Say Global Warming out loud. What do you think of? Is there someone around to respond? What do they have to say on the subject? You would think it's almost common knowledge that man is responsible for the earth's current warming trend. Surprisingly, according to the Pew Research Center, people are roughly split right down the middle on the subject, with 41% saying global warming is man-made, and 41% saying it's either naturally occurring, or there is little evidence to support global warming at all (The Pew Research Center). However, if you were to turn on the nightly news, global warming is always portrayed as fact. There is no uncertainty surrounding the issue, and it is a forgone conclusion that man is responsible for the warming of the globe.
In fact, if one was to research the topic on one's own and not blindly accept what Brian Williams or Katie Couric say each night, one would quickly realize we're not all doomed to burn up by rising temperatures or drown from melting ice caps. The evidence presented to uphold the theory of man- made global warming is not grounded in fact as there is no scientific consensus on the subject, there are relatively few melting glaciers in the world, sea-levels have been rising for the past hundred plus years, most deserts are receding, not spreading, species are not going extinct due to warming, and man's impact is so tiny when compared to the atmosphere as a whole.
First, and most importantly, we need to define global warming. That's easy enough. Taken directly from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's website, global warming is defined thusly:
“The term Global Warming refers, without any implications for the cause or magnitude, to the observation that the atmosphere near the Earth's surface is warming. This warming is one of many kinds of climate change that the Earth has gone through in the past and will continue to go through in the future.” (NOAA)
Alright, now we have something to work with. The globe is warming. My argument is not with that. However, the degree to which man is responsible for that warming is not agreed upon. There is no scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic (man-made) global warming. We are constantly told that the vast majority of scientists are in agreement on this subject (Oreskes). Those few who say otherwise are labeled extremists or industry stooges who lie for big business. In fact, those who speak out against global warming face possible loss of grant monies, ostracism, and even threats (Harper). Global warming was first seriously studied in the 1950's by Roger Revelle (NOW).
Since then, billions of dollars have been spent studying the subject and creating models to simulate the endless possibilities produced by our planet's ever-changing climate. Unfortunately for those who claim global warming is man's fault, the science is increasingly leading away from humans as the cause, specifically that carbon does not cause global warming (Evans). If you only check one source in this paper, look at that one. It's alarming how little is reported in the news regarding the other side of global warming. Why have we never heard this before? With this, we see today that man-made global warming is not an agreed upon fact. There are literally hundreds of scientists globally who refute the idea of man-made global warming (Clark)(Various), and so would every intelligent person if they only took the time to find out for themselves.
We next move onto the apparent vanishing of the world's glaciers and ice-caps. Here again, what's reported in the news is in fact far from reality. Beginning with glaciers, I pose a simple question. How many glaciers exist in the entire world? Before reading on, make a guess. Take a second and say out loud the number you're thinking. Got it? Alright, the answer is there are over 160,000 glaciers currently advancing and retreating all over the world today. Of these 160,000, how many do you think we have ever even cataloged? The answer is around 67,000 (Kieffer). Furthermore, if we ask how many glaciers have been extensively studied for any serious length of time, the number drops to a disheartening 42 (Braithwaite and Zhang). So let's try and set the record straight. Of the 160,000 plus glaciers that have been approximated to exist using satellite imagery, only 42 have data on them extending back over a period of ten years. Let's pause here to let it sink in. (Pause). This leads me to believe that our knowledge of glacier advance or retreat is almost nonexistent.
Glaciologist R.J. Braithwaite (Manchester) sees this lack of data as "one of the most important problems for…glaciology" and demonstrates the "sad fact that many glacierized regions of the world remain un-sampled, or only poorly sampled" (CO2). As far as our ice caps go, Antarctica is not melting, and is in fact growing (Michaels). The tune has changed in recent years from global warming causing Antarctica to melt (Washington Post), to new studies showing the growth of Antarctica (AP). Which should we believe? Unfounded conjecture or documented study?
In light of these supposedly melting ice fields, shouldn't the population of polar bears be dwindling? For that matter, global warming is to blame for species extinction the world over, right? The answers to these questions don't support the theory of man-made global warming. We all remember the photo circulating with the polar bears standing on the shrinking ice flow, their hopes for survival all but gone. It was used on countless environment ads, the press picked it up and used it, Al Gore used it, and each time the story was the same (Mouland).
