Syd Lexia wrote:

I believe our climate is shifting. Do I believe we're causing it? I don't know. Our planet's climate has changed drastically and subtly several times over the course of history without human interference. There are compelling arguments that the current changes are our fault, and there are compelling ones that it isn't. But it is definitely happening.

Having a degree in Geography, I took a lot of classes (compulsory and optional) in climatology and atmospheric science, and wrote two thesis's in which Climate Change was a component.

As Syd Lexia has stated. Climate Change has happened. Though not just that. It has happened, it is happening and it will continue to happen.

In terms of geological time. We are currently within the Quaternary, which is notable for a large number of glacial events. We are currently in the Holocene which is currently a warm period.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternary

In contrast, you have the Palaeogene which was a period of large amounts of warming. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleogene

All these changes happened without the influence of humans. Climate Change is a scientific fact, there is no debate over that. These changes on Earth happened and there is substantial amount of evidence that it happened.

The important questions are: Is it happening now? and Can humans influence the climate?

I'd say yes to both. There is already substantial amounts of evidence in terms of rises in global atmospheric temperature. If you google global atmospheric temperature you will get links to the graph in this link:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/globair.html (i'm not posting pictures).

Most people who oppose climate change do not understand the science behind it (or science at all for that matter). It is unfortunate that the people that most people hear are not scientists, or those educated on the topic but those who know nothing about it and just talk shit.

I remember my mother (qualified geographer herself) returning from New York after that hurricane last year and her telling me about how she was watching the news for the weather in her hotel room and the dismay that she had of people just throwing climate change around like it was some sort of joke.

Listen to the people who actually know something about it. Not some stupid news anchor. People forget that scientists aren't usually in science for glory hunting or anything. They study phenomena and report the evidence. They have no real reason to lie (inb4 someone posts the East Anglia Climate Unit forging data, I am still not clear on that myself).

...and let me finally say that when it comes down to it, that the human causes are totally irrelevant. If humans reduced emissions right now and I mean stopped everything, there is still forecast to be a rise of 2 degrees centigrade which is basically enough to cause major damage. So it's already coming. Humans will only make it worse.

and on the humans causing it? It's really not rocket science as to how it works (I mean there is more complex science) but simply:

How does day and night work? It's colder during the night? Why? Heat is lost to the atmosphere? Why? During the day during a depression, due to low pressure, water vapour rises and condenses forming clouds. Clouds act as a barrier in which heat is stored in the lower atmosphere. Anticyclonic conditions are different but you get the point.

That is simply why night is colder than day. Why is this relevant? Simply this can explain it better than I can:

Most of the light energy from the sun is emitted in wavelengths shorter than 4,000 nanometers (.000004 meters). The heat energy released from the earth, however, is released in wavelengths longer than 4,000 nanometers. Carbon dioxide doesn't absorb the energy from the sun, but it does absorb some of the heat energy released from the earth. When a molecule of carbon dioxide absorbs heat energy, it goes into an excited unstable state. It can become stable again by releasing the energy it absorbed. Some of the released energy will go back to the earth and some will go out into space.

So essentially CO2 absorbs heat. I mean is that difficult to understand? Since things like fossil fuels release carbon dioxide in burning as CO2 increases the amount of heat captured increase? Where is the big conspiracy there? It's pretty common fucking sense.

But of course it's more complicated than oh there is more CO2 gas in the atmosphere. The Earth's climate is effected by A LOT of factors.

I'll stop, though if you are genuinely interested in climatology, just ask me, as it's a topic I find particularly fascinating. I was actually going to go into climatology as a field of work but for personal reasons I didn't. So ask away.