Global Warming: Fact or Fiction?

GLOBAL WARMING: FACT OR FICTION?

Global warming has been promoted as one of the most serious potential threats to human civilizations in the near future. On one hand, there is substantial evidence that human activity has contributed greatly to the observed changes in the global climate. On the other hand, it is also apparent that much of the supposed evidence is either unreliable or "cherry picked" to support the position of those with established positions on the issue. Former President Al Gore produced a very popular but controversial movie titled An Inconvenient Truth but much of the substance of that movie has also been criticized as presenting a biased perspective that distorts the issue and promotes an alarmist response.

One of the most dramatic pieces of evidence presented to support the theory of global warming is the measurable and significant erosion of the Arctic (and other) glaciers (Muller, 2008). Televised images of tremendous chunks of ice breaking off the continental shelf and reports of the ice melting at a rate of 36 cubic miles per year are presented to support the conclusion that the global temperature is rising (Muller, 2008). Meanwhile, according to scientists, the fact that glaciers are melting so fast does not support the global warming conclusion; in fact, it directly contradicts it. Specifically, increasing atmospheric temperatures would increase the rate of evaporation of large volumes of water. That evaporation would, in turn, return to earth as precipitation that would increase the size of the glaciers rather than decreasing them (Muller, 2008). Likewise, according to scientists, much of the information presented by Gore's An Inconvenient Truth in connection with unstable weather (such as increasingly common and severe tornados, hurricanes, and flooding) was "cherry picked" in ways that distorted any statistical significance of those phenomena (Muller, 2008).

On the other hand, there is irrefutable evidence that the average atmospheric temperature of the planet is, indeed, increasing. Specifically, it has risen a full degree since 1957 (Crittenden & White, 2010; Muller, 2008). Similarly, there is no doubt that carbon dioxide levels have also risen significantly, thirty-six percent since their first recording (Muller, 2008). Proponents of the global warming hypothesis argue that this increasing level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a cause of the greenhouse effect that traps warmth under the lower layers of the atmosphere and increases severe weather patterns and weather instability in general (Crittenden & White, 2010).

In many respects, the principle flaw in the global warming theory is not so much that it is illusory but that it is not necessarily harmful and also, not necessarily attributable to human behavior. The most responsible proponents of global warming acknowledge both of those uncertainties but argue that if the observed evidence is significantly related to global warming, and if global warming is the cause of environmental problems attributable to unstable weather, and if global warming is substantially attributable to human activity, it might be too late to take corrective action if we wait until all of the evidence is able to establish that connection definitively (Muller, 2008).