The Global Warming Debate

The global warming debate finds those who believe there is a greenhouse effect that will lead to global warming and those who do not believe that this is taking place viewing the evidence and drawing different conclusions about what is relevant and what is not and about what evidence is valid and what is not. Often the same evidence produces different conclusions when examined by different scientists. Mark B. Bush notes that a single statistic for a hot or cold season is not enough to assume that global warming is taking place, but he also notes that in 10 of the 16 years between 1980 and 1995, record high temperatures were recorded (Bush 320). It is this sort of data that suggests to some that global warming is taking place, or the warming of the planet because of human use of fossil fuels in the industrialized countries of the world. The issue is whether the predictions some make have any validity.

James G. Titus states that over the past decade, most climatologists have agreed that a doubling of CO2 would eventually raise global temperatures 1.5 to 4.5o Centigrade, which Titus says is expected to occur by the middle of next century. He also cites some studies that believe the warming could be even greater than this and finds that methane, chlorofluorocarbons, nitrous oxide, carbon tetrachloride, and other gases released into the atmosphere by various human activities also have a greenhouse effect and so might increase the overall effect (Titus 311-312).

Related Essays

Global Warming Debate The global warming debate finds those who believe there is a greenhouse effect that will lead to global warming and those who do not believe that this is .... (1566 6 )

Global warming .... the problem. 1. Christianson, G. (1999, August 25). The global warming debate is a moot point. The Observatory. Online. Available .... (2435 10 )

Global Warming: Alarmist or Real? .... Kowalski, KM (2004). Open for Debate: Global Warming. Tarrytown, NY: Benchmark Books. Oreskes, N. (2002, December). Beyond the ivory .... (1143 5 )

The Myth of the Global Warming Alarm .... Kowalski, KM (2004). Open for Debate: Global Warming. Tarrytown, NY: Benchmark Books. Oreskes, N. (2002, December). Beyond the ivory .... (1142 5 )

Global Warming as a Threat to Life on Earth .... New Haven: Yale University Press; 1992. 8. Smith, E. Global warming: The debate heats up. Business Week. 119-120; February 27, 1995. 9. Stay cool. Economist. .... (2195 9 )

ter subsidies in the West (Titus 311). Titus frames the problem well by indicating how policymakers must set priorities and by detailing the criteria they should use in evaluating potential responses. The major problem he foresees is the difficulty of weighing present versus future benefits (Titus 314). He divides the possible responses into categories: no action today; anticipatory action; planning; and research and education (Titus 315). Titus feels that once a problem is defined, Americans are likely to respond with the needed money to correct it. He also feels that many of the responses constitute easy solutions that would address the problem without arousing opposition or later being seen as ill-advised. Even more costly options, says Titus, would prove to be good investments (Titus 322). Bush agrees that the climate of the Earth changes all the time, sometimes in a subtle manner and sometimes in a dramatic way, and recent evidence analyzing the various ice ages that have come over the Earth suggests that there is a flip-flop in the climate that moves the Earth out of a warm interglacial period and into a cold glacial period in a process taking only three to five years (Bush 323). This makes it a real possibility tha

Category: History - T