• Question: Do you believe in global warming and what would you say to someone who doesn't?

    Asked by murray1 to Anne, Carolyn, Joe, Mariana, Nick on 15 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Nick Bradshaw

      Nick Bradshaw answered on 15 Mar 2010:

      I personally am not expert but I have talked to people who do study it themselves and they are 100% convinced. From what I have seen of the evidence myself, and fom what the vast majority of scientists who study it think, I definatly believe in global warming.

      As for people who don’t believe, it normally comes down to not having all the information. The news tends to imply that there is plenty of research supporting both sides, and so naturally that is what people believe. The scientific journals, however, show almost all the data implies that global warming is real.

    • Photo: Joseph Devlin

      Joseph Devlin answered on 15 Mar 2010:

      Always a tricky question. I think pretty much everyone accepts that the Earth’s temperature is rising — the main question is whether this is a natural fluctuation or at least partially due to human activity. If we’re to blame for this, we need to take responsibility and do something. If it’s a natural change, then we’re worrying over nothing.

      I don’t know really know the science behind the arguments for human activity being to blame but I know that the National Academy of Sciences (the US equivalent of the Royal Society) was commissioned to investigate the issues and summarized their findings. They found that humans are contributing to global warming and are accelerating the changes beyond those that occur naturally. Based on that report, and informal conversations with colleagues in geosciences who are more tuned in to this than I am, I accept that we are partially responsible and that we need to do something about it, yes. I’m not sure I agree with the authors of Super Freakonomics, though, who think that geo-engineering is the obviously best answer.

    • Photo: Carolyn McGettigan

      Carolyn McGettigan answered on 15 Mar 2010:

      Yes, I believe in global warming – there’s loads of evidence to show that the Earth is getting hotter. I think the extent to which we as humans contribute to the changes in climate is what is rather more uncertain. However, if I were to meet someone who said they didn’t care about climate change and took unnecessary transatlantic flights all the time, I might encourage them to consider that being more careful about our own carbon footprint is unlikely to do any harm, whereas being careless might do a great deal of harm… So, it’s worth being careful, right?

    • Photo: Mariana Vargas

      Mariana Vargas answered on 15 Mar 2010:

      Yes I think there is enough evidence that global warming is happening. To someone that doesn’t believe in global warming I would suggest to watch the film “An inconvinient truth” by Al Gore.

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