about DOGMA!!!

You are right to be concerned and good for you for looking for all the information you can find. Hey Dook has some great sites in his answer.

Sites like this one can be demoralizing as they attract the uninformed and scared little people looking for someone to make them feel more important than they are, they should be pitied as even big oil now accepts that CO2 from fossil fuels are changing the climate. Yes the climate has changed many times in Earths history, but in the vast majority of those changes mankind was not there to see them. 200 000years of humans on the planet compared to 4.5 billion would be less than 2 seconds if scaled to a 24hr day.

Although you have not received as many good answers as you deserve don't be disheartened you are part of the human solution and we are depending on people like you.

Wow you got some seriously lame and mythological answers from the deniers/

Kano Once again promoting the lie about 17 years no warming. Too bad you still don

t know jack about GW

mickey Total denial of the reality of AGW is not healthy skepticism, it is pure denial Scientific skepticism is questioning the results and repeating the experience to verify the results again You wouldn't lmow healthy skepticism is it took a dump on your head

I agree with you except global polar ice is above average, temperatures are not rising and havent for 17yrs 8 months, CO2 is essential for life.

So we should forget this global warming nonsense and do something about deforestation, and polluting our oceans with heavy metals and plastics, and fertilizer runoff, these are problems we can fix, limiting CO2 needs worldwide agreement which will never happen as long as we have deprived third world countries.

I worry that we are destroying our natural resources at an alarming rate, coastal erosion, polar caps melting, rising global temperature, greenhouse gases, deforestation, oceanic pollution, etc. are all man made problems.

When will we take the destruction of our planet more seriously?

Rob, you even admit that you are a firm believer in GW due to mere buzzwords. These are just buzzwords to stimulate your inner emotions and have no common sense to them. Please present your argument in a scientific method and then see if it has any validity.

We all believe in climate change.

However, look how much the climate changed before man was involved: