Global warming being taken to extremes
It seems that every where you turn on this campus there is talk about “global warming.” Whether the venue is science or global issues classes, or even school sponsored lectures, global warming is treated as an absolute truth. I must admit that I don’t have a Ph.D in science and I can’t look at the sky and tell you just how much global warming (if any) is taking place. So instead, I will allow well-respected scientists to make my points for me.
Just last week a person called man-made climate change “the greatest deception in the history of science.” Who do you think that man was? Rush Limbaugh possibly, maybe Bill O’reilly? It was actually a former climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg (Canada) named Timothy Bell.
Global warming believers are probably thinking he’s just some crazy nut that has gone senile. If I looked hard enough I could probably find someone to tell me anything that I want to hear. But, could I find 15,000 people to tell me what I want to hear? Fifteen thousand scientists worldwide have signed a petition to the United States government notifying them that there is no such thing as global climate change. I would list all of their names (since they are available on the Web), but their names wouldn’t even fit in this Colonnade newspaper.
Global warming believers are probably thinking those scientists must be on something, maybe they’ve sniffed their chemicals a little too much. After all, haven’t we all felt how warm this winter has been in Georgia? I’m sure people in New York who faced over 10 feet of snow just a week ago would love to hear the horrors of global warming. Likewise, Chicago is facing their coldest winter in 11 years, and I think they know what a cold winter feels like.
But even looking at this historically, global warming appears just to be the latest “doomsday fad.” Back in the 1970s, people all over the world were worried that our actions were creating a “global cooling.” In other words, just 30 years ago we were scared we would freeze to death. Back in the 1990s everyone was worried that driving their little Ford Pinto was causing holes in the ozone layer. I haven’t even heard a word about the ozone layer since Y2K (another doomsday fad).
Historically we aren’t even sure that this is a very “warm” time to be living in. The data we have for temperatures only go back about 100 years in most places so it’s extremely difficult for even the best trained scientists to play fortune teller about the future. According to the data that exists, global temperatures are, on average, one degree warmer than they were a century ago. Even still, scientists can’t come to a conclusion why the world is, on average, one degree warmer. Scientists in Germany and Finland both released a report in December 2003 claiming that there has been an increase in solar activity which could largely affect global temperatures. It actually makes sense, the hotter the sun is, the hotter the Earth is.
A few months ago, the United Nations released a report where they named the number-one cause of global warming. The real global warming perpetrator: cows. It turns out that cows release methane gas that is supposedly a large factor in global warming.
In writing this editorial I’m not trying to criticize people that support the notion of global warming. I would be the first to admit that temperatures are reportedly one degree warmer today than they were a century ago. Maybe larger cow populations and increased solar activity have led to a slightly warmer climate. While I believe that taking global warming to a “doomsday” extreme is ridiculous, I am reassured by the outpouring of love that global warming believers show this Earth. People should recycle and try to take care of this environment whether or not they believe arctic icecaps will ever melt.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Feb 16 2007. Filed under Opinion.
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