Which country is the main culprit for global warming?
342451
United States of America, mainy because everyone  drives everywhere no body walks, and there cars weight ten tonnes and only to 15 to the gallon.
600459
Global warming is the opposite of global cooling.  The Earth has gone through at least 3 episodes of cooling/warming.  Where I am sitting now was once under about 1000 feet of ice.  The Earth warmed up enough to melt all that ice -- and this was way before there were any cars or industry (or even people).  Global warming is NOT caused by people living their lives and producing things. People may have an effect on the rate, but we are not the CAUSE. BTW, the ozone layer hole, which expands and contracts, has no direct effect on global cooling/warming.
803758
In short, Carbon Dioxide, currently being blamed for global warming is the product of burning Carbon based fuels like methane, and also petrolium based fuels.  \n\nCarbon Dioxide (CO2) is also taken out of the air by plants, algae, and bacteria that perform photosynthesis, and is added to a sugar like molecule to produce glucose (a sugar).  The plant or bacteria then uses the glucose for fuel or stores it as starch.  \n\nWe are producing CO2 so fast that plants and algae are not taking it out of the atmosphere as fast as it is being produced.  The extra gas contributes to global warming and climate change.  The excess CO2 also may result in the future in massive increases of photosynthetic algae and bacteria which also could be bad for the oceans, having side effects such as killing all of the fish in the ocean if we are not lucky.
716608
There is not a consistent policy about global warming because no country wants to limits it own industrial capabilities to prevent pollution. The US agreed to the Kyoto Accords but now finds ways to side-step their obligation. How can any group of countries punish the US? Too many factors such as the national economies of small countries depend on the US for trade to force Washington to comply. But one thing is certain and that is that there is no agreement as to global warming even amongst the scientific community. It is being used by politicians as a gimmick to sway opinions. Before Al Gore didn't much worry about global warming but found it useful to take votes from Republicans and so there was sudden attention.Are you certain that there is indeed global warming? I realize that people have been tugging at the issue for years, but there is no substantial proof that this warming effect is not a cyclical phenomena. We have no proof about the last 50,000 years from the estimated period of the Ice Age. Counting tree rings is hardly an answer and the oldest know trees are less than 3,000 years...perhaps this situation occurs every ten thousand years. Fossils date much further back and we know that some cataclysmic event, a massive volcano or perhaps even a meteorite created so much dust that the earth was blanketed and brought about the sudden extinction of the dinosaurs. That took place about 65,000,000 years ago...just days ago, Norwegian paleontologists announced the discovery of a dinosaur 'graveyard' with the fossils of ichthyosaurs and pleisosaurs (perhaps cousins of the Loch Ness Monster) on an Island about 800 miles from the North Pole. Because both types of dinosaurs were marine (living in salt water), we then can assume they died in the water...but the 'graveyard' is now situated on a hillside some distance from the sea, but also that the water level was much higher at that time...Global Warming? Island can rise and sink because of volcanic activity but the island shows no geological suggestion that that was so. Perhaps too, this is a natural event in that as the temperature increases, so does evaporation and thusly more rain, so could it be that it is a cleansing system to remove pollutants from the atmosphere? There are many far-fetched theories and one is from Australia where scientists claim that cows are a major source of pollution. Herbivores produce methane gas as they digest grasses, fodder and such, and with the vast number of cows and other herbivores, our atmosphere is contaminated. It makes little sense as in America were vast herds of bison, and the plains of Africa still have millions of grazing animals...both past and present. The die-off of marine organisms is often linked to man-made problems...oil spills, dredging, sewage and such...i.e. the Thames River of England was so polluted years ago that no fish could exist...the environmental agency cleaned it up by stopping sewage, etc and now 10 species of fish have returned. We build dams and prevent floods and deprive vital nutrients to the sea. In Asia, DDT was introduced to protect the crops and successfully killed many species of fish and birds (most potent when used with oil as the solvent). Few people understand that a tree does many things besides provide wood, it retains soil but also transpires a substantial amount of moisture into the air...and we cut down the forests. We cover vast areas with tarmac and concrete and deaden the soil. On my last visit to Mt. Kilimanjaro, I noticed the reduction of the ice caps and glaciers but I didn't come away with any firm conviction of a drastic change. In Tibet, I visited the glacial rivers but they seemed much unchanged, and the peak of Mt. Everest seems to have the same amount of snow and ice. The only tangible proof I have found is that some of the tropical marine life in the Sea of Cortez have move further north, but that could be explained by a shifting of currents, rather than an
262988
Neat how the graph excludes prior dates.  20 years ago it was global cooling.\n\nThe temperature varies, greenhouse gasses come from natural occurrences (Krakatoa and Mt. Saint Helens spewed more greenhouse gasses in the air than man has produced in 10,000 years).  The earth recovers.  Liberal activists don't.
239270
Carcinogens causing global warming?!?!?!  NO.  Don't go rambling about things you don't understand.  Carcinogens are cancer-causing agents--things that mutate DNA.  Global warming is the result of greenhouse gases, which are gases that absorb more energy from sunlight than N2 and O2 do.\n\nI think at this point, we can certainly imagine that the problem is almost undoubtedly exacerbated by the burning of fossil fuels.  It sure can't be helping.  There is some debate as to whether or not the effects are the largest part of the problem, or whether we're coming out of an Ice Age anyways, and hence the gradual warming was unavoidable.\n\nWorse than gas buring in my opinion is the deliberate destruction of rainforests, which not only produces a great deal of CO2, but which also destoys an ecosystem that works to remove CO2 from the air.
447054
the sun..... the sun is the only thing responsible for warming the earth. Dont get me wrong ...pollution and greenhouse gases also contribute. But they are not the only reason. We are in a short period of warm temperatures on earth. A small window in time. We just got out of an ice age about 12-15ooo years ago. We have had longer periods of global Ice Ages than we have of global warm periods in the last few million years.... Did u know that a violent volcano can spew enough greenhouse gas into the atmosphere to warm our atmospheric temperatures several degrees. Pollution does the same thing but on a smaller scale. This gas traps the earths heat from escaping back into space. Its like a blanket for our atmosphere. Then the earth gets warm, and creates more water vapor from the oceans. More water vapor means more clouds. More clouds mean less sunlight hitting the surface of earth, less sunlight means less heat, less heat means more ice.. and we go back into an ice age.... then the earth fixes herself, we start to get warmer.... and we go on and on.... Its been happening like that for millions of years. If it wasent for global warming we wouldnt be alive and the earth would be covered with seals, penguins, polar bears and wolly mammoths.
23702
Global warming is an increase in the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans. The term is also used for the more specific scientific theory of anthropogenic global warming, which states that much of the recent observed (and projected) global warming is human-induced and the result of a strengthened greenhouse effect caused by man-made increases in carbon dioxide (through the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation) and other greenhouse gases. The natural greenhouse effect keeps the Earth 30 °C warmer than it otherwise would be; adding carbon dioxide to an atmosphere, with no other changes, will make a planet's surface warmer. Current research tries to uncover more details, e.g. about positive and negative feedback mechanisms, to allow a more precise quantification of the effect.
527546
Greenhouse gas emissions -> Leads to global warming.  Which destroys many parts of the the world's eco-systems already, it will eventually impact humans soon too.
859112
I do agree,they claim el nino is responsible,some claim global warming. The semi cold weather with wet,cloudy days is depressing not to mention it brings on aches and pains......Illness The cold snowy days seem to bring excitement, to cold for the germs. My personal theory is the whole Earth has shifted orbit just enough to mess the weather up. Scientifically I would go with global warming or the green house effect. We have used and released so much freon or R-12 into the atmosphere, plus other pollutants its really damaged are enviorment all for comfort. Maybe we should go back to horse and buggies..lol
157711
It is Global Warming.  Geologically speaking we are still coming out of the last ice age.  We are on in a natural cycle which has been accerated by pollution.
296292
global warming is real. its extremey or may not be related toinitially global warming causes the polar caps to melong termea water to rise and become lower in saline concentrations.\nthe lower the salt content the less the currents of the ocean flow and the COLDER the winters get (warm water not moving away from the equator) \nin natural cycles the more extreeme cold kills off organisms initally resulting in HIGHER greenhouse gases, but longterm the "ice age" that follows will leave less life (and death) reducing the overall emissions. this also increases the amount of icebound water increasing the salinity in the oceans returning the currenty\n\nSo You decide on the cause but it is real and geologically recorded again and again.
982
Global warming has two main applications. The first is that there are certain gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, warming planets. This is known to take place on Venus, Earth, and the gas giants. Earth is the hospitable place that it is because of global warming.\n\nThis takes place because of greenhouse gases, which allow radiation from the sun to pass through the atmosphere and warm the surface of the earth. The surface then re-radiates this energy back towards space in the infrared spectrum. This energy would escape and our planet would be as cold as the moon, were it not for the greenhouse gases (mainly CO2, ozone, methane, and water vapor). They absorb the infrared energy and radiate it back to earth, increasing the overall amount of radiation hitting the earth's surface, keeping it warm day and night.\n\nThat this takes place is clear and indisputable. There is simply too little energy coming from the sun to account for our planet's temperature. The controversial point is when global warming is applied to the current rise in average global temperature that has taken place over the past 50 so years. Most scientists believe that warming of the planet is due to increases in greenhouse gases, mainly CO2, mainly due to human activities on earth.
557880
Global warming is caused by an increase in greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.  Global warming has been proven, the only people who argue against it have no understanding of science and no idea what is going on in the world.  Humans are not the only cause of greenhouse gasses, but we contribute to the problem greately.  The fact is that the earth cycles through warming and cooling periods but manking disturbs the normal process and increases the rate of warming (mostly by CO2 increases from burning oil.)  There are natural sources of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses as well, volcanoes can spew millions of tons of CO2 in a matter of days... the earth has supported life through very hot and very cold peroids, but there is NO realistic argument that humans don't influence global warming.\n\nThe greenhouse effect is necessary for life as well, if all of the CO2 was elimated from the atmosphere life as we know it on earth would end, the earth would be a frozen, barren wasteland.  Without any greenhouse gasses the earth would not maintain a reasonable temperature; nights would drop to -80 Celcius on the warm parts of the planet... \n\nThe earth will recover from all of the damage we do when we are gone... life adapts, species are eliminated every year, but no little coverage is given to the new species the are discovered every year... evolution is in progress, global warming is a change, not a destruction.
675468
Not really but in fact the bigger problem is not CO2 but CO. Never the less you know that CO2 levels have suffer a cycle since the beginning earth however since the Industrial revolution they climbed hugely the climate has already changed. At least in my part of the planet it is hotter generally I notice it, my parents did and my friends in general, but it is the older people that notice it the most. The climate is cyclic, sometimes it makes things from 100 to 100 years and at the beginning one thought it might be that but it’s not it’s really a matter of global warming. (I am portuguese to now more about the fire in summer consult the web or see it in CNN in the summer), it is real and it is now
336978
It is certainly true that there have been periods in history that have been hotter than it is now before the rise of the combustion engine and heavy deforestation that ultimately lead to the greenhouse effect. Let me say that the 1.2 degrees Celsius increase that we have observed since the rise of the machine and the human effect on the environment is really insufficient to prove what effect of global warming really is. Additionally, the most abundant greenhouse gas is water vapor (making up about 95% of the abundance of all the greenhouse gases). These two facts basically say that there is no support EXPERIMENTALLY for the theory. Yet the theory is correct: with  a build up of greenhouse gases in all the strata of the atmosphere causes infrared light to reflect several more times off of the earth's surface than it normally would, causing a net increase in thermal energy over long periods of time. I am very much a pro-environment scientist, so I can say without bias that the theory is definitely correct, yet we do not currently know what factors (global warming or something else entirely) we can attribute heat changes to, and therefore, we do not know how much global warming will affect us. Only time will really tell...
218644
It is because of the Global Warming due to the green house effect.