Evidence That the Climate Is Changing - Research Paper Example

Global Warming – Myth or Reality This week, in a response to the devastation on the East Coast caused by Hurricane Sandy,Bloomberg Business Week Magazine’s headline read “It’s Global Warming, Stupid.” Climate scientists have been sounding this same warning, minus the name-calling, for at least 30 years. Evidence that the climate is changing and that this phenomenon is caused by human-produced fossil fuel emissions is overwhelming. However, these evidenced-based findings have not been accepted by the majority, at least in the U.S. Many think global warming is just a myth while the reality of it becoming increasingly apparent. The term “greenhouse gasses” refer to, essentially, three types of air pollutants, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Carbon dioxide is a waste product of oil and coal, the fuels used in automobiles, factories and electric generating power plants. Carbon dioxide is poisonous gas that accounts for more than 80 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global warming. The greenhouse effect a naturally occurring process that is beneficial for the planet and its occupants. The atmosphere reflects a portion of the sun’s heat back into space while retaining some which warms the planet. This delicate balance has kept the Earth at a relatively stable temperature, at least since the last Ice Age. Carbon dioxide, along with water vapor and other trace gasses, traps part of the sun’s energy keeping it from bouncing back into space. This same fundamental concept applies to greenhouses people build to grow various types of plants. The excess amounts of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels traps more of the sun’s energy than normally occurs, a continuing process that is causing the Earth’s temperature to rise. (Williams, 2005) The idea has been proposed that climate change deniers are, for the most part, people who have not bothered to research the issue. Instead they choose not to believe the reality of the situation and draw information from media sources and people who reinforce their opinion. The consequences of a warming Earth are scary. It’s hard to criticize people who do not want to believe it is occurring. However, even persons who reject the science-based evidence of global warming cannot deny extreme weather events that are occurring at an increasingly frequent rate. In just the last few years records have been set across the country and around the world. Almost 1000 tornadoes tore up the Midwestern states in 2010 killing at least 500 people while causing more than $9 billion in damage. This same area of the U.S. endured the rainiest month of April in more than a century which caused the Mississippi River to breach its banks ruining thousands of square miles of crops. Most counties in Texas shattered century-old drought records for the 2010 year. “Worldwide, the litany of weather’s extremes has reached biblical proportions.” (Begley, 2011). The 2010 Russian heat wave killed approximately 15,000 people. Floods in Pakistan and Australia killed thousands leaving large areas of both country under water and millions homeless. Also in 2010, China experienced a drought that lasted most of the year devastating several millions acres of croplands. As bad as it’s already been, the Earth continues to warm. Practically every year breaks another heat record. This past decade has been the hottest on record, the same as the decade before. These examples of extreme weather events are just the short list. The Earth and its inhabitants have enjoyed 12,000 years of relative climate stability but that era has come to an abrupt end if the overwhelming majority of climate scientists are correct. The world has lost much time in combating the effects of global warming and is now in catch-up mode. The principal contributor to carbon dioxide emissions, the U.S., has not contributed to the solution. “The Bush administration was a disaster, but the Obama administration has accomplished next to nothing either, in part because a significant part of the Democratic Party is inclined to balk on this issue as well,” according to economist Jeffrey Sachs, head of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. “We are past the tipping point.” The plan to adapt to the effects of global warming was, until very recently, a subject that was rarely approached. Scientists and informed citizens thought that talking about the harsh realities of coping would lessen the public’s efforts to address the issue because adaptation means spending billions of dollars therefore higher tax rates. Meanwhile global warming deniers considered it a “hoax” so, to them, this was a non-issue. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse emissions prevent the proper amount of heat from escaping back into space. This added heat absorbs additional moisture creating more energy and larger, more violent storm systems. This past century scientists calculate the earth has warmed an average of 2 degrees Fahrenheit. The warming is causing ice caps and glaciers to melt at higher rates than anticipated causing sea levels to rise, a well-documented reality that will cause coastlines to disappear displacing millions worldwide along with an economic and human disaster of epic proportions. Major hurricanes will be the norm, not the exception, along with more droughts and floods. Scientists warn that even if every nation stopped all carbon emissions today, the climate will become an additional 5 degrees hotter due to the pollution in the atmosphere now. It’s going to get much worse long before it gets any better and for decades to come. Higher temperatures will greatly affect all plants and animals. Agricultural regions will shift and crop pests will become more prevalent due to the increasingly drier weather. Tropical diseases such as yellow fever and malaria will venture far northward. Poison ivy and ragweed will thrive in the warmer climate. Cities, states and countries will be forced to spend enormous amounts of money to build structures that will to hold rivers and the ocean back. The lobbying effort to deny what is so obviously occurring is intense. Every day television commercials tout “clean coal” in an effort to fool people into believing the industries responsible for air pollution will fix the problem. “The country is two decades behind in taking action because both (political) parties are in thrall to Big Oil and Big Coal,” said Sachs. “The airwaves are filled with corporate-financed climate misinformation.” (Begley, 2011). Even in the midst of Hurricane Sandy, the deniers are busy refuting claims that the effects of global warming caused the storm to be more intense. “The Atlantic is going through its warm cycle while the Pacific is going through its cold cycle, a perfectly normal pattern in the oceans’ ebb and flow between warm and cool anomalies.” (Garrett, 2012). Let’s assume global warming is indeed a hoax, that nearly all climate scientists are involved in a 30 year-long conspiracy. What if we took the same steps they are advising anyway such as stop polluting the air we breathe, curtail oil consumption therefore our dependence on foreign oil, a national security concern, and develop clean energy? What if we made a better world and the country more secure for nothing? Works Cited Begley, Sharon. (May 29, 2011). “Are You Ready for More?” U.S. News. http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/05/29/are-you-ready-for-more.html Williams, Jack. (May 17, 2005). “Earth’s life needs greenhouse effect.” USA Today http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/wnatgrn.htm Garrett, Ben. (November 1, 2012). “Don’t blame Sandy on Global Warming.” New York Post http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/don_blame_sandy_on_global_warming_Yfc80k4wYfOrdcK3dDKfTJ Read More