Global Warming Is It Trur Or Is It A Myth

Introduction

For many decades, scientists, meteorologists and climate experts have been advising the public of global warming and the effects it would bring to the planet. Recently, these concepts of the Earth’s temperature increasing and its effects have been considered to be contrary to what has been happening in the world today. So much so that many are now questioning whether global warming is as much as a concern as what scientists have stated, and even wonder if the concept of global warming is just a myth. In this paper, a brief summary of the global warming issue will be presented. It will then provide evidence supporting that global warming is present in the world today and how human activities plays a major role on this issue, as well as why certain predictions made by experts in reference to the effects of global warming have been subdued.

The Global Warming Issue

In order to determine the validity of whether global warming is a myth or otherwise, the issue of global warming as how it was initially presented must be explained.

The Earth’s atmosphere is composed of a number of gases, including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. These gases trap energy coming from the sun. This is termed as the “Greenhouse Effect.” It is this greenhouse effect that made life possible on planet Earth (Buchdahl, Twigg & Cresswell, 2002).

The problem of global warming began during the Industrial Revolution. Fossil fuel in the form of coal and petroleum were being burned to provide electricity and energy, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This caused the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to increase. Because of this, more solar energy is trapped by the Earth’s atmosphere. This brought the rise of the global warming issue (Ramanathan, 2006, Wang & Oppenheimer, 2005).

Experts have alerted the public of this concern by addressing the possible changes to the climate and how it will affect the ecology of the planet. Among these changes are the melting of the icebergs, increase events of wildfires, reduced monsoon rainfall, increased of floods due to coastal storm surges, and increase incidents of respiratory diseases (Buchadal, et al, 2002, Pielke, Jr., R. A., Landsea, C., Mayfield, M., Laver, J & Pasch, R., 2005, Ramanathan, 2006, Wang & Oppenheimer, 2005).

Over the years, various events have supported the threat of global warming on the planet. For instance, scientists have suggested that the more frequent and strong hurricanes that hit the United States in 2004 could have been linked to the global warming phenomenon (Pielke, Jr., R. A., et al, 2005). Heat waves that occurred in Europe back in the summer of 2003 had temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit, making this the hottest summer Europe has experienced within the last 500 years. The increase in wildfires spreading was attributed to severe droughts caused by the unusual warm waters in the western Pacific region, which was linked to global warming. The same warm water conditions had caused massive coral bleaching back in the years 1997-98 affecting 16% of the coral reefs worldwide (Wang & Oppenheimer, 2005). Also, the Andean glaciers, which have been intact for the past 5,000 years have been recorded to be melting at a faster rate than expected (Wang & Chameides, 2007). This could be due to global temperatures increasing by as much as 0.6 degrees Celsius, or 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit, within the past 100 years (Buchdahl, et al, 2002, Wang & Oppenheimer, 2005).

Many climatologists have seen the 20th century as having the warmest temperatures in record with the year 2005 having the highest temperatures. Perhaps the most alarming evidence for this is the significant decline of the Artic sea ice from Greenland and Antarctica. This led to the increase of the sea level average. This change in sea levels could eventually change the global ocean circulation patterns, which is crucial as a climate regulator (Jordan, 2006).

Global warming does not merely affect the Earth’s climate, but also the ecosystems in the planet. One example of this is the effect of the rise of sea levels would have to the migrating birds in the United States that feed on insects. These migrating birds

Over the next few decades, various global climate models have predicted that situations will worsen by the year 2080. They had predicted that the maximum wind speeds that will be experienced during hurricanes will increase by as much as 5%, and will occur five times more frequent than today, affecting as much as 88 million people with floods due these storm surges. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) had stated coastal flooding as a result in the increase in sea levels will only be a matter of time, especially with the rapid melting of the ice caps (Jordan, 2006, Pielke, Jr., R. A., et al, 2005, Wang & Oppenheimer, 2005).

Myths about Global Warming

Despite many changes in the Earth’s environment, many have begun to be skeptical that these changes are caused by global warming, and that this concern even exists until today.

The skepticism has been fueled by a number of information provided by climatologists and meteorologists in the Earth’s environment that contradicts the global warming issue. According to Murray (2005), satellite and weather balloon soundings have acquired substantial data that the Earth’s atmosphere has warmed lesser than what was initially forecasted. This has been further substantiated with the fact that meteorologists have announced that winters have been getting colder, contradicting the thesis of the global warming threat, which is that the temperature all over the world is increasing (Wang & Oppenheimer, 2005).

Although the skeptics of the global warming threat do not contest the fact that greenhouse gases levels in the atmosphere have increased, they have attributed the changes in the Earth’s climate to other factors. One is that it is a natural phenomenon that happens in the Earth’s history. The based this claim on the Medieval Warming Period that occurred between A. D. 1000 to A. D. 1400 when, according to skeptics, temperatures during this period were higher than the temperature readings seen in the 20th century (Wang & Chameides, 2005).

Another factor that they have mentioned is that the extreme shift in the Earth’s climate is due to the increase of solar activity and sunspots. These sudden bursts of solar energy could explain the increase in the temperature of the planet (Wang & Oppenheimer, 2005).

Still another factor skeptics have accredited to changes in the