Global warming has been an ongoing issue for the past several years. Several arguments have been raised about whether it is caused by pollution and toxins from factories, or household aerosol sprays which contribute to the thinning ozone layer or emissions from vehicles. Other theories state that there are trends in the earth which create warmer conditions and the position of the sun in distance from the earth is causing some glaciers to melt. There has been no one theory proven correct. The earth has existed millions of years and there are not enough written historical records to fully convey what has taken place during periods of vast change. One imperative point is that there were great creatures, dinosaurs, which walked the earth at one time and have become extinct due to weather conditions. The argument often is presented: Global warming is engineered by nature, not mankind.
Scientists have failed to provide concrete evidence that global warming trends over the past 100 years have been due to emissions systems and human activity. To demonstrate this statement further, temperatures declined to colder climates after World War II and continued to decline for four years. (Top 10 Reasons to Say Global Warming Is Not Man-made,
Human Events; 12/21/2009, Vol. 65 Issue 44, p17-17.)
Greenhouse gases may be responsible for the climate’s change and some melting of ice sheets in typically frozen areas of the earth, however, there is no substantial evidence to prove this as a fact. Increased solar activity could pose a stronger case in the underlying reason for temperature changes in the earth, but there are many deep, underlying factors which all may contribute to natural changes in the climate. ( Saviv, Nir J., Chemical Business; Feb. 2010, Vol. 24 Issue 2, p52-57, 6p.)
There are two viable sources which could be responsible for the climate warming situation which are the sun and the earth’s reflectivity, and greenhouse gases.
The Environmental Defense Fund is an organization which not only considers the cause of global warming, but puts solutions to possible outcomes. This website provides another good resource because it is an organization of scientists working together, hence the web address, .org. They have listed physical locations and stateside phone numbers that can be used for questions. “Our Offices” link displays physical offices, not PO Boxes. This helps to validate they are a group of scientists specializing is environmental studies.
Aside from the general argument of whether global warming is created by pollutants or by natural greenhouse gases, a third argument exists that global warming is a political ploy to increase taxes and encourage spending on research tied to a liberalist end. (Political Science: Media Literacy and Global Warming, Bruce E. Johansen Simile; Aug2008, Vol. 8 Issue 3) The media illustrates before our very eyes the effects that warming conditions can have such as devastating hurricanes occurring from over-heated seas, tornadoes so destructive they can demolish entire towns and populations. The news also displays numerous wild fires which arise during the summer months, do great damage and claim thousands of lives.
Cal Thomas has gone so far as to state Global Warming is a cult and names it the Church of Global Warming. ( Thomas, Cal, Real Clear Politics, October 16, 2007 Global Warming: Conservatives’ Opportunity, source: Article, Tribune Media Sources 2008.)
There are other theories which exist pertaining to global warming. Deforestation or the cutting down and reducing of rainforests in key point areas of the earth has been believed to cause continued increase in greenhouse gases. Rainforests throughout the world absorb much carbon dioxide. When the forests are destroyed by burning this releases carbon dioxide back into the air and cuts down on oxygen in the atmosphere. The lives of eight people may be sustained for a year by the oxygen of one aged oak tree. (Benton, Ted, Redclift, Michael, Forest, p.1, 1994.) The process of rising greenhouse gases is not only a process created by tree removal, but by the method of removing the trees, which is burning them. Along with carbon dioxide rising from factories, vehicle emissions and other air pollutants, by reducing the forests the available oxygen on the planet is diminished at the same time.
During the Great Depression, there were extreme weather conditions, and there was not a sufficient amount of chemicals rising in the airfield as compared to the new millennium. During the years of 1930, 1931, 1934, 1936, 1939, and 1940 which swept the US but especially blasted the Great Plains. Crops were lost, and what small amounts of money farmers had, they tried new technologies like irrigation. (Ganzel, Bill, Farming in the 1930’s, Bill, 2003, source: Article). No question that literature reflected these hard times in such works as The Grapes of Wrath. (Steinbeck, John 1939.) This heart-wrenching story tells the tale of a hard life during this time in America. In his 2003 article, Bill Ganzel also offers some scientific comments that even though the drought of the 1930’s was severe; it was very possible the earth had seen much worse conditions pass in prehistoric times.
The earth has a history which is much like unchartered waters to scientists; it is virtually impossible to predict what weather conditions may lay ahead as stratospheric changes take place which could normal trends over thousands of years. There is no concrete evidence that has been tested or can be illustrated that human activity or emissions from factories and vehicles are the culprits in an ever increasing warm trend across the earth. There may be a global warming and new record temperatures, devastating wildfires and storms gleefully highlighted by the news media, but these trends could be the earth’s way of flushing its surface clean and may very well be a natural act engineered by nature itself.
In the previous illustrations it has been explored that the global warming theory is a cult or church fanatic belief and a way for the liberalists to increase government activity in the everyday lives of people. Past historical extreme weather conditions such as the drought during the depression and the severe, bone-wrenching cold which followed World War II give some insight that global warming may not be anything more than natural earth changes, since the myth may be easily dispelled warming is caused by modern human activity. It is dispelled by illustrating these extreme weather conditions have taken place in earlier decades when there was vehicles spewing smog into the atmosphere and rainforest being burned were activities at a very minimal, if at all during the 1930s to the 1950s.
Media enjoys much attention with the same scenario ‘that the sky is falling.’ In this case, the sky is not falling, but the world is overheating. Global warming as a man-made theory may be one of the greatest scientific fund raisers and basis for political campaigns yet to arrive in the modern day. The position taken here after reviewing research is that the climate changes, radical as they are, have been produced by the earth itself. Natural changes in the earth, however, can be responsible for inner changes in human beings and other organic life.
When carefully scrutinized, the global warming theory is a sort modern day ‘monster under the bed.’ The human race is not much different in fear and superstition than it was in ancient times. In early history man feared the elements as much as revered them. The sun was given a god, the moon was represented by a goddess, and the remaining elements such as the sea, rivers, rain, and lightening, certain animals were all assigned a host of gods and goddesses to represent them in old tradition cosmogony. (Date and author not available, retrieved from http://web.ics.purdue.edu.)
Modern theories of global warming have taken on a similar characteristic of ancient ancestors in the sense that it is a natural occurrence being given not supernatural attributes, but in this age, it is a human fear of the unknown in which scientific attributes are being applied.
References
Top 10 Reasons to Say Global Warming Is Not Man-made by Human Events; (2009), Vol. 65 Issue 44, p17-17, 1/2p Political Science: Media Literacy and Global Warming.
Benton, Ted, Redclift, Michael, Forest, 1994 p.1
Ganzel, Bill, Farming in the 1930’s, Bill, 2003, source: Article
Johanson, Bruce E. Simile; Aug2008, Vol. 8 Issue 3
Shaviv, Nir J. Carbon Dioxide or Solar Forcing, Source: Chemical Business; Feb2010, Vol. 24, issue 2, p52-57, 6p Document type: Article.
Steinbeck, John, The Grapes of Wrath, 1939
Thomas, Cal, Real Clear Politics, October 16, 2007 Global Warming: Conservatives’ Opportunity, Source: Article, Tribune Media Sources
Date and author not available, retrieved from http://web.ics.purdue.edu
Author unknown, date 2012, retrieved from http://www.edf.org/
Afterword
Global warming has continued to be a controversial topic in science journals, among environmentalists today. Evidence of violent weather cannot be denied with hurricanes striking as they never have before, in places which have never experienced such devastation. There is not enough evidence, however, to truly uphold the concept that emissions from vehicles and human activities have contributed the rise in greenhouse gases.
Collection of funds for research and government involvement will likely continue as the human race attempts to finds ways to stave off the ever approaching end of the world. Weather conditions cannot be controlled by man-kind as of yet, and those who populate the earth will likely see devastating changes yet to come. The argument at hand is that the changes coming about on the earth is not necessarily man-made, and changes in the earth are taking place as it rebalances itself and flushes away its own toxins. Scientists would be better serving in finding ways to adapt to these natural changes instead of contemplating why there are changes.
