Introduction
Is climate change a real threat? This argumentative essay about global warming aims to answer the question. It focuses on the greenhouse effect caused by humans and its impact on ecology.
The general Western society has been presented with two rather conflicting viewpoints concerning the topic of global warming. One point of view is derived from Gore’s (2006) documentary entitled “An Inconvenient Truth,” while the other is the documentary designed by Durkin (2007) named “The Great Global Swindle.” The question is which of these two documentaries presents a more credible point of view for argumentation. I will examine these arguments from both sides, together with facts regarding the global warming issue.
What Is Global Warming?
Global warming pertains to the increase in temperature of the atmosphere based on the entrapment of gases that are emitted from activities on the surface of the Earth. The increase in temperature is a direct result of the greenhouse effect, which involves heat that originated from the sun, which is entrapped within the atmosphere due to several factors. Scientists have determined that the atmosphere’s temperature has increased since the industrial revolution, which has maximized the use of chemicals in manufacturing various kinds of materials in the industry.
Global warming might result in regional changes in the weather, which will be more obvious if the weather were compared from one decade to another and not on a daily basis. However, scientists have hypothesized that when the temperature of the surface of the Earth has reached a highly critical level, such high temperature will cause severe and drastic changes to the atmosphere, affecting the oceans and will severely alter the weather patterns in a matter of years. Changes in the weather may include increasingly hot days and less cool days. The water levels will go down, exposing more land surface during the summer. Even higher latitude regions will be warmer by 40%.
In addition, the amount the precipitation, be it rain or snow, will also increase in the form of stronger storms and very intense typhoons and hurricanes. The El Niño events may also be more increase due to global warming.
The Effects of Global Warming
Currently, the world is confused as society is ignorant of the detailed effects of global warming. Society is aware the summers are now longer and more intense, and winters are envious of summer’s wrath, unleashing a fury that rivals the intensity of the heat. This is actually what global warming does. It confuses the world and now currently has also succeeded in confounding scientists. From a scientific point of view, global warming can be understood as a global environmental phenomenon that is characterized by an increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s near-surface air and oceans (Smith and Reynolds, 2005). There is certainly no doubt that global warming has a very detrimental effect on the environment as it causes rising sea levels and alters the amount and pattern of precipitation that areas all over the world get. These environmental changes are also the projected causes of other environmental changes such as increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, which in turn creates changes in agricultural yields, glacier retreat, reduced summer stream flows, species extinctions, and increases in the ranges of disease vectors.
It is unclear just how effective these policies may be, but the fact that is clear is that in order to address this issue, each and every person in the world must take part in reducing the emission of these greenhouse gases, which is the main cause of this problem (Gore 2006). In his book, “An Inconvenient Truth,” Gore (2006) describes global warming does actually occur as a result of carbon dioxide accumulation in the atmosphere.
He also presents substantial geologic evidence that proves that carbon dioxide concentrations have increased on the surface of the Earth, thus resulting in a warmer surface. One of the strongest criticisms thrown at Al Gore is the question regarding the direct connection between the increase in carbon dioxide and the temperature increase at the actual correct place settings. This issue is mainly due to the fact that most of the information and generalizations that scientists have collected were based on laboratory conditions where most of the components of the setup were easily regulated and controlled, such as humidity and temperature.
There are currently a number of models that may be used in forecasting average surface temperatures on the Earth, but there is still a need to also design a model that could predict the amount of human-made emissions that could trigger the same features that cause global warming.
On the other hand, the general scientific consensus is that global warming is real and its overall effects are harmful; there are still some outstanding scientists who feel that the severe effects of global warming have been sensationalized. In the documentary “The Great Global Warming Swindle” created by Durkin (2007), the issue of global warming was indeed cited, but at the same time, a bigger issue was placed forward, and this was how science works at this day and time. The documentary mentions scientists who are prejudiced against particular scientific work and the censorship involved within their group. The documentary also mentions the common acts of generating false statements from questionable data and, lastly, the incompetence of the review committee in pointing out such flaws in articles for publication. It is thus a blow to the scientific world that global warming goes against the most general theories of science because the scientists themselves are prejudiced with their scientific claims. Certain members of society take the idea of global warming with the normal temperature and that the temperature of the surface of the Earth has not severely increased over the last one hundred years. They claim that the temperature data collected in the 1970s were taken in urbanized areas using different kinds of thermometers. Hence the temperature readings were influenced by human error and did not precisely show drastic temperature changes in the surface of the Earth as well as in the oceans. It is, therefore, important the satellite data be acquired for the coming next decades in order to generate robust and reliable temperature readings that society and the scientific world will accept without any doubts about its credibility and efficiency.
While the general scientific consensus is that global warming is real and its overall effects are detrimental, there are still some prominent scientists who feel that the severe effects of global warming have been sensationalized. In the film “The Great Global Warming Swindle” created by Durkin (2007), the issue of global warming was indeed cited, but at the same time, a bigger issue was placed forward, and this was how science works at this day and time. The film mentions scientists who are prejudiced against particular scientific work and the censorship involved within their group. The film also mentions the common acts of generating false statements from questionable data and, lastly, the incompetence of the review committee in pointing out such flaws in articles for publication. It is thus a blow to the scientific world that global warming goes against the most general theories of science because the scientists themselves are prejudiced with their scientific claims.
Conclusion
Certain members of society take the idea of global warming with the normal temperature and that the temperature of the surface of the Earth has not severely increased over the last one hundred years. They claim that the temperature data collected in the 1970s were taken in urbanized areas using different kinds of thermometers. Hence the temperature readings were influenced by human error and did not precisely show drastic temperature changes in the surface of the Earth as well as in the oceans. It is, therefore, important the satellite data be acquired for the coming next decades in order to generate robust and reliable temperature readings that society and the scientific world will accept without any doubts about its credibility and efficiency.
Thus, based on the information I have gathered, I believe that “The Great Global Warming Swindle” of Durkin (2007) presents a stronger platform on the issue of global warming than that of Gore (2006). The reasons behind such scientific trickery reflect a bigger problem that the scientific society should address before it affects the entire public society’s way of understanding the scientific bases of everyday life.
References
Durkin, M. 2007, ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’. United Kingdom.
Gore, A 2006, ‘An inconvenient truth: The planetary emergency of global warming and what we can do about it’ Rodale Books, New York.
Haigh, JD 2003, ‘The effects of solar variability on the Earth’s climate’, Philosophies and Transcriptions of the Royal Society A: Mathematics, Physics, Engineering and Science, vol. 361, no. 1802, pp. 91-111.
Lean JL, Wang YM, Sheeley NR 2002, ‘The effect of increasing solar activity on the Sun’s total and open magnetic flux during multiple cycles: Implications for solar forcing of climate’, Geophysics Research Letters, vol. 29, no. 24, pp. 2224-227.
Rudiman, W 2005, ‘How Did Humans First Alter Global Climate?’ Scientific American, pp. 127-130.
Smith TM, Reynolds RW 2005, ‘A global merged land–air-sea surface temperature reconstruction based on historical observations (1880–1997)’, Journal of Climatology, vol. 18, no. 12, pp. 2021-2036.