The Debate About Global Warming
The debate about global warming has raged on for decades. Some claim that man is recklessly damaging the planet's capacity to support human life by releasing increasing levels of carbon dioxide, resulting in what is known as a "greenhouse effect."
The Effects of Global Warming
This effect causes the environment that protects the earth to absorb more and more heat, which is not automatically dissipating into outer space as it should. This is causing the base temperature of the planet to slowly warm to a level where some scientists claim that the polar ice caps will melt away causing a catastrophic rise in sea levels and a whole list of other dire consequences that will someday cause the extinction of humanity from planet Earth.
Conflicting Opinions on Global Warming
Even though some scientists do believe that global warming is fact rather than fiction, at this point it is impossible to tell if all this so-called evidence of a global rise in temperature is man-made or one of many cycles of global warming and cooling that have taken place over the millions of years of Earth’s history.
A Voice of Dissent
If one believes people like former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, crusader for climate change movement, in less than one lifetime, humanity will be snuffed out by forces that we set in motion and are wholly responsible for preventing. However, far from being a global scientific consensus, as climate change activists like Mr. Gore would like you to believe, there are several voices of dissention not only in the scientific community but also in governments and other agencies around the world.
The Debate Continues
Some scientists have stated for the record that the current spate of temperature increases is merely a part of the natural cycle of warming and cooling the Earth has gone through over its millions of years of history. Per a U.S. Senate report in 2007, issued by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, “Over 400 prominent scientists from more than two dozen countries recently voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming” (Horvath and Molnar 59).
A Significant Statement
One statement which stands out among the 400 is: “First, temperature changes, as well as rates of temperature changes (both increase and decrease) of magnitudes similar to that reported by IPCC to have occurred since the Industrial revolution (about 0.8C in 150 years or even 0.4C in the last 35 years) have occurred in Earth's climatic history. There's nothing special about the recent rise! Dr. Nathan Paldor, Professor of Dynamical Meteorology and Physical Oceanography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem” (Horvath and Molnar 62).
Climate Change Scenario
The thing which makes the statement by Dr. Paldor and others significant is that many of them were current and former participants in the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). So, again, far from being a “global consensus”, climate change appears to be more of a limited worldwide agreement.
Predictions and Controversy
However, all this discord among the scientific community is not stopping some scientists from banging the gong of global emergency over climate change. Bill Hare of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany’s leading global-warming research institute has laid out a scenario for climate change which is excerpted below: “By the middle of the present century, global temperature is likely to move up to 2 degrees Centigrade above the preindustrial level. There will be substantial losses of Arctic sea ice, and species such as polar bears and walruses will be threatened. In tropical regions, marine animals that live in the coral will be forced out by high temperatures and the reefs may die. Mediterranean regions will be hit by more forest fires and insect pests, while in parts of North America, such as the Rockies, rivers may become too warm for trout and salmon” (Steiger and Steiger 161).
Conclusion
As noted above, the controversy over whether or not global warming is a significant threat to humanity is continuing and will likely consume much academic and rhetorical space around the world for the foreseeable future. However, will the catastrophic predictions of the global warming activists come to fruition or will the Earth just naturally begin another cooling trend in the coming years? No matter which side you believe or which opinion you subscribe to, one thing keep in mind is we are all going to die sometime and the timing and circumstances of that event are not under our control, so take time to enjoy the time you have left and let other people worry about things like climate change.
Works Cited
Horvath, Anton, and Boris Molnar. Disputing Global Warming, edited by Anton Horvath, and Boris Molnar, Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, http:\/\/ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezproxy2.apus.edu\/lib\/apus\/detail.action?docID=3018478. Accessed May 10, 2017.
Steiger, Brad and Sherry Steiger. Conspiracies and Secret Societies: The Complete Dossier. Canton, MI, Visible Ink Publishing, 2006. Accessed May 10, 2017.
