What Global Warming?
Over the weekend the international “Walk Against Warming” protest, an effort designed to persuade governments to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, was held in various cities around the world. We frequently hear both sides of the political spectrum argue the merits of signing or not signing this international agreement. In my mind, there are two main aspects to the Kyoto Protocol debate, namely:
a) Recognising whether global warming is occurring and whethere it is an actual threat to the Earth.
b) Evaluating the effectiveness of the Kyoto Protocol in curbing the global rise in the Earth’s temperature.
In the name of brevity, we shall focus on the first aspect, leaving the second for another day.
Ever since the famous (or infamous) "hockey stick" graph was published indicating a sudden increase in global temperature that started during the industrial revolution, it has become pretty well accepted throughout the scientific community that global warming is happening. One doesn’t have to look far to find an article on a weekly basis strongly suggesting that global warming is happening. However, many a politician and right-leaning pundit continue to deny its existence and rebuke the various models and techniques employed by scientists. Thus, whenever a study is published suggesting nothing is out of the norm temperature-wise, the non-believers celebrate it as proof.
In fact, the usually very scientific author Michael Crichton recently penned the ecoterrorism-themed novel “State of Fear” that references many of these so called studies in an attempt to persuade people that global warming is all spin and hype. In 2003, Crichton gave a speech at CalTech where he assured people there was no need to worry about global warming. I find it a great shame that Crichton is deluding himself in this way. As intelligent and well-read as old Crichton may be, he has some temerity to argue against world climate experts who refute his claims here and here.
Although it would appear fairly evident that global temperature of the Earth is on the rise, one must also acknowledge that the Earth’s, and indeed the Sun’s, temperatures go through various cycles, both short and long term, and that global warming is nothing knew to the Earth. However, the main concern that scientists have is the sudden rapid increase in the Earth’s temperature and how, for instance, the current melting of the Greenland Icesheet could affect the flow of the Gulf Stream, thus plunging places like Ireland and Britain into a deep freeze in a matter of decades (naturally you can see how this is a horrible catastrophe as millions of Irish and English would subsequently flock to Australia).
Additionally, there are a number of feedback systems on the planet that do control the Earth’s temperature. Unfortunately, the actual effectiveness of these control systems has been affected by human activity, and the scale of their response times does not look favourable for us mortal humans.
At the risk of sounding hackneyed, somewhere amongst all the spin and biased reports, the truth exists. Be you an advocate of the Kyoto Protocol or not, one must acknowledge that global warming is actually happening. The questions remain: will the Kyoto Protocol effectively solve the problem and is the problem worth solving?
Update: A Republican senator has called Crichton to a senate hearing.
a) Recognising whether global warming is occurring and whethere it is an actual threat to the Earth.
b) Evaluating the effectiveness of the Kyoto Protocol in curbing the global rise in the Earth’s temperature.
In the name of brevity, we shall focus on the first aspect, leaving the second for another day.
Ever since the famous (or infamous) "hockey stick" graph was published indicating a sudden increase in global temperature that started during the industrial revolution, it has become pretty well accepted throughout the scientific community that global warming is happening. One doesn’t have to look far to find an article on a weekly basis strongly suggesting that global warming is happening. However, many a politician and right-leaning pundit continue to deny its existence and rebuke the various models and techniques employed by scientists. Thus, whenever a study is published suggesting nothing is out of the norm temperature-wise, the non-believers celebrate it as proof.
In fact, the usually very scientific author Michael Crichton recently penned the ecoterrorism-themed novel “State of Fear” that references many of these so called studies in an attempt to persuade people that global warming is all spin and hype. In 2003, Crichton gave a speech at CalTech where he assured people there was no need to worry about global warming. I find it a great shame that Crichton is deluding himself in this way. As intelligent and well-read as old Crichton may be, he has some temerity to argue against world climate experts who refute his claims here and here.
Although it would appear fairly evident that global temperature of the Earth is on the rise, one must also acknowledge that the Earth’s, and indeed the Sun’s, temperatures go through various cycles, both short and long term, and that global warming is nothing knew to the Earth. However, the main concern that scientists have is the sudden rapid increase in the Earth’s temperature and how, for instance, the current melting of the Greenland Icesheet could affect the flow of the Gulf Stream, thus plunging places like Ireland and Britain into a deep freeze in a matter of decades (naturally you can see how this is a horrible catastrophe as millions of Irish and English would subsequently flock to Australia).
Additionally, there are a number of feedback systems on the planet that do control the Earth’s temperature. Unfortunately, the actual effectiveness of these control systems has been affected by human activity, and the scale of their response times does not look favourable for us mortal humans.
At the risk of sounding hackneyed, somewhere amongst all the spin and biased reports, the truth exists. Be you an advocate of the Kyoto Protocol or not, one must acknowledge that global warming is actually happening. The questions remain: will the Kyoto Protocol effectively solve the problem and is the problem worth solving?
Update: A Republican senator has called Crichton to a senate hearing.
posted by Engels at 11:19 am
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