The latest and greatest topic sparking unending debates and a plethora of misinformation on an international level is that of global warming. Everyone and their mom has an opinion and no one seems to get the point.
People just love pointing out melting ice caps, calving glaciers and record high temperatures. Yet another example of arrogant people thinking their time on this earth is relevant and heavily impacts their environment. The frustrating part is that they are right... about a few things.
Our earth is warming, sea levels are rising and there is no shortage of glacial melting. Where most of these advocates of human caused global warming tend to veer off track relates to causation (humans) and metrics of measurement (CO2 levels, historical reach, etc.) Most of the frightening events surrounding this debate are all results of the cyclical nature of our earth, (amongst many other naturally occurring phenomena,) not because we used too much hairspray or drove our car to the store instead of taking the bike.
A little evidence:
- Global temperature averages have fallen over the last 12 years.
- There is "no real scientific proof" that the current warming is caused by the rise of greenhouse gases from man's activity.
- Man-made carbon dioxide emissions throughout human history constitute less than 0.00022% of the total naturally emitted from the mantle of the earth during geological history.
- Warmer periods of the Earth's history came around 800 years before rises in CO2 levels.
After World War II, there was a huge surge in recorded CO2 emissions, but global temperatures fell for four decades after 1940. - Throughout the Earth's history, temperatures have often been warmer than now and CO2 levels have often been higher--more than ten times as high.
- Significant changes in climate have continually occurred throughout geologic time.
- The 0.7° Celsius increase in the average global temperature over the last hundred years is entirely consistent with well-established, long-term, natural climate trends.
- Just 60 scientists and favorable reviewers, not the 4,000 usually cited, drive the IPCC theory.
- Leaked e-mails from British climate scientists--in a scandal known as "Climategate"--suggest that data have been manipulated to exaggerate global warming.
- A large body of scientific research suggests that the sun is responsible for the greater share of climate change during the past hundred years.
