NCGW

Nathan Clay

GBL 250 Sec 1

Global Warming

Global Warming

            Global warming is the increasing of the world’s temperature. There are many reasons why people concerned about this increase of the planets temperature. Just some of the reasons people are concerned is the effect that it has on plant and animal life as well as our own. As the temperature rises animals are being forced out of or having to adapt to their changing environment. The animals that are not able to adapt may be facing extinction in upcoming years. Much of the same goes for plant life as well. Plants will have to adapt or face going extinct. The global warming is also responsible for the melting of icecaps, the easier spread of disease, crops will be effected possibly producing a lower yield, Hurricanes will become more frequent and natural phenomenon such as Elnino will be seen more often. It is not question that global warming is happening but what is causing global warming to happen.

            There are two views on what is causing global warming. The first being that global warming is being caused by people. The second view that global warming is being caused more by a natural phenomenon.

            There are people that believe global warming is due to human activity. The enormous amounts of fossil fuels burned in vehicles, the burning of coal for energy to run our homes, aerosols, and the deforestation of the rainforest. It is said that the emissions of Co2 are causing a greenhouse effect on the earth. The greenhouse effect is when heat given off by the sun is trapped between the earth’s surface and the ozone. Is it really human activity though that is causing this warming? I would consider that to be doubtful.

            It is more likely that the earth becoming warmer is more of a natural phenomenon that is not understood yet.

From the video the “Global Warming Hoax” the video discusses how the media has manipulated what people have thought. That the earth was cooling or the temperature has been rising in the. Which the temperature has done every few hundred years or so. In the past one thousand years there has been a little ice age and also a warm period as well. It is easy to see the temperature changing from time to time. So if it is something that naturally occurs why is there all the hype around it.

One reason is it makes an excellent news story.  What better story could the media talk about and people would want to listen to than the story that we are all going to die. Also for some reasons unexplained the people that make all the tear jerking global warming videos think all the puppies and kittens of the world are going to die first. Even the movie “Day after Tomorrow” plays on the fear of major climate changes in the world caused by massive hurricanes. Even “Blue Man Group” has their take on global warming (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snPdEl0Duoo&feature=related).  There also seems to be this hype that if you are not on the side to stop global warming then you are a bad guy.

So that must make Al Gore one of the greatest people in the world. Even though quite a few people think he is still fretting about not being elected President. His rants seem more to some that they are just blow back saying “You did not vote me for president, so now you are all going to die! Because who will stop global warming now.”

The second thing to look at after the gross misinterpretation would be the climate changes of the past. First would look at the “Little Ice Age”. The little Ice age was said to have started roughly around 1350 and last until early to mid 1800’s. This was a period that the earth’s temperature has cooled. There are records of temperatures in Europe and North America being 2 degrees Celsius colder. This was the time of settling the Americas and even as a kid you can remember the harsh winter you were told about Jamestown when you were younger or how the pilgrims would have frozen and starved to death if it were not for the Indians. There is also evidence in tree rings from around this period that the trees must have had a cooler year. The cooling of the earth in the northern hemisphere was probably due to decreased solar activity.

You can also find more recent evidence of climate change with the medieval warming period. The medieval warming period was from 800-1300. During this period the earth’s temperature had risen. The Vikings during this time had colonized Greenland which the warmer weather would have permitted also the spread of the bubonic plague that had killed 1/3 of Europe was to take place during this time. The warmer weather would have made it easier to spread and keep spreading in the warmer climate. Since the disease was spread by fleas that would have died out over cold months.

Also something that people should keep in mind about global warming or most anything is that even if you do not know what the researcher is explaining does not make it necessarily wrong. If you do not understand something then it needs to be researched by yourself. Such as the other day when the class watched the vodcast of the man with his tie too tight and who was too nervous to be on stage talking about the “Sargasso sea” and how temperatures had risen.

If all of the Co2 in the atmosphere from businesses and people is causing the warming then we do need to find a better route. It would be better to find a different route even if all of the Co2 is not causing global warming it is still not healthy for anyone. Basically businesses need to find alternate safer routes and for the wealthier governments to help them. Such as in the reading there was a discussion about dolphin safe tuna nets. The government was trying to enforce the nets that had to be used but poorer fisherman from poor countries could not afford the nets. So why don’t we buy the fisherman the nets if we want to eat dolphin safe tuna? Look at the cost of the nets the demand from the people to use the nets and figure out if it is worth the money. If at worse the price of tuna could go up.

If people really want a disaster to look at then all they need to do is look at global population. (http://youtube.com/watch?v=WmEosykOesE) More than likely we are going to starve to death from overpopulation than the world becoming to warm. So is global warming real…Yes. Is it going to change the planet…Yes. Are people to blame…No.

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn11645-climate-myths-we-are-simply-recovering-from-the-little-ice-age.html

http://environment.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn11648/dn11648-2_726.jpg