Global Warming – Fact or Fiction
Global warming, global warming or are we now just talking about climate change? During the late 80’s and early 90’s global warming was the biggest and most dominating environmental theory reported in the news. Along with the threat of the Ozone hole, global warming took the top spot when it came to environmental activism. Nowadays thou the field has shifted slightly. Climate change theory has evolved from its’ older cousin and has now become the main focus for environmentalists worldwide. Why? Perhaps it was due to the rampant AGW sceptic movement, who have consistently argued that the Earth is not really warming up, in fact in certain areas the globe have cooled. The great detractors of global warminga have also attempted to disassociate human activity with certain climate change effects. Of course it might just be a matter of linguistics, with those arguing against the whole ‘warming’ terminology. Nowadays global warming falls under the more umbrella term of climate change, perhaps if the theory had been called global temperature flux then it would have received more credence and less derision as an acceptable theory.
The whole shebang!
Global warming theory revolves around the whole notion that the Earth is slowly heating up due to man made, or anthropogenic reasons. This is largely associated with gas emissions such as Carbon Dioxide, water vapour, Methane and CFCs. The whole notion of the Greenhouse effect revolves around the atmosphere and the earth’s natural ability to reflect UV radiation. Greenhouse gases survive in the atmosphere for long periods of time and while there they reflect surface UV radiation back onto the Earth, like a greenhouse. The gases essentially trap and refract heat within the Earth’s atmosphere, and it is this phenomenon which worries a lot of scientists, as it could potentially distort and increase temperatures on Earth. Temperature change within the atmosphere could have several potential effects including a world-wide rise in temperature increasing desertification effects, also effecting and destabilising the polar regions which may in-turn lead to a cataclysmic rise in sea levels. Statistics show that during a period of 100 hundred years between 1905-2005 global temperatures did rise by .74 Celsius. Climate change models suggest that the Earth’s temperature could rise by a further 1.2 – 6.5 degrees by the end of the 21st century.
So why aren’t we worried?
Nice day for it...
Perhaps the main reasons why the majority of people aren’t that worried about global warming anymore is down to a mix of apathy, increased exposure to climate change reports and a feeling of disconnection and desensitization that comes with our modern-day fear inspiring style of journalism. The more violence I see in cinema and TV, the less impressed or shocked I get. Whether this is due to my ability to disassociate fact from fiction or not I cannot tell. But, it is a powerful argument that suggests that we can become more blasé about an idea the more we are exposed to it.
Has everyone just become bored with it? News cycles tend to have a life of their own and generally disappear after a brief time, as long as no new information comes to light. I remember that the suicide of Dr. Kelly was a massive news cycle which went on for days and days, but it’s strange that I can hardly recall how it all ended. Eventually news reports and media circuses just fizzle out. Journalistic Piranhas worry the last few strips of flesh from the carcass and tend to move off, hunting for new prey that might happen to stumble into the river of public awareness.
Whether, or not, global warming will survive as a theory is yet to be seen. It has many detractors some even make considerably valid points. The problem with any form of climatology is the immense factors that are involved with making any form of prediction. Monitoring a global system is incredibly difficult, especially when it involves a thousand million different physical and chemical computations. Do make any sort of climate theory regarding the atmosphere one needs to have a complete understanding of the physical and chemical forces that control and direct our world. These computations contain millions of variables and use advanced hypothetical assumptions; the scope of it all is almost beyond human comprehension.You might just say that its’ too big a job to handle. Only time will tell if AGW theory is going to survive and maybe even proven right. And indeed only an advanced physicist and climatologist will be able to understand it; us mere mortals will just have to just sit back and watch the news.
9 Comments to “Global Warming – Fact or Fiction”
This sucks
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“global warming” is total bogus! LoL….. my friend chloe says “nice buns!!” …. you no, the picture!
well i think that this aricle is very informational….also about where you get your information that is very helpful and makes me understand….thanks for writing this aritcle…
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Science never “proves” theories- empirical evidence can only support a claim to a certain degree. The scientific community (ex: IPPC which is a team of over 2,000 scientists from around the globe) have come to the consensus that THE EARTH IS WARMING and IT IS TO SOME DEGREE, HUMAN CAUSED. The science is in! Global warming is a real and serious issue and the sooner it’s addressed, the better.
This video helped me a lot and gives an interesting perspective on the issue
As far as public apathy goes, I was reading an article that said there is a backfire effect and misinformation is disputed, people are inclined to MORE STRONGLY believe the misinformation based on their previously held beliefs. The person that made the previous comment brought up the point- where are you getting your information? According to the backfire effect, even if you read facts that dispute your outlandish claims, you are still going to hold on to your misinformation- I hope that’s not the case and you stop spreading misinformation about global warming.
washington post
I think your proposed solution of everyday citizens sitting back to watch the news and leaving the science to the scientists will NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM. For scientist’s solutions to be implemented there needs to be the political will behind them- that’s where we come in.
Where are you getting your information? Dismissing the drop in temperature as an artifact of data collection is contrary to the actuality. The satellite and radiosonde coverage of the Earth is extensive and much better than the land based data collection systems.http://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/
The graph below shows both temperature and CO2 rises
friends of science
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