If you think global warming is a myth, read a different article, this one contains facts

By Marshall Connolly, Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
3/8/2013
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Research is conclusive, global warming is real and caused by you.

If you still think global warming is a myth, you may want to read something else because this article contains facts. The most recent study which uses global data dating back 11,000 years confirms what most scientists already know. The planet is warming, dramatically, and it's correlated strongly with human activity.

Animals, as well as people, are severely affected by climate change.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - A comprehensive study conducted by Oregon State University reveals that temperatures have spiked since 1950, by about 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit. The study, compared samples from ice cores and ocean sediments as well as various other sources from around the planet, which are unanimous in their revelation.

The Earth's temperature fluctuates naturally, and there have been times when natural heating of the planet has yielded both higher and lower average temperatures that what we see today. Common causes of climate change are changes in the amount of solar radiation reaching Earth and concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

In the past century, humans have burned astounding amounts of fossil fuels and dumped phenomenal quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, which means it traps heat in the atmosphere and causes warming.

One dramatic example of CO2's power can be seen on the planet Venus where extreme concentrations of the gas in the planet's atmosphere makes temperatures on the planet's surface hot enough to melt solid metals. Venus is hotter than Mercury, which orbits closer to the sun than Venus.

On Earth, these changes have brought about ice ages and warm periods, humans having built civilization within the context of the latest warm period, known as the Holocene.

The problem is not the fact that the temperature is changing, for temperature change is normal. The problem is the sudden spike, occurring over the span of several decades rather than centuries. And while 1.3 degrees of Fahrenheit warming may not seem like much, it is enough to permanently alter the environment as we know it.

Worse, the temperature change continues to accelerate as more countries begin to pour more CO2 into the atmosphere, a product of expanding global industrialization. Countries such as China and India are now global leaders in CO2 production. Of course, this does not exonerate Americans who remain major contributors.

The relatively sudden change in climate has threatened several species and habitats around the world, since natural adaptation typically occurs over hundreds of years at best. The result is many animals in areas experiencing the greatest amount of climate change are facing extinction because they cannot adapt fast enough to changes in their environment.

This would be a minor concern in itself, however these changes affect humans. The 1.3 degrees of warming is enough to melt the ice caps in Greenland. Once covered by a vast ice sheet, the island is quickly becoming ice-free. While that means more habitable land area for the islands few residents, it also means rising sea levels.

Several low-lying coastal areas are reporting the rise in sea level with locks in the Thames and the Netherlands having to be closed and raised more frequently than ever before to prevent catastrophic flooding, particularly during storms.

Some island nations, such as the Maldives in the Indian ocean and several Polynesian states, face complete destruction as their low-lying islands are losing land area to the ocean that will eventually consume them within the next several decades.

Worst of all, the defrosting of the tundra across Canada and Siberia is starting to release mass quantities of methane into the atmosphere which will only accelerate the warming process in the next several decades.

The northern polar ice cap is expected to melt entirely within the next century, allowing navigation directly across the North Pole.

In the United States, where the effects of global warming seem to be

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1 - 10 of 41 Comments

Greg
1 month ago
Trying to find facts and scientific truth from a group of people that spend their Sundays worshipping deities they can't scientifically prove. Is anyone else getting the irony here? Word of advice. Look for your truth elsewhere. I actually made the mistake of reading the entire article before I noticed the source.
udont needtoknow
1 month ago
122 million is a paltry little sum compared to the BILLIONS spent by governments to fund research that has the pre-ordained goal of finding evidence of man made global warming. oh, and by the way, if the data doest support the theory. then the government agencies can (and have) change the raw data to support their theory.
Rob
2 months ago
I am no scientist and because this issue has been hiacked by politics, we will never know the truth. But it does stand to reason that perhaps our activity is having some effect. How much I have no idea. What you do about I also do not know.

But the best way to bury something, good or bad, is make it political. Once that happens we can rest assured nothing ever will become of it.
John Symes
2 months ago
Unscientific facts, piled on alarmist nonsense, built upon humanist pride.

I am annoyed that Catholic Online not only hosts this rubbish, but propagates it as some kind of "truth". As they used to say in The X Factor: the truth is out there. It can be found with a simple Google search.

It is NOT to be found in this childish video.
Julius
2 months ago
From the abstract of the actual study, published in 'Science'

"Current global temperatures of the past decade have not yet exceeded peak interglacial values but are warmer than during ~75% of the Holocene temperature history."

In other words, (with no help from humans) about 2700 years out of the last 11,000 years have been warmer than the last decade.

That does not disprove human involvement in the current warming, it does demonstrate the 'selective' reporting that unfortunately is so common.
Diana Mae Hunter
2 months ago
"Spike of 1.5 degrees"!!!!! OMG!!!
Whoever decided to add the picture of the polar bears on the ice floe - nice touch.
Henry Barth
2 months ago
For a different view than this article presents visit:

http://wattsupwiththat.com/
ike
2 months ago
No, this article is liberal bias, and created by someone with an agenda that socially irresponsible. Global warming is pseudo science.
judy claar
2 months ago
A Very Warm Hello. I present to you A valid statement: Ever since Earth's beginning, it has been birthing through atmospheric changes. Volcanic eruptions released poisonous gases into the atmosphere; gigantic meteorites, supposedly disintegrated dinosaurs, thereby causing at least one giant tsunami that covered the earth, (this being of course before Noah's time); then there is the evidence and facts of ice ages. These are the most pertinent to mention. In conclusion, it is my opinion, and theory, that Mother Earth has entertained quite a few "global warmings," as well as "hot and cold spells." And yes, Mother Earth responds like we do, our temp going up or down, for one reason or the other, due to changes in our body, but we usually come back to normal. And not everyone has the same normal. My "normal" is much lower than 98.8 and always has been. The fact that her temp is on the rise, could also be due to the volcanic eruptions she has had recently, and that she is revving up (according to scientists) to release pent up gases yet again. This is Natural. Like the ebb and flow of the tide. How can man interfere with the Natural world? And when he can and does, he usually ends up throwing Life, things, off balance. Nature aside, facts are that 99.9% of species that have lived on this earth have died. Now we ask the question: Is mankind doing what he can to promote peace, love and harmony among his specie And Mother Earth? (No, I am not a wacky far out liberal. I consider myself "normal" by Christ's teaching, lost in a crowd.)
Brad
2 months ago
Down on my level of living, we have to treat most media proclaimations on global warming as so much pabulum. First, we are told who the "authoritative" voices are. Then we witness the clashes between them. For my part I'm going to do two things:
1) Stop sitting in fast food drive-thru's behind fifteen other cars, engines running, to buy something to eat which will probably kill me.

2) Cancel my Natural Beographic magazine. They're cutting down many thousands of trees to print the news that trees are being cut down, which harms the atmosphere. How much fossil fuel is used in delivering these publications is not reported.

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