Global warming is one of the most significant issues facing society today. While there is no dispute that the Earth is heating up, two schools of thought exist. Naysayers of the typical greenhouse gas global warming explanation blame the increased temperature of the planet on a natural heating cycle. So, who is right?
Media outlets such as Fox News popularize the theory that the greenhouse effect is not to blame for the heating of the Earth. They have even gone so far as to point to some larger conspiracy at work within the American government.
However, there is a gaping flaw in their logic, the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol is a treaty that requires signatories to reduce and eventually eliminate their greenhouse gas emissions. Imagine there are 187 sovereign governments perpetuating the hoax of climate change, because that is the number of countries that have signed the treaty. There are 187 nations where reputable scientists have made a case to their government so compelling that they would agree to this treaty. The United States’ outright refusal to sign the treaty simply indicates that our government’s relationship with oil corporations is a little too close for comfort.
In reality, the reputable scientists crying “junk science” about the greenhouse effect might be fewer in number than we are led to believe by the GOP and Fox News. In testimony before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence & Global Warming, James E. Hansen, head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said the scientific community has essentially reached a consensus. “Global warming is real, and we can really stop it if we act quickly to reduce our fossil fuel emissions,” he said.
The radical minority suggesting that the climate change we are experiencing is natural and within the boundaries of earth’s normal climate cycle can offer very little evidence to support that assessment and none to contradict the well recorded science that details how fossil fuel emissions contribute to an increased temperature on the planet.
A naysayer cannot overcome the insurmountable wall of evidence suggesting that fossil fuel emissions are a major contributor to climate change. We know the Earth has a natural climate cycle. We also know that greenhouse gases cause that cycle to be more noticeable.
In the Sept. 2009 edition of Science, a study reaffirmed what the scientific community already knew. In the Arctic, it is hotter than it has ever been. While correlation doesn’t equal causation, we have our causation in the form of the Greenhouse Effect, proven in 1896 and still standing without any reputable detraction.
Global warming is real and it’s time for our nation to face it head on.