There is a conference happening in NYC this weekend about the validity of Global Warming.
http://www.heartland.org/NewYork08/newyork08.cfm
This is pricey and I don't expect anyone to attend- also it runs from sunday to tuesday. But i wanted to show the other side and let you review their information, if you like, and comment on it. This is their site for the facts: http://www.globalwarmingheartland.org/
from the site-
Global Warming: Crisis or Scam?
The debate over whether human activity is responsible for some or all of the modern warming, and then what to do if our presence on Earth is indeed affecting the global climate, has enormous consequences for everyone in virtually all parts of the globe. Proposals to drive down human greenhouse gas emissions by raising energy costs or imposing draconian caps could dramatically affect the quality of life of people in developed countries, and, due to globalization, the lives of people in less-developed countries too.
The global warming debate that the public and policymakers usually see is one-sided, dominated by government scientists and government organizations agenda-driven to find data that suggest a human impact on climate and to call for immediate government action, if only to fund their own continued research, but often to achieve political agendas entirely unrelated to the science of climate change. There is another side, but in recent years it has been denied a platform from which to speak.
The 2008 International Conference on Climate Change promises to be an exciting event and the point of departure for future conferences, publications, and educational campaigns to present both sides of this important topic.
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I had a class today about the Solar System and my teacher was talking to us about sun spots. Sun spots are relatively cooler spots that appear as dark spots on the sun. Basically we learned that the number of sun spots changes over time. Generally, this number rises then falls very consistently in a span of 11 years. Right now, there are not that many sun spots on the sun. Meaning, there is more surface area on the sun that is warmer. This essentially means that there is more heat available to be emitted to other planets.
There are several other reasons why climate change change. The Earth axis is slightly wobbly, so the places that get more or less sun can vary. Another reason is if there happens to be more volcanic activity, that can change the temperature and eventually affect the climate as a whole.
Of course it is commonly believed that humans are causing much of this “global warming” due to an excessive amount of CO2 emissions. I do not doubt the fact that we are contributing to the problem, however I am very skeptical of how much the media makes it seem we are affecting the climate. Many people say we are “speeding up” the process, but I would like to know what is there evidence for that. It is shameful that some people are very submissive about global warming and just accept the popularized idea that we are ruining the Earth. Measuring our affect on the climate takes a lot of research, including research relating to our planets climate history. Not enough people are educating themselves about climate change, including myself. I would like to talk a lot more in class about the different sides to this debate about to what extent humans are causing global warming, and whether or not this global warming is naturally supposed to happen.
I think that global warming is very much a consequence of human interference with the natural cycle of things on earth. We have set an imbalance in the natural ecosystem of the world; we are the only species to be able to manipulate our environment to such an extent that we can impact organisms all over the world. While global warming is to a small degree a natural process, the extent to which it is currently progressing is absolutely not.
Many people argue that like the Ice Age, global warming is a natural cycle, that the earth periodically undergoes periods of extreme warmth and cold. However, in the past this happened on a much larger scale, and the transition was far less abrupt than it is today, which leads one to wonder how natural this round really is.
In response to what Caroline said, yes the sun is currently irregularly warm, but enough time has not yet passed for us to be sure that the incongruity is permanent. The number of sunspots is always changing, and the changes have not maintained consistency for long enough for us to fairly conclude that the sun alone is doing the damage. However, it is certainly true that this fact has aggravated the problem substantially, and should definately be taken into serious consideration when weighing the effect humans have had on global warming.
Global warming is not a consequence entirely of human fault; rather it is simply the result of an unfortunate coincidence. The increase in human-induced pollution, the nice hole in the ozone layer, the warming of the sun, and the natural tendency of earth to warm up are just a few of the processes at fault. We can't know what the actual cause of global warming is right now; all we can really do is make speculations about probable causes.
In my personal opinion, I think global warming is largely a result of human exploitation of the earth. While I would like to think that the concept itself is just a pretentious, spurious myth humans devised to prove our importance and power in the universe, I think there is definately some validity in the idea. Extinction is occuring at an alarming rate, and there is definately a hole in the ozone layer where there wasn't one before. These activities, I believe, are a clear result of human activity: changes in the heat of the sun do not affect the poles as heavily as the equator, so changes in the sun's energy output would affect the equator more, so the hole would have appeared there if it was purely a result of increased fusion on the sun. Extinction is occuring at a rate that is unnaturally high, and mutant species have been found and determined to be a result of pollution and a cause of extinction. These two examples, among others, prove that people are definately having a major impact on the environment.
However, I also believe that part of the process is natural. Earth is due for a warming period, and the sun is releasing more heat. The world should be warming up, but we shouldn't be able to notice it the way we can.
I think the media has done a lot on both sides of the argument. Some people say that global warming isn't really an issue right now because the temperature hasn't really raised that much, and because we still have winter. Other people say that global warming has reached a catastophic point and we are all going to die by 2050. Both of these views are obviously extreme, but people aren't being informed well enough to know that, and to know how to critically analyze the situation to understand what is really going on. People need to understand that the media isn't always 100% correct and truthful, and that you have to make some inferences on your own and learn about things for yourself to develop a substaintiated opinion on an issue. Awareness needs to be spread--but not awareness that global warming is occuring, or that it needs to be stopped--awareness that there is a change occuring, and that it could be a result of a plethora of things, and that we need to scrutinize the issue more thoroughly before jumping to conclusions.
It is clear that there is much to learn about climate change/ global warming before any conclusions can be reached.
What is able to be determined is that we are affecting the environment- perhaps not on a global scale, but certainly on a local scale and often to a very bad degree. Perhaps you have heard of the oil spill i n Greenpoint, just 3 miles form here- one of the largest ever in this country. The contamination in the water and gases seeping up through peoples houses will continue for many years to come. Rainforests are being cut down. How this affects us here in NYC is undetermined now, but if you were a tree or a frog or a bug in that part of the forest, you certainly would be affected.
Question- do you know anywhere where you can drink the river water? We used to be able to do that, now we must often buy it in a plastic bottle.
A comment on species extinction- which is happening now at a rate fatster than ever before- changing climates and habitat destruction are two very strong arguments for this happening. Though climate change can be debated, it is hard to say that completely eliminating a forest is not the reason for the death of the species that live there.
We certainly don't want to jump to conclusions, but we should slowly become more aware of how our actions do have an influence on those around us- and our spending choices have an impact on what is happening elsewhere on this planet.
The true vote we have is with our dollar- we should choose wisely what we buy.
In Earth Science we were contemplating the idea of a "Big Chill". If the Earth has periods when its warmer than average, than it should have a period when its colder than average. To pose a question, is it possible that the Ice Age was due to one of these Big Chills. If so, does that mean we're headed for another Ice Age?
we should certainly look at time scale when discussing an ice age on the horizon. these things take time- ages are longer than warming or cooling periods. any natural warming or cooling of the earth by itself or with the sun would most likely take place over many lifetimes.
I have heard about the Big Chill idea too--I think it definately is possible, and such a hypothesis is reasonably supported by earth's climate history. I think right now, however, we are in one of the warming periods, so a period of cooling isn't due for a really long time. This happens to be an argument many people who deny human relevance to global warming are using--they claim that we are simply in a warming period, so the climate change is natural. However, it should be occuring at a much slower rate, so this argument is debatable.
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