Is it hot in here or what?
 

Well, the average temperature of the planet is rising every year. What's not to believe?

Should this thread be specified around the human impact on global warming? That really seems to be what's debated.

I'm cautiously aware of global warming, mainly because of This video.

I've also noticed that lately the winters are a little more extreme too.

Well, okay, if we want to specify on the man-made possibility of global climate change, my opinion overall is that the odds are good that this is a naturally occurring phenomenon that may eventually right itself. However, I can't believe that the pollution cranked out by the everyday living of modern man can't possibly not be doing some damage to the environment as a whole.

I mean, it's quite apparent that this is happening, and even if we aren't the primary cause of it, I'd prefer that industrial wastes and emissions be cut down anyway just to be on the safe side, and the only way to achieve that is through government regulation and funding of research and implementation of cleaner fuels and means of production.

You say that the average global temperature is going up, but the reason for that has yet ot be determined.

Weather on such a large scale is almost impossible to determine, if you watch the news you can see that even next week's weather is never perfectly accurate, much less the next 100 years.

I have never supported the idea of the earth getting warmer steadily because of pollution. There is so much evidence against it.

Honestly for every example of a place getting warmer, i can show you 10 places that have stayed the same and 1 that has even gotten cooler.

I think it's just another thing used to scare people into donating to environmental causes.

I believe it. We haven't had a real terrible winter here since '97, and this is Minnesota!

And I agree that even if man-made pollution isn't the cause of it, we should be concerned with the environment. Where was that other topic about the rise of slime or whatever? Yeah, that's bad stuff.

Where's this evidence?

http://www.quebecoislibre.org/001014-11.htm

Here's a little bit of it.

Well a global temperature increase is a mean measurement, it's not a uniform increase everywhere. Back in second year when I took Ecology we looked at satellite images of Canada overlaid with red (warmer), blue (cooler), or grey (no change), over a period of a decade or whatever it was. Mean temperature always increased, but plenty of places got colder.

As you say, climate is rather unpredictable. Earth as a system is not as simple as a kitchen oven that we're cranking up using pollution. I found it funny that the area of Canada I'm in is projected to get cooler overall. Hurray, as if our winters were not quite cold enough already.

As far as human-driven global warming goes, I'm cautiously neutral right now. I've read arguments for both sides, and things seem inconclusive at this point. But as POS stated, the wasteful pollution trend we as a species have going can't possibly be a positive thing. Moreover, it's pretty crystal clear humanity is wrecking untold environmental damage to the planet; an issue I'm definitely not neutral on.