Global warming has become a trending topic among our population and has many concerned with the deterioration of the world’s ecosystems. Global warming is defined by Meriam Webster as “an increase in the earth's atmospheric and oceanic temperatures widely predicted to occur due to an increase in the greenhouse effect resulting especially from pollution.” I will address the question of whether or not global warming is really a crisis or if the facts have been distorted.
An article titled Cold, Hard Facts by Peter Doran of The New York Times negates the fact that our world is experiencing global warming. In short, the article discusses numerous studies that have taken place since 1966 to see if there are trends in the warming of our earth. Specifically in one study, “researchers found that from 1966 to 2000 the Antarctic mainland had actually cooled.” Their “summary statement pointed out how the cooling trend posed challenges to models of Antarctic climate and ecosystem change.” This article goes into further depth and summarizes the “scientific findings run counter to theory of global warming” and that television and newspapers have actually misinterpreted the facts.
The article titled Ecosystems and Human Well-Being states, “everyone in the world depends completely on Earth’s ecosystems and the services they provide.” I believe this quote to be true and addresses our heavy reliance on the Earth’s natural resources. Many people believe that we, as the world’s population, have caused the global warming crisis by the overuse of our planets resources. By wasting and not being aware of our use of the little remaining sources, we could end up like the people of Easter Island. The chapter discusses the population of Easter Island’s over consumption of the islands resources until there was nothing left that they could live off of and the population finally deteriorated. If the population as a whole does not identify the global warming crisis and work together to find a solution to the resource problems then we could very well suffer the same fate as the people of Easter Island.
As you can see there are compelling arguments for supporting and negating the global warming crisis. Do you believe this is a pressing issue or do you think our society has placed a greater emphasis on just a “trending topic?”
