The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change, climate is defined as “The climate of a place, a region, or the Earth as a whole, is the average over time of meteorological conditions that occur there the average weather” (Dessler &ump; Parson, 2010). Over the last century, the temperature has risen by around 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 of a degree Celsius). So far the worst years recorded were 2001, 2002, 2003 so technically speaking we are doing slightly better than we were.
But environmentalists, the changing of the climate is by the Green House Effect with Green House Gasses. So, where are these greenhouse gasses coming from? The first and most well-known one is, you guessed it carbon dioxide. It is the most well know because it accounts for over half of the greenhouse gasses and can come from anywhere, and I do mean everywhere. Carbon is usually recycled by the process of photosynthesis. But under our current conditions there is too much carbon to allow this cycle to change it to oxygen. So where does that carbon go? Well it goes to our atmosphere of course, it begins to break down the Ozone layer. Methane comes in second making the second largest amount of the greenhouse gasses, just coming in a little under a half. Methane comes from many places such as; cows from their bowls and swamps. So its natural skeptics may say, but only one of them is natural and that’s the swamps. Cows, now yes what they do is natural but the fact that people are eating so much meat like cows the more cows we have. With the more cows we have the more gas that gets passed, and you guessed it these gasses go up into the air.
Lastly coming in only around five percent is Nitrous oxide. It occurs naturally from oceans and the bacteria in soil. It is used for our general anesthetic because it helps with pain control, though commonly known as laughing gas. This though is the most potent of the greenhouse gasses this gas lasts for around 100 years in our atmosphere! Which is longer than any other, meaning we can’t get rid of it no matter how hard we try. The current form though that is produced is HFC which is used in refrigerators and air conditioners, at least one of each we own. All of these greenhouse gasses are contributing to global warming and if we do not take action against it, well the cute polar bears won’t have a home very soon.
The United Nations panel on climates projects that the global temperatures will rise about 3-10 degrees Fahrenheit by the century’s end, which a century sounds like a long time but think about how fast time flies. Just this 3 to 10 degrees alone actually is enough of a temperature change to have the polar caps become water. If the ice caps go away, a vast majority of borders will be under water. Monuments and great buildings such as the White House, as well as our homes and lives will be under water. Including our very own Virginia Beach, meaning many people should learn how to swim.
So, what do the skeptics think about all of this? Even though it may be hard to believe there are still skeptics out there who think global warming does not exist, though how can you not believe it. Skeptics think that it could not be an environmental problem, and also that the ice caps and glaciers are not melting. It seems like we must be imagining it. They try to use the idea that the graph of the climate changes and all the other models that we use to prove that global warming exists, are not valid and therefore cannot be used as proof. But to me this seems to be that these people are not just uneducated, but some of them are even world renowned scientists. This makes people wonder if maybe those people who are saying that global warming is real just might be crazy. Science though is all about having proof, if you look outside the proof is in front of us. It’s just that we as human beings like to imagine that something like this could never happen because its human nature. At first they didn’t believe the man who said the earth was round but look how wrong they were, so maybe they are wrong about this.
The one problem with the skeptics theory is that the temperature is rising at a very fast pace. Never has there been such a steady climb in the levels of heat in their climate until we started using more greenhouse gasses. With more and more cars zooming down the roads and more and more people wanting meat, the gasses will be rising even more. Earth has never experienced such a time period of warming of the earth. This is the fact, global warming is happening and it’s happening way too fast.
What can me, you and everyone else do to help the stop or at least slow the effects of global warming? We can encourage the use of alternative energy; windmills, hydro power and even solar power. Hydro power is currently in use for only about six percent of the world when we have so much water to take advantage of, though it does have to be monitored we can use way to much. Wind power is another quite successful way of producing energy, that’s one that is very easy to get a hold of though I have heard the turbines are very loud. Lastly solar energy is also easy to take advantage of, I mean it’s everywhere. All of those energy sources I offered produce little to no greenhouse gasses. But, by the time we start to fully convert over to these we still will have some time to save our planet.
Global Warming though it’s a very “hot” topic in the world today, so what do you believe? Is this theory a fact or is it a figment of mine and millions of others imaginations. Though many should just head the warnings and try to help as much as they can.
