Global warming is a very important concern in the world right now. Many people think that the theory of global warming is a very logical idea. Although it is just a theory, the idea of it actually seems to be the contributor to the higher temperature on earth. But, it also seems, to many people, that global warming is just a hoax, and these people have justified data to prove this. There are also justifiable reasons to show that global warming really doesn't exist. Global warming is one of the most debated topics on planet earth.
Many people think that global warming is real. Global Warming is basically a theory and it explains the reasons why the earth is slowly warming up. One of the reasons is that humans are consuming too many fossil fuels. These burning of these fuels leads to a byproduct, a gas called carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide rises through the air and causes a "greenhouse effect: they allow sunlight to pass through, but absorb heat emitted by the earth, trapping it and leading to global warming (International Debate Education Association). Due to the greenhouse effect, the earth is getting hotter. This is a very good argument, and is an excellent reason to believe that global warming is actually causing the earth to heat up.
Another good argument that proves that global warming is really heating up the earth is that massive amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases are being produced to the burning of fossil fuels, and a main absorber of carbon dioxide, which are trees, are slowly being reduced. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, and let out oxygen, which helps the ozone layer protect us from the sun's rays. But, since many forests are being destroyed, there is less carbon dioxide absorption. Forests are being destroyed by a main reason: resources we need. Many trees are being cut down due to the amount of resources we need from them, such as paper and firewood.
We use huge amounts of paper a day, and it must take a huge amount of trees in order to satisfy the number of paper need. Acid rain also plays a part in destroying forests because all of that carbon dioxide and other gas that is hovering around the atmosphere are being absorbed into the water cycle. The gases are slowly increasing the pH of the rain to make it more acidic. When the rain falls on trees, the acidic water eats through the tree and slowly destroys it. Due to the fewer amounts of trees, there is more carbon dioxide in the world, which causes global warming.
There is also a lot of data that proves that the earth is really heating up. For example, "the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have increased by 30% over the last century"( http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=13). This causes a greenhouse effect on the earth and heats it up. Also, "average temperatures have increased by up to 0.6°C since the 19th century; the four hottest years since accurate records began have all been in the last decade". This is telling us that the earth really is heating up. There are countless more reasons why global warming really does exist, but these are one of the important ones.
Although these are very good arguments, they might not be accepted by all people. In fact, some people actually oppose these reasons with solid counterexamples. One of the strongest examples that this second side has is that the data that proves that global warming could be wrong. For example, when the other side says "average temperatures have increased by up to 0.6°C since the 19th century", they are proven wrong. This is shown in the data between the 1930s and the 1970s. "It is true that records show that average temperatures have increased over this century; however, temperatures actually dropped slightly between the 1930s and the 1970s. This was not associated with a reduction in fossil fuel emissions - in fact, they were increasing over this period. Basically, the other side states that temperatures increased on earth since the 19th century. But, this data says that temperatures actually decreased during this 40 year period. This also may prove that fossil fuels are actually not the cause of this temperature increase, because the use of fossil fuels actually increased during this time period. That would mean that more carbon dioxide would be present in the world and the temperature should increase, but it didn't.
Also, there is the reason that there actually isn't enough data to prove that global warming exists or not. For example, we do not have temperature records that tell us every possible temperature that earth ever had. We have accurate records of the temperature, which is true, but we really have no idea of temperatures that were present a few million years ago. This same problem could have actually happened a few million years ago, but the earth seems fine at the present time. We just do not know. If accurate data was present, and the temperature patterns are actually repeating, then there would be no cause for worry. If data covered a longer range of time, it might be proven that global warming actually doesn't exist.
Global Warming is a very fiercely debated topic. There are so many reasons to prove that it actually exists, and so many reasons to prove that it doesn't exist. It all comes down to which data is more believable. At present times, it seems that global warming actually does exist, because there are so many reasons to back it up. But, there are just as many reasons to prove all of them wrong. If the earth really is heating up and global warming is true, then we should stop thinking about the debate, and actually start thinking of ways to protect the earth from it.
