Global Warming: Fact or Fiction.
Global Warming. Fact or Fiction.
Global Warming exists. Whether you think it is due to natural or human-based reasoning, it is a fact that our earth is getting warmer. I will attempt to make this article as unbiased as possible but to deny that the blunt evidence that the Earth hasn’t increased in temperature would be blasphemy.
Since the Industrial Revolution, the average temperature on earth has risen .8 degrees fahrenheit (the earth is actually suppose to be going through it’s normal cooling cycle right now). Most of this warming has happened in the last few decades, which isn’t a surprise at all considering how different life is compared to back then.
To prevent being wrongfully quoted on something, I will openly admit that everything I am about to say has come from my own sources that are of course, subject to criticism. Almost everything revolving around the ideas of human-made global warming has a rebuttal but I could care less about that.
There’s always going to be that one person who has credibility and can convince people to believe what they believe. And with a hugely political concept like massive climate change, there is obvious speculation about. And this is where I interject.
Regardless of how it’s happening, change is in order. Not to prove the skeptics wrong but for our own satisfaction and well-being. Take everything I have to say with a grain of salt but realize my main purpose of this article is to convince you to help yourself by helping our environment.
Dr. James Mayer, a Geosciences professor on campus, also acknowledges that the earth is indeed warming. “My personal opinion, based on reading the findings of climate scientists, is that we are probably justified in concluding that the warming observed over the last several decades is at least partially human-induced. But this is by no means a certainty.”
Dr. Mayer also comments on probably of irreversibility. “For significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions will require immediate economic sacrifices for the sake of uncertain results far in the future. Based on my knowledge of world events, such large-scale sacrifice for the common good seems unlikely.”
Unfortunately, I completely agree with Dr. Mayer as I believe a massively significant disaster is going to be our fatal call to arms.
Like I said earlier, the purpose of this is to simply make you more aware of whats happening in our world. If you see a connection to global warming, fantastic. If not, then you’re completely missing the point of me writing this.
From an exert in Time Magazine, “One especially sobering study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that hurricane wind speeds have increased about 50% in the past 50 years.” With the warming waters, not only are hurricanes an issue but many other factors as well.
Melting ice bergs are posing an enormous threat to low lying areas. To bring this reality more to home, imagine this if you will. Florida’s coasts are almost at sea level, so even if the ocean just rose a few feet, millions of people would be put out of their homes, thus being out of jobs, leaving crime and theft to ensue (flashback to Katrina).
Melting icebergs are also directly linked to increased polar bear death (many swim out to see in search of food but can never find a place to rest later on). Maybe this isn’t considered important to a lot of you but I happen to like polar bears.
I will put this in perspective. A year ago, there were over five thousand species alive that are not alive today, and the same for the year prior.
Warming oceans have also killed off many coral reefs which, in recent years, have found to be incredibly useful for medical purposes including prolonging the life of AIDS victims, acting as a highly powerful pain killer and much more potential that has yet to be discovered. It also turns out I happen to like Nemo.
In 2003, a heat wave in Europe killed an estimated 35,000 people. Deaths have dramatically risen in South America due to mosquitoes migrating north (due to warmer weather), directly responsible for malaria outbreaks, specifically loggers whose deforestation areas make for great larvae homes (it should also be noted that the silt from deforestation centers travel down rivers and into the oceans which then blocks any light from reaching the coral reefs thus killing them).
As I noted earlier, droughts and heat waves will continue to increase, which means Africa will give a whole new meaning to third world country. War could then ensue as resources would become limited and judging by our current war situation, even with unlimited fossil fuels right now, we’re having enough problems as it is.
Americanprogress.org issued a report titled ‘The Top 100 Effects of Global Warming’ which gives a realistically gruesome look at the specifics of how devastating some of these effects could be. Eradication of wine, koala bears, lobsters, and french fries are just a few of the lesser effects that made the list with various credible citations for each. Abundances of poison ivy, jellyfish, and heart attacks are the plus factors here.
Here’s my favorite statistic of them all. Due to the heating of permafrost (namely Alaska, Canada, Siberia), methane from dead plant matter (a very flammable gas) is being released (as well as methane gas bubbles from the ocean floors), and if enough of these gases become concentrated in a particular area, a single lightening strike could make an atomic explosion.
However even with this Armageddon ridden theory, I honestly don’t believe humans can ever become extinct. The last ice age wiped out 95% of all species, except humans. It’s a scary thought but in the event massive genocide did occur, the decrease of humans would then start to make our Earth more sustainable for life again.
Obviously, a lot of these ideas are all predictions but the fact that these are even brought up scares me to death. It’s not even us that will experience any of these horrendous encounters as our kin and their children will face the brunt of this if left unchanged.
Dr. Mayer comments, “Reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, for example, could provide immediate environmental and economic advantages while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
Rightfully so, and to refrain from any hypocrisy, I ride my bike as much as possible with this thought in mind. Doing simple things such as turning my thermostat off, keeping my tires properly inflated and eating less meat all make me feel like I’m being a better person (it’s literally that easy). There’s hundreds of small things that you can do that will without-a-doubt have a huge effect on the future (global warming aside).
Ask yourself what’s it going to hurt if you don’t? Exactly. Google is your friend, please brief up on what you can do to help even if you don’t agree that global warming exists.
Grant Wallace
The West Georgian
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I wonder why so many are anonymous here … can’t stand by your opinion? The only fact we know is that all fact is illusion. We have some poor models and a lot of interests in teh climate change scare that have nothing to do with science. If there is a problem that will trouble us long before any climate changes, it is OVERPOPULATION and long before the waste will accumulate at any height we won’t have enough to eat and people will start to bash in their heads. Suddenly there won’t be any greenhouse gases being produced …
So simply, nature has a way of fixing these problems and that is just the way it is. Anyone who blindly believes anything the media or politicians say is either naive, stupid or ignorant. So take it easy, there is NOTHING that can be done as no matter what we do in the Western world, we are outnumber by 1 to 3 by people who really don’t worry about global warming but what to eat tomorrow. Tell them to stop producing greenhouse gases with their cows and fertilizers and tell the to stop to have five kids. Go ahead and try … good luck!
.-= Max J. Pucher´s last blog ..A Shakesperian Tale =-.
Here’s a simple analysis for you to do, the figures shown below are a pretty fair estimate gleaned from various sources and crosschecked to ensure fairness, of those numbers that didn’t quite match I have simply found the best average number based on how many sources they came from(government, industry, impact studies, universities, etc)
Area of land: 57,268,900 square miles (148,326,000 km²), equals 29% of the total surface of the Earth.
Area of water: 139,668,500 square miles (361,740,000 km²), equals 71% of the total surface of the Earth.
Total standard world area: 196,937,400
World Population Estimate is, 6,771,641,213, as of, 00:52 GMT (EST+5) Apr 07, 2009
On average, each one of us produces 4.5 pounds of solid waste each day. This adds up to about a ton of waste per person, per year.
Current world average lifespan 66.12 years
About 73% of waste worldwide is not recycled
Total area divided by population = 0.029082669002298187767251437157303 of a mile per person
Average person in lifespan generating 66.12 tons waste less 27% (recyclable. 17.8524 tons)= 48.2676 tons, currently not recycled
Now for a bit of guesstimation, lets assume you could perfectly compress every ton of non recycled waste into a block 3 foot cubed.
Here’s the first sum for you completed, 6,771,641,213 population multiplied by 48.2676 tons waste for one complete lifespan of 66.17 years, we get 326,850,869,412.5988 tons of non recycled waste(don’t forget however that the world population is increasing constantly)
The next sum i’ll let you do, 326,850,869,412.5988 tons of non recycled waste by 3 foot cubes (assuming a height of say 300 feet) equals what in area covered?
Still smug?
P.S. World Population Estimate is now, 6,771,648,167 01:39 GMT (EST+5) Apr 07, 2009
The facts are simple, yes we are affecting the enviroment due to the crap we dump everywhere, as to how badly, well that’s near impossible to say without having all the data. What can be said though is that like anything else, the longer you abuse something, the more likely it is that there will be an adverse effect, in this sense it is then logical to be more intelligent in our areas of production and disposal, the attitude that a lot of people take which is “not in our lifetime”, is moronic, while, yes it may be true that it won’t happen in their lifetime, is it nice to think that your desendants will suffer whatever the consequences of our laziness might be? Do you really like the possibility that your lineage may at some point in the future end up having to wear breathing apparatus, protective clothing, whatever just to step out of their front door? While that may sound like bullshit, bear in mind the smog that S.F suffered or indeed places like tokyo where they already wear masks just to cut down airborne contaminants.
A saying comes to mind, “The wise man thinks of tomorrow, while the fool thinks only of today”. Perhaps when you finish taking the piss, you might just stop and think about the future.
hahahha we have no control over earth. we are just humans that we get lied to so we give money to environmentalists. the planet always changes and we cannot stop that. DONT GET LIED TO. FIND THE TRUTH URSELF
in the 70’s everybody KNEW we were heading towards a new Ice Age…cry wolf ring a bell?
*Le Sigh*
Ahh the quality of internet discourse… “i hope you guys choke on dick, this is a good article.” Well, put. Well, maybe not.
A few inconvenient facts:
The hockey stick graph: debunked (the algorithm used finds hockey sticks regardless of input data, even random noise.)
The claim that this October was the warmest on record: debunked (apparently Russian weather stations had re-reported September’s temperatures again in October, or some such rubbish that skewed the data).
The claim that 1998 was the warmest year on record in North America? Nope. Bad data and/or algorithms had to be revised. The new winner in North America: 1938 (followed by 1998, then sometime in the 20’s or 30’s, if I recall correctly).
Scientists keep “smoothing” past data to lower the temperatures and doign whatever they can to raise curent temperatures to fit their framed hypothesis. Bunkum. They can’t explain the Medieval Warm Period and other known warm periods, so they simply try to smooth them out and cool them off through whatever statistical analysis seems convenient.
Heck, British naval logs dating back to the 1700’s/1800’s appear to show a “warming trend” that happened way back then, LONG before any industrialization / factories in the modern world.
Certain greenhouse gases typically blamed on humans for production have shown increases that were far too simultaneous across the globe to eb accounted for by man. Generally if the one hemisphere increases its production it takes a year or more for the gases to circulate en masse around the world to the other hemisphere. Simultaneous increase points to a NATURAL cycle occurring.
There are so many holes in global warming theory they don’t even call it that anymore. They now call it “global climate change.’ No kidding the climate changes! Tell us something the tree rings and ice cores HAVEN’T already! It has *always* changed. If it ever STOPs changing, THEN we should worry and wonder why the aliens have started manipulating our weather systems. (*So* kidding, you have no idea.)
Maybe Martin Durkin, the producer of the “Global Warming Swindle” for Channel 4 in Britain, is just one of those people who loves challenging well-known, well-accepted, almost-accepted-as-fact ideas… or he simply has a twisted mind.
I suppose he has that right to exercise his freedom of expression though I strongly believe he should have acted more responsibly. It was fine to present the arguments behind global warming as a hoax but the most important thing was also to present the other side of the equation. In his interviews, he appeared to be totally into his own findings that he even went so far as to call one of the other scientist’s arguments as rubbish. This is way out of line considering his sources were grossly unreliable and reasonably ancient.
Martin Durkin should be banned from making these documentaries and Channel 4 should be penalized for gross negligence of their social responsibility as a media entity.
The documentary “Great Global Warming Swindle” is disturbing. The film’s facts are twisted, many fallacies. But don’t take my word, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeQfD2DNnUQ
Earth on the Brink of an Ice Age
http://english.pravda.ru/science/earth/106922-earth_ice_age-0
The emperor wears no clothes.
You forgot to mention they’re also good for the soil. Oh I’m sorry, I thought you wrote ‘Global Worming’.
This might be the greatest thing civilized man (and woman) has had the pleasure of reading since the bible. Good job random author whom I do not know.
@ anonymous.
I will definitely check out that documentary. thanks for sharing.
@van.
After rereading my article, I agree. I could have worded it better, but like I stated in my previous comment, the main point of this article is to engage the readers into finding out their own facts. Why take just my word for the ultimate truth correct? exactly.
i hope you guys choke on dick, this is a good article.
As soon as I got to the part where you said you dont care about credible rebuttals, I stopped reading.
Yep your right its all lies, and i’m a tool, good one a*****e
“Global Waming is real! How can anyone say that it isnt? Open your eyes! Explain why all the icebergs are all diminishing @ alarming rates.”
lol… TOOL
go watch this:
The Great Global Warming Swindle
Global Waming is real! How can anyone say that it isnt? Open your eyes! Explain why all the icebergs are all diminishing @ alarming rates. Freak hurricanes or snowstorms, how can you anyone say that this is all lies?
if I may say so, my article was meant to simply strike up interest in those who are skeptic or unsure about the effects of this warming, regardless of what they think about it because I personally believe that everyone can always do better. even if there was just one person who believed that this warming was true and a million people who denied it, I would still try to conserve and do my part simply because I feel good about it.
Its all lies and you got sucked in!
total crock.
global warming is a gravy train with many actors.
but I wouldn’t expect a decent scientific article from a nation that largely believes it’s twin towers (and building 7) fell, symmetrically, at freefall speeds, because of fuzzy wuzzy piloted airplanes.
Oh, and you didn’t go to the moon either….
The USA is a nation of lies.