Global Warming Fact or Fiction?

Global Warming. Global warming fact or fiction? Global warming hoax or real? What is global warming and is it true? If you search the Internet you can find scientific hypothesis for both sides of the issue, so which is true?

First, we know global warming is a threat and causes rising sea levels and climate changes. Over 70% of the earth is covered with water and 99% of that water is in the ocean and 2% of that is in frozen ice caps. The ocean’s ecosystem is showing signs of imbalance. Did you know that the ocean influences our weather and climate patterns? According to Ecologic Development fund the average temperature of the planet is increasing.

The next part of global warming is “greenhouse gases”. The greenhouse effect captures heat and keeps the earth’s surface warm enough for us to live on it. Studies of the Earth’s climate history show that even small changes in CO2 levels generally have come with significant shifts in the global average temperature. That might not sound like a big deal, but even if the temperature change is at the small end of the predictions, the changes to the climate are expected to be serious: more intense storms, more pronounced droughts, coastal areas more severely eroded by rising seas. (From Science of Global Warming) In a joint statement with 10 other National Academies of Science, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences has warned that there is sufficient climate change to take action.

So many areas are directly affected by climate change – which also affects our oceans. One hundred natives of a small island in the Pacific Ocean had to be relocated because of rising sea levels flooding their island. There is a village in Alaska called Shishmaref that is collapsing from permafrost. Relocation plans are in the works for this village. I have no doubt these are not the only places facing these flooding issues.

Some scientists say that glaciers are growing but it is believed that is a minority situation. In approximately 36 years glaciers have lost 890 cubic miles of ice and continue to do so. Even in Greenland there are signs of the ice melting. The Science for Global Warming’s article “Scientific Consensus on the Basic Facts of Global Warming” states that the only real debate is about how fast the warming will occur and how much damage will be done by our activities that produce heat-trapping CO2 and other greenhouse-gas emissions. Further the Science for Global Warming believes that arguments against global warming are nature in science and that scientists always look for the loopholes and refute each others findings to truly explore, delve into, and prove the facts. That in itself is a natural phenomenon.

The New York Times article on Global Warming (updated Jan. 13, 2011) states that global talks on climate change opened in Cancun, Mexico in late 2010 with the toughest issues unresolved and the conference producing modest agreements. It goes on to state that President Obama vowed as a candidate that he would put the United States on a path to addressing climate change by reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas pollutants. In another article entitled Climate Change and Coffee, the New York Time states that changes in rainfall and temperature are affecting coffee plants in Columbia and that production dropped off 70 % last year.

Ask.com says, “Worldwide, every major scientific agency or institution that studies climate, oceans or the atmosphere agrees that the global climate is warming rapidly and the primary cause is greenhouse gas emissions related to human activity. It is really no surprise. For centuries mankind has not paid attention to the effects of their behavior on this planet. The slaughter of animals, the decimations of rain forests and on and on. The effects of global warming include a rise in temperatures, increased drought, expanding deserts, deadly heat waves, the disappearance of snow except on the highest mountain peaks, a rise in sea levels, more frequent severe storms and floods, and a rise in disease. Watching the news and reading the papers leads one to believe this is currently happening. The amount of flooding and tornados in this country alone seems to be rising daily!

The sad part is that this has been caused primarily by man. The increase of carbon dioxide is believed to be caused by the use of fossil fuels, cutting down rainforests, and extended housing. Rising sea levels cause people to lose their homes with two examples stated here earlier.

The World Natural Health Organization says there is no global warming and it is being used to generate fear and panic and they are not alone. LifeSites.com posted an article on Jan. 7, 2011 stating “a new study published in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience has concluded that the claimed melting of the Himalayan glaciers trumpeted by the United Nations as ‘proof’ for catastrophic global warming, does not match the evidence. Instead, the researchers found that many glaciers in the Himalayas are expanding or stable.” This article goes on to say that doubts about global warming were initially sparked by U.S. Sen. James Inhofe (R. Olka) who said on the Senate floor, “With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phony science, could it be that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? It sure sounds like it.” However, even the oil companies acknowledge changes due to global warming.

Remember it is almost impossible to get all scientists to agree on any one thing. Environmental scientist David Keith said, "The core theory says if you double or triple CO2 in the atmosphere, it's going to get warmer, this is something we've known from pretty basic physics and proved with a lot of good science for more than 100 years. That's the reason to worry, not the warming over the last few decades." Approximately 55 million years ago, the climate was warm enough to support alligators in the high Arctic. It took 10 million years for those CO2 levels to decrease to the current level. At humanity's current rate of CO2 production, Keith said, levels will rise back up to that point in only 100 years: 100,000 times faster. "There is no controversy among anybody, even the skeptics, that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is going up -- unless you pick ones that are just nutballs." Keith said. "We know that without any doubt." If you would like to read the article these quotes were taken from it can be found at http://news.discovery.com/earth/is-global-warming-real.html

The site globalwarminghoax.wordpress.com believes we have all been brainwashed. One of its articles is mostly an attack on Al Gore, a proponent of global warming. Another states these changes have always been happening in the world and are not a result of global warming. Iwatchnews.org in an article dated July 31, 2008 states that ABC News reporter John Stossel does not believe in global warming and he’s working to make sure you don’t either. It further quotes Mr. Stossel, ““It's possible that [global warming is] going to be a catastrophe as Al Gore says, but I'm highly skeptical of that after the long list of prior catastrophes. I'm a skeptic of the people who say it's a catastrophe and we can fix it. I'm utterly convinced that the stuff like buying a Prius or changing a light bulb will make absolutely no difference.”

In an article entitled, “Is man caused Global Warning a Scientific Fact?”, the author, who’s name does not appear in the article on the Internet states, “There is no doubt that increasing the opacity of the air by the added CO₂ causes an increase in global temperature. There is also no doubt that changes in solar radiation changes global temperature. The question is if the amount of increase contributed by man's emissions of CO ₂ is significant compared to changes due to the sum of the confounding variables …” He further states, “The public needs to recognize that just because something is modeled on a computer - it need not represent reality, and the result of erroneous public policy are not with out great cost.” He is saying that scientists are using computer models to predict the effects of greenhouse emissions on global warming and to predict further, the future of the world’s temperature and storm systems. He believes that changes in our solar output, plant coverage, ground level ozone, genetic changes in the ocean algae, changes in earth’s magnetic field, and other natural changes effect global warming.

Taken from Greeleygazette.com; Most scientific studies indicate that a small degree of global warming exists, but no models can predict any regional changes. Nothing is certain.The issue started out as “Global Warming,” but a safer title was adopted: “Climate Change.” Either way, the basic thrust is that mankind is adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere thus causing the earth to warm, climate to change, oceans to rise, ice to melt, animals and people to migrate.

But many experts do not accept Global Warming as a valid theory. Former CSU professor Bill Gray, Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Science and a world expert on hurricanes, stated in 2006 that current theories of human-induced global warming are promoted by government leaders and environmentalists seeking to create world government. He believes that humans are not responsible for the warming of the earth and has stated that "We're brainwashing our children."

Publishing the newly collated data in London, Peter Stott, the head of climate modeling at the UK Met Office, said despite variations between individual years, the evidence was unequivocal: "When you follow those decade-to-decade trends then you see clearly and unmistakably signs of a warming world". Despite annual fluctuations, the figures also highlight the clear trend for the 2000s to be hotter than the 1990s, which in turn were clearly warmer than the previous decade, said Stott.

"These numbers are not theory, but fact, indicating that the Earth's climate is moving into uncharted territory," said Rafe Pomerance, a senior fellow at Clean Air Cool Planet, a US group dedicated to helping find solutions to global warming. (www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010)

Science Daily published “Democrats and Republicans Increasingly Divided Over Global Warming, Study Finds” on April 23, 2011. "Instead of a public debate about different policies to deal with global warming, a significant percentage of the American public is still debating the science," said McCright, MSU associate professor and primary investigator on the study. "As a result, we're failing to significantly address one of the most serious problems of our time”

In another Science Daily article published March 9, 2011 it stated, “According to a University of Michigan study published in the forthcoming issue of Public Opinion Quarterly,more people believe in "climate change" than in "global warming. "You may have heard about the idea that the world's temperature may have been going up [changing] over the past 100 years, a phenomenon sometimes called 'global warming' ['climate change']. What is your personal opinion regarding whether or not this has been happening? Overall, 74 percent of people thought the problem was real when it was referred to as climate change, while about 68 percent thought it was real when it was referred to as global warming. (ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 28, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2011/03/110308173242.htm)

So is it a matter of semantics? Back and forth across the Internet are sites dedicated to the truth in global warning and the hoax of global warming. Which is fact and which is fiction? It doesn’t take a genius to see there are changes taking place. I personally can’t give the reason and I don’t think there is a simple solution but I’m sure there are changes taking place and we can’t ignore it!

Update - May 4, 2011 - the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) the scientific arm of the eight-nation Arctic Council has stated the ice in the Arctic is melting faster than expected. "The melting of Arctic glaciers and ice caps, including Greenland's massive ice sheet is projected to help raise global sea levels by 35 to 63 inches by 2100, AMAP said, although it noted that estimate was highly uncertain. That's up from the 2007 projection of 7 to 23 inches.

P.S. In the interest of science I have added a poll to the end of this Hub so you can see where you stand (opinion-wise) among other readers.