Joe Wilde

Climate change aka global warming is either the greatest threat to human existence
or a fear mongering myth based on natural fluctuations. While climate change isnt
new it is relatively new topic of public opinion, in 2006 former vice president and
presidential candidate Al Gore released An Inconvenient Truth a film in which he
presents the dire situation the earth is in and how dire it will be in the future. Gores
film has since become one of the most criticized and revered part of the climate
change argument, with many members of the scientific community praising Gore for
bringing the issue mainstream and others accusing him of making the film in an
attempt to further his political career.
Exaggerated science aside Gores film did introduce to the world to the greenhouse
gas effect which is the collection of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane in
the earths upper atmosphere. Green house gas levels have been increasing
steadily since 1750 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC have
been measuring the levels of carbon dioxide by taking ice core samples the increase
in carbon dioxide is attributed to the increase in fossil fuel burning. The IPCC
believes that the increase in greenhouse gasses will lead to an increase in radiant
temperatures the increase in temperatures has led to higher artic temperatures and
quicker melting ice and higher ocean salinity. The IPCC also theorizes that
temperatures will continue to increase 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade. The threats
that come with rising temperatures bring the threat of higher sea levels posing
flooding and tsunami threats to small islands, increasing temps will make droughts
last longer in certain parts of the planet and will lead to more flooding in rain prone
areas as well as increased hurricanes.
A recent study of 1200 scientists found that 97% believe that climate change is
currently happening and 82% believe that humans have influenced the process. The
lack of cohesion in the scientific community has led many to disagree with the idea
of human influenced climate change. It is noted that the majority of scientists
against climate change are either meteorologists or petroleum scientist. However
Dr. David Whitehouse released a new study in which he reported that the average
global temperature has not increased dramatically in 17 years. This study supports
the natural cooling and heating cycles theory stating that the earth was last in a

cooling cycle from 1940 to 1975. This raises the question in whether global warming
is directly related to climatic change and whether the increasing amount of
greenhouse gas causes climate change. Polar ice caps are a big talking point with
the issue of climate change with many reports saying that the ice is melting. The
CryoSat-2 satellite was launched in an effort to measure the ice which has been
shrinking over that last few decades but according to satellite measurements the
ice density has increased by the 50% since 2012. There are many bold predictions
that have ended up not being true and recently these failed predictions have
persuaded people to change there opinions.
Personally I think that both theories have realistic merit I do believe the heat cycles
theory because there is so much evidence to support it but I do think the severity of
the cycles has been influenced I believe that the radiant effect of the greenhouse
gasses is a major cause to the most recent heating cycle. Humans have already
made many irreversible changes to the earth as a whole and the idea of us effecting
the climate doesnt seem to far fetched. I think we can already see the human
effects on the earth with deforestation, air and water pollution. I think a big part of
the human effects on the earth are caused simply because of the human
population. If you look at the current droughts and natural storms they arent
increasing in strength, but rather they are hitting higher number of people.