Since the new millennium, a new global fad of “going green” has emerged. The primary goal of “going green” is to protect the environment and reduce carbon dioxide emissions world wide. While these goals are quite valiant, the “risk” that these environmental zealots claim to be destroying the planet as we know it are highly inflated. Many of the theories behind “the destruction of the Earth as we know it” are unsubstantiated and widely accepted without reason. While many theories behind the “environmental crisis” are passed on by word of mouth, countless experiments and articles have been published proving many of the theories behind pro environmentalists claims are inflated, and in many cases, natural.
Contrary to popular belief, the Sahara is actually shrinking. In an article published in “New Scientist” magazine, a scientist found that, “Satellite images reveal that dunes are retreating right across the Sahel region” (Pearce 4). He also found that plants, trees, and other greens have been slowly retaking the Sahara desert (5). Since environmentalists claim that the world is warming and plants and forests are dying off, the fact that the Sahara is shrinking disproves that. If Earth was in fact warming at such a dramatic pace as they claim, the deserts of the world would be growing, and the forests would be shrinking. Environmentalists claim that the “warming” that is causing plants to die and glaciers to melt is due to the “Greenhouse Effect” hypothesis.
Greenhouse gases are chemicals or compounds that reflect and trap the suns rays back inside the atmosphere of the Earth, gradually warming the planet. As of late, due to human existence and industrialization, many more types of greenhouse gases are being introduced into the atmosphere. However, millions of years before humans were around many greenhouse gases existed and still do exist that humans do not contribute. Some of these gases include water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, and even ozone, the gas that makes up the invisible bubble protecting Earth from the suns ultra-violet rays. If Earth has greenhouse gases that are naturally there, the “greenhouse” hypothesis can not but taken seriously because even if human beings were not around, the Earth would have gradually warmed anyway. That is inevitable. While a large percentage of the “natural” greenhouse gases exist in the atmosphere, there are still some that humans put there that are hurting the environment.
Chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons, or commonly know as CFC's, are man made chemicals such as aerosols and related products. CFC's are highly potent greenhouse gases. While they have been banned in an attempt to save the ozone layer, the CFC's currently released in the atmosphere will not disperse for at least another 50 years. In an article published in “New Scientist” magazine, it states “If the "greenhouse" thesis is correct, our planet should have warmed by 1.3 degrees centigrade during the last century…”(Happenheimer 1). In an experiment that was released by Warren Brookes in September of 1989, he states, “Fortunately, neither is even close: Over the last one hundred years, the statistically inflated warming trend was less than 0.5 degrees centigrade. Most of that happened by 1939, before any carbon dioxide buildup” (Brookes 2). Since the Earth has warmed much less than it was projected to, the significantly less warming trend disproves another major argument of pro environmentalists, the belief that glaciers around the globe are melting at an unprecedented rate.
A group of scientists in Russia took core samples of glaciers and analyzed them. By looking at core samples of glaciers, one can get a general idea of the climate of the world over a given time by looking at the layers of ice. When the scientists analyzed the core samples, they came to the conclusion that “Earth has gone through periods of warming and cooling long before humans introduced carbon dioxide and CFC's into the atmosphere” (Kotlyakov 1). While this may seem like a bold, unsubstantiated statement, it has been throughout the history of the Earth.
Throughout the history of the Earth, it has gone through many Ice Ages, periods in history where glaciers and ice sheets covered a large percentage of the Earths surface (Illinois State Museum). Earth has gone through 4 major Ice Ages, each lasting millions of years. However, there have been hundreds of “mini Ice Ages” in between the 4 major ones. One of the most recent was during the Revolutionary War in America. While the “mini Ice Ages” may not have ice sheets and glaciers advancing over the land, they still have much more frigid temperatures then the normal climate of Earth. Studies show that we may be in the long, warm periods in between Ice Ages. “If "ice age" is used to refer to long, generally cool, intervals during which glaciers advance and retreat, we are still in one today. Our modern climate represents a very short, warm period between glacial advances” (Illinois State Museum). What this proves is that the “warming” that environmentalists claim to be global warming has occurred naturally throughout the billions of years Earth has been around. Even before humans were around to “wreck havoc” on the environment, the Earth's temperature fluctuated naturally.
