There are some things we know with certainty and other things that are still being researched. We do know that we are in an interglacial period. We also know that anthropogenic CO2 increases have taken place and, from radiative transfer considerations, will contribute to some warming. We also suspect that anthropogenic CO2 increases are not, by themselves, enough to cause enough warming to be of concern. Any direct warming from anthropogenic CO2 increases must be accompanied by positive feedbacks that cause additional warming - an amplification if you will. For example, additional CO2 causes warming which increases the amount of water vapor in the air which causes additional warming since water vapor is a greenhouse gas. There can also be negative feedbacks. The additional warming causes additional water vapor that results in more clouds that reflect solar radiation which can cause cooling. Of course, the clouds also intercept terrestrial radiation and reemit it back down to earth causing more warming. It's complicated. The dire forecasts you hear about come from coupled ocean/land/atmospheric models which attempt to simulate where the climate will drift to when CO2 levels are increased. Retrospective model runs have had issues with reproducing mid-tropospheric temperatures in the tropics (yes, that is important) and this raises questions about their fidelity and appropriateness as a tool for developing public policy. It is just down right difficult to model complex, non-linear interactions that are not completely understood such as cloud/radiation interactions (which are critical to getting the feedbacks correct and without positive feedbacks we probably don't have an issue).
Essentially the bottom line is we don't know how much warming will take place in the future from man's activities. With the homogenization of surface data, I have doubts whether we really know how much recent warming is the direct result of man's activities. This is still an area of research. We do know that the climate will continue to drift from natural causes such as the Milankovitch Cycles. We do know that CO2 levels will continue to increase for the next several decades as developing nations will continue to generate power from fossil fuels. Put solar panels on your house because it saves you money and makes you feel good but it won't have any impact. Whether you drive a gas or electric golf cart won't have any impact either. I do plan on buying a Tesla because they are pretty cool.
On thing that I do find rather amusing is whenever anyone says they are "trying to save the planet". The planet is fine. The human race might be another issue. If mankind goes extinct the planet will erase all remnants of the human race within a few million years.
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Originally Posted by retiredguy123
I am not worried about it at all. But, apparently, a lot of people claim that climate change or “global warming” will soon be killing people and may even threaten life on our planet. But, the TOTV web site actually has a “just for fun” thread making jokes about global warming. And, I don’t see very many people doing much to reduce their carbon footprint. It appears to me that people are still flying on airplanes and buying gas guzzling vehicles as much as ever. In fact, only about one in every 200 cars is an electric car, and most Villagers are buying gas golf carts. Very few people are buying solar panels, even though they are readily available in The Villages. So, have you changed your lifestyle or habits to reduce the effects of climate change?
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