Let's see, the concentration of gases that are mostly transparent to shorter wave electromagnetic radiation (you know, from the sun) , and are mostly opaque to longer wave electromagnetic radiation (you know, from the earth) have been increasing over the last 150-200 years (you know since the industrial age began). CO2 is up by over a third, methane has doubled. And the rate of increase in concentrations has increased (c-gold, when a rate increases, that is known as acceleration). Now, since average temperatures continue to increase, there is also more water vapor (a powerful greenhouse gas) in the air, up about 20% in the last 25 years.
As global temperatures continue to rise (hey c-gold, apparently you would be surprised by this, but even a seemingly small rise in global average temsp. a degree or two, can have profound effects on the global climate, you know as the fresh water in ice caps melt, ocean water salinity changes, which can effect ocean current patterns and effect, as KU said, it's not really the atmosphewre that drives the climate, it's the oceans, and even a seemingly small change in air temps, can result in big changes to the ocean, which can cause huge changes in the climate), ice caps, glaciers, etc. melt faster, changing the albedo of the earths surface, less ice cap, more ocean and land surface, less reflectivity, more global warming, it's a vicious cycle.
Glad KU informed you that volcanic eruptions actually tend to decrease global temps, by blocking solar radiation, but nice try on Mt St. Helens.
Interestingly, the rate of increase in global temperatures has increased (c-gold, this is acceleration, see above) during the same time that the increase in "greenhouse gases" due to manking activities has occurred.
Your revelation that the earth has natural heating and cooling cycles is great to know, we had ice ages? Wow, thanks for the info. From what I have read however, it takes many thousand of years for these natural cycles to occur. The overwhelming consensus of the pertinent scientific community is that the change in global average temperatures has accelerated (c-gold, see above), due to the change in greenhouse gases.
Mankind would be monumentally stupid not to try extremely hard to minimize the effect we have on the global climate when doing nothing has the great potential to have consequences far greater that all the war, famine and pestilence in the human history combined.
That our activities have accelerated the temperature increase in the current cycle we are in is indusputible. What the effects will be is harder to determine, but if we can do certain things to lower the chance that there will be catastrophic climate changes, then I think we should try.
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