Please include both the natural and manmade causes. If possible, please also include what you think is the most damaging effect is to both a developed and developing country.

Global Warming is caused by many things. The causes are split up into two groups, man-made or anthropogenic causes, and natural causes.

Natural Causes

Natural causes are causes created by nature. One natural cause is a release of methane gas from arctic tundra and wetlands. Methane is a greenhouse gas. A greenhouse gas is a gas that traps heat in the earth's atmosphere. Another natural cause is that the earth goes through a cycle of climate change. This climate change usually lasts about 40,000 years.

Man-made Causes

Man-made causes probably do the most damage. There are many man-made causes. Pollution is one of the biggest man-made problems. Pollution comes in many shapes and sizes. Burning fossil fuels is one thing that causes pollution. Fossil fuels are fuels made of organic matter such as coal, or oil. When fossil fuels are burned they give off a green house gas called CO2. Also mining coal and oil allows methane to escape. How does it escape? Methane is naturally in the ground. When coal or oil is mined you have to dig up the earth a little. When you dig up the fossil fuels you dig up the methane as well.

Another major man-made cause of Global Warming is population. More people means more food, and more methods of transportation, right? That means more methane because there will be more burning of fossil fuels, and more agriculture. Now your probably thinking, "Wait a minute, you said agriculture is going to be damaged by Global Warming, but now you're saying agriculture is going to help cause Global Warming?" Well, have you ever been in a barn filled with animals and you smell something terrible? You're smelling methane. Another source of methane is manure. Because more food is needed we have to raise food. Animals like cows are a source of food which means more manure and methane. Another problem with the increasing population is transportation. More people means more cars, and more cars means more pollution. Also, many people have more than one car.

Since CO2 contributes to global warming, the increase in population makes the problem worse because we breathe out CO2. Also, the trees that convert our CO2 to oxygen are being demolished because we're using the land that we cut the trees down from as property for our homes and buildings. We are not replacing the trees (an important part of our eco system), so we are constantly taking advantage of our natural resources and giving nothing back in return.

1. Polar ice caps melting

The ice caps melting is a four-pronged danger.

First, it will raise sea levels. There are 5,773,000 cubic miles of water in ice caps, glaciers, and permanent snow. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, if all glaciers melted today the seas would rise about 230 feet.

Second, melting ice caps will throw the global ecosystem out of balance. The ice caps are fresh water, and when they melt they will desalinate the ocean, or in plain English - make it less salty. The desalinization of the gulf current will “screw up” ocean currents, which regulate temperatures. The stream shutdown or irregularity would cool the area around north-east America and Western Europe.

Third, temperature rises and changing landscapes in the artic circle will endanger several species of animals. Only the most adaptable will survive.

Fourth, global warming could snowball with the ice caps gone. Ice caps are white, and reflect sunlight, much of which is relected back into space, further cooling Earth. If the ice caps melt, the only reflector is the ocean. Darker colors absorb sunlight, further warming the Earth.

2. Economic consequences

Most of the effects of anthropogenic global warming won’t be good. And these effects spell one thing for the countries of the world: economic consequences. Hurricanes cause do billions of dollars in damage, diseases cost money to treat and control and conflicts exacerbate all of these.

3. Increased probability and intensity of droughts and heat waves

4. Warmer waters and more hurricanes

As the temperature of oceans rises, so will the probability of more frequent and stronger hurricanes. We saw in this in 2004 and 2005.

5. Spread of disease

As northern countries warm, disease carrying insects migrate north, bringing plague and disease with them. Indeed some scientists believe that in some countries thanks to global warming, malaria has not been fully eradicated. :) :)

I′d be awarded the noble price if I can give you the ultimate answer here.

All I know are facts and theories I heard of lately and even scientists are limited to this because the entire process of global warming is far too complex for mankind to understand. So far it′s not even undisputed if there is any global warming because at the moment there seems to be a hold in temperature increase.

But I think the temperatures are on the way up on the long run and there are enough weather phenomenon to indicate that. Even during my life time I could experience a few. The record high summers were all within the last decade and so are the floods (speaking for Germany now). We had three floods of the century within the last two decades. That does not proof anything yet but ignoring the facts may turnout a stupid decision.

So lets assume that there is a global warming and look for possible causes.

I my eyes it′s the number of people that cases the biggest threat or let′s say the fact that more and more reach the life standard of the first world with all it′s devastating consuming and polluting habits.

As long as only a few rich people in every country were driving big cars and racing around for fun the impact on climate was close to zero. But when industrialization kicked in and wealth spread to a high percentage of the population things changed and despite all efforts to keep pollution in check it is the sheer amount of CO2 emissions that turned the tide.

Now that the the first world starts to do something about it the third world starts to spoil all efforts by asking for the same comforts we take for granted and as long as we are not ready to cut back our demands I see no reason for those countries to stay behind and thus enable us to carry on our wasteful lifestyle.

So If we in fact are the source of a man made global warming I see little chance to contain it to an acceptable limit.

But I fully understand why so much effort is put in trying to proof that global warming does not exist because that we would have to change our lifestyle, our consuming habits and our entire approach towards a fulfilled life is.

I think that big bright glowey thing in the sky might make a difference. Lord knows that when it is out it warms up. When clouds cover it, it gets cooler. when day s get shorter it gets colder and when days get longer it gets warmer. Could all be a coincidence but...

Solar cycle 24 is weakest in modern history. Cycle 25 is projected to be significantly weaker likely matching what was last seen during the Dalton Minimum. Latest studies identify that cycle 26 could be non-existent, but the science behind that study is still new and could prove wrong. However if cycle 26 is nonexistent then the Dalton minimum could expand to a Maunder minimum. No solar physicist at this time will venture farther than that as we do not have enough Information.

No matter what, solar physicists are telling us that the earth will be receiving less energy from the sun for the next few decades. Likely through 2030 and possibly 2040. A horizon farther out than that is hard to project at this point.

The primary cause is variations in the Sun's output.

There was a dip around 1700 (known as the 'Little Ice Age') and the the Earth has been warming again since then.

Temperatures have been higher than now since the last true ice age.

Man-made causes have influenced temperatures, but not in the way the press an panic-mongers make out...

The high levels of pollution since the industrial revolution had a 'sunshade' effect similar to a weak version of the 'Nuclear Winter' theory, preventing the Earth from warming as quickly as it should.

The more recent anti-pollution policies have drastically reduced air pollution and taken away the sunshade - so things have got warmer rather quickly as the temperature gets back to 'normal' for the suns output level.

The suns output is expected to peak within a year or so (as the sunspot cycle peaks) then start reducing again.

There is one major cause of global warming, the green house effect. If you want to go into the details I suggest you go to www.google.com. Some of the manmade causes are:

1. The smoke coming out of vehicles, industries, kitchens.

2. Aerosols like insecticides and deodorants containing Chloro Fluoro Carbon (CFC).

3. The smoke that comes from burning rubber or plastic.

Here are some of the natural causes:

1. Volcanic eruptions let out plenty of different gases.

2. The earth itself is a green house with the gravity holding the atmosphere.

One of the biggest issues facing us right now is global warming. Its effects on animals and on agriculture are indeed frightening, and the effects on the human population are even scarier. The facts about global warming are often debated in politics and the media, but, unfortunately, even if we disagree about the causes, global warming effects are real, global, and measurable. The effects of global warming are the ecological and social changes caused by the rise in global temperatures.

The consensus seems to be that the principle cause is the artificial release, by humans, of trillions and trillions of tonnes of certain gases, mainly carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere in the last 150 years or so of the industrial age. This contributes towards the greenhouse effect.

Natural causes include methane (fart gas) released by cattle but the very fact we humans herd them in immense numbers well beyond their natural population, for food production is another aggravating human factor

Global warming has been happening since the last ice age, but humans are speeding it up there are many reasons for this:

● believe it or not the amount of humans living on the planet has an effect, people need food and shelter

this why many natural areas are destroyed.

●Developed countries are using up more natural resources and are needing more this has an effect.

●developing countries are over farming, keep on daming natural areas such as the rain forest for food which is not their fault.

●The loss of green space has an effect, the tiger forest in Russia has enough oxygen to refresh the Earth's air, if we were to loose the forest we would lose lots of precious oxygen damaging the ozone layer even more.

I'm no professional but anyone can have knowledge.

Global warming is one-half of the climatic cycle of warming and cooling.

The earth's mean temperature cycles around the freezing point of water.

This is a completely natural phenomenon which has been going on since there has been water on this planet. It is driven by the sun.

Our planet is currently emerging from a 'mini ice age', so is

becoming warmer and may return to the point at which Greenland is again usable as farmland (as it has been in recorded history).

As the polar ice caps decrease, the amount of fresh water mixing with oceanic water will slow and perhaps stop the thermohaline cycle (the oceanic heat 'conveyor' which, among other things, keeps the U.S. east coast warm).

When this cycle slows/stops, the planet will cool again and begin to enter another ice age.

There are two parts to global warming, the natural and the manmade ones.

The natural warming is primarily caused by changes in the amount of heat from the Sun and variations in the way Earth moves in space. Most of these changes are cyclical, they happen on a regular basis; as such they are also predictable. These cycles vary in duration from a few years to hundreds of thousands of years.

The planet goes through it's own natural warming and cooling phases. The most recent ice age was the result of a global cooling event, and then 19,000 years ago the earth began warming, temperatures started to rise, the ice melted and the temperatures have, overall, continued to rise ever since.

Using scientific techniques we can reconstruct a fairly detailed picture of the climate over the last million years and a general picture stretching as far back as 542 million years. In the last couple of hundred years there are very detailed weather records we can refer to.

What we’ve seen in recent decades is a significant increase in average global temperatures. Currently the long term average temperatures are rising by 0.0177°C a year, whilst this may not seem much it's many times faster than at any time in known history and is faster than many natural systems can cope with.

Why then is the world warming up? About 250 years ago we witnessed the birth of industrialisation and since then the world has become ever more industrial. Our modern lifestyles produce huge quantities of greenhouse gases and herein lies the problem.

Greenhouse gases have the ability to trap heat; the more of these gases there are in the atmosphere the more heat becomes trapped. We humans have produced so much greenhouse gas in recent decades that atmospheric concentrations has increased by over 40% causing more heat to be retained. In the last 100 years the average global temperature has increased by just less than 1°C.

The temperature rise to date has already had numerous implications. Millions of people have left their homes as their land has turned to desert or rising sea levels have flooded the land. In Siberia one million square kilometres of permafrost (permanently frozen ground) has melted and turned into mud and lakes. In mountainous regions glaciers have retreated further than they’ve ever been known to retreat before, half of these glaciers have melted completely. The number and intensity of storms has increased, diseases have spread into new regions, and significant amounts of the polar ice caps are melting and crumbling into the sea.

Where it gets much harder is predicting what will happen in the future - there's many factors to be taken into consideration and some of these aren’t particularly well understood. There’s been substantial research undertaken around the globe by a wide range of institutions and most reports predict global temperature rises of between 2°C and 4°C by the end of this century.

So what will the future effects of global warming be? The polar ice caps will continue to melt which will keep causing sea levels to rise. So far this hasn't had a dramatic impact but a rise of just a few feet will be enough to see many coastal areas inundated with water. Major cities such as London, New York and Miami are at or very close to sea level. In the next two or three hundred years many millions of people will need to be relocated as large areas of land are lost to the sea.

Some countries won't have the resources to protect their towns and cities and the inhabitants will be forced to relocate. Millions of square miles of agricultural land will be lost. Parts of Asia and Africa will be hardest hit.

There will be a shift in weather patterns, like we've seen in recent years but more so. For some this will bring benefits but for others it will bring hardships. Areas of barren wasteland will become fertile and could be used agriculturally but at the same time there will be desertification of fertile areas. New areas suitable for habitation will be formed but at the same time some areas will become uninhabitable. Some places will become wetter, others drier, some will become hotter, others colder. Extreme weather conditions including tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods will be more common - we've already witnessed an increased frequency of such events.

Some plants and animals will have to adapt, others will become extinct. At the same time others will flourish and this may be a good thing or a bad thing. For example, increased grain production would be beneficial but more swarms of locusts would be detrimental.

There’s more on the natural causes of warming in this earlier question:

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

Please include both the natural and manmade causes. If possible, please also include what you think is the most damaging effect is to both a developed and developing country.

Global warming is caused by the trapping of heat in the earth's atmosphere. There are gases in the atmosphere called "green house gases" these are: Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous oxide (N2O), Ozone (O3), and CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons). These gases act as insulation trapping the heat that is reflected off the earth's surface in the atmosphere. All of these gases (except CFC) can be released through both natural processes, and human activity.

More info:

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

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

For the full story on the man-made Global Warming scam watch these:

The Great Global Warming Swindle