I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Boron Zone. It has a range of scientists studying all different topics. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
While certainly not a consensus view – the planet is getting warmer, sea levels are rising, tropical oceans are becoming less alkaline… The main debate seems to focus on the cause, or whether humans have caused or accelerated it. I think we should opt for healthy degree of precaution and take steps now to reduce global change irrespective of cause. I for one am willing to take risks for my children’s future. We can do things at local, National and International levels that will help increase resilience of social and biological systems for future change.
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Whoah, tough question! As a scientist, I find it totally impossible to believe that there is a conspiracy of thousands of professionals to commit fraud on the public. 97% of climate scientists support the conclusion that humans are influencing global warming Most “skeptics” continually peddle arguments that have been dispelled long ago…. and many have ulterior motives. The concept of scientists making up stories about global warming so that their “rich” funding streams continue is just totally laughable in my opinion.
A great Australian website debunking common skeptical arguments is this one:
http://www.skepticalscience.com/
Yes, I do think we should do something about it. Australia should lead the world – we are a rich country and can afford to be an example. Our carbon tax is a rather muddled start. Not great, too many exceptions – but at least it is something.
Maybe the Earth can cope with warming … but I don’t want to have to perform that experiment on a global scale with no way out.
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Is it happening? YES. Do I believe it is caused by human activity? YES (well, at least partially). Am I concerned about it? YES. Do we need to do something about it? YES, very urgently. Are we doing enough about it? NO. Global warming CAN occur naturally, and has done in the Earth’s past. But what we are seeing now is too fast to be natural. Its time to move on from the question of “is it happening?” or “are we causing it?”, and start DOING something about it. You guys can help. Its a job for all of us. Start by turning off your TV/computer/game console at the power point when you’re not using it. Small steps by lots of people can make a difference. Becoming a scientist is a really good way to get involved and make a much bigger difference.
OK, climbing down off my hobby horse now. Can you tell you hit on something I’m passionate about?!
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Great question!
I agree with Mark, Matthew and Heather: climate change and global warming are real. It’s not just the temperatures rising, but a whole host of other things are changing: sea levels rising, more extreme weather events (stronger and longer cyclones, hotter days, etc). I also think that human activity is in large part causing the changes, or at least accelerating the effects significantly.
I also agree with the idea that it’s better to be safe than sorry. I’d rather some short term financial pain if it means that in the long term, the Earth’s climate will not be so badly affected. And Australia has the highest carbon emissions per head of population than anyone else in the world, so we should definitely be leading by example!
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Great to see one of the big issues come up!
Not against naturally occurring global warming. I am however totally against human induces global warming.
From the available evidence: YES it is occurring; YES we should be doing something about it, YES natural variability occurs (see below) and YES it is something to be concerned about!
The other scientists have covered the topic very well; I particularly like Heather’s comments! The only points I would add are:
1) Natural variability has occurred throughout geological time, but typically those changes have taken place over far longer periods than are currently being observed. Except catastrophic events, such as huge meteorite impacts – when major extinctions of all kinds of species occurred.
2) Evolutionary Biologists have recently suggested we have entered a new geological period – the Anthropocene (Age of Man) where humans have begun to have a significant impact on the globe. Indeed estimates suggest that the rate of extinctions in this new period, maybe similar to those seen at the end of other major geological periods (e.g. Cretaceous 65 million years ago – end of the dinosaurs). Rather scary stuff!!!
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