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Global WarmingOverview
Global warming and climate change have received increased public awareness in recent years as a result of scientific analyses and media reporting of melting ice caps in the Arctic and Antarctic and Greenland, of melting glaciers in such places as Alaska, Glacier National Park in Montana and the Himalayas, of warmer summers in places and colder winters,, of hurricanes and tornados, and of floods and droughts.
Proponents of human causes for global warming cite the rise in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as correlating with temperature change. Opponents question the measurements and the correlations while also citing other natural causes such as ocean currents, increased solar activity and cosmic rays as well as the historic natural cycles of earth’s heating and cooling.
Global Warming Overview (wikipedia)
Global Warming Controversy (wikipedia)
Supporting Viewpoints
The principle argument cited by numerous scientists worldwide is that human generated green house gases and to a lesser degree deforestation have acted to change the climate and raise the average air temperature of the planet by 1.3º F over the last 100 years. The greenhouse gases, primarily CO2, are a result of burning fossil fuels. Measurements of atmospheric CO2 over the last 48 years on the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii have shown a distinct upward trend from 316 ppm in 1959 to a current level of 384 ppm.
These CO2 levels of the past 48 years are the highest ever measured in the past 650,000 years. The history of past CO2 level measurements is recorded in ice cores from Greenland and the Antarctic. Scientists using computer models predict that continued rises to CO2 levels will lead to melting ice caps, rising sea levels and a host of other problems by the end of the century.
The effort promoting global warming theories has been led by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC - website link below). This group was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 along with Al Gore for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change. Perhaps one of the most comprehensive and noteworthy, but also controversial source for understanding climate change issues is the IPCC, Working Group I Report, “The Physical Science Basis” (122 pages). . Regardless of what one’s position is on global warming, this report contains valuable explanations of the processes involved in climate change.
Supporting Websites
Opposing Viewpoints
Those scientists who disagree with the IPCC findings have cited questionable correlations between CO2 levels and temperature, inaccuracies in the computer models used to extrapolate trends into the future and just what level of CO2 and temperature is unacceptable for society. Some scientists look for natural causes, citing earth’s natural cycles over millions of years of global warming and cooling as evidence that that the current warming cycle is just another of earth’s natural cycles. Economists cite the enormous costs to our economy by shifting away from fossil fuels, and question the necessity of doing so when the arguments for global warming theories are not that sound.
One of the most compelling arguments opposing the conventional global warming theories is presented by the Arthur B. Robinson, Noah E. Robinson, and Willie Soon in the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine website Petition Project: Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
Instead of looking at just the recent period of the Industrial Revolution, the authors compiled temperature data for the past 3,000 years. The graphical analysis shows the Medieval Climate Optimum and the Little Ice Age in relation to the current trends. The current 2006 temperature is equivalent to the 3,000 year average of natural cycles.
Opposing Websites
Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine
Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Competitive Enterprise Group - Skeptics Guide to Inconvenient Truth
Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide & Global Change
Envirotruth
Heartland Institute
GlobalWarming.org
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Latest Global Warming Content  | | Article Details: The world will experience a growing risk of conflicts over food, energy and water in coming years. The population rises each year by about 80 million people, with most of the increase in impoverished regions already facing environmental stress. Climate change, water scarcity and tighter oil supplies will add to the stresses. The tendency might be to look to the military for solutions. We'll need to keep in mind that engineers and doctors will be the only ones who can truly keep us safe. | |
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|  | | Article Details: The U.S. has done the least among the world's eight largest economies to address global warming, a study released Thursday found. The G-8 Climate Scorecards 2008, released Thursday ahead of next week's gathering of the Group of Eight, also found that none of the eight countries are making improvements large enough to prevent temperature increases that scientists think would cause catastrophic climate changes. | |
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| | | Article Details: It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year. The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. | |
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|  | | Article Details: Last year global levels of atmospheric CO2, the primary driver of global climate change, increased by 0.6 pct, or 19 billion tons. In addition methane rose by 27 million tons after nearly a decade with little or no increase. The burning of coal, oil, and gas, is the primary source of increasing CO2 emissions. Oceans, vegetation, and soils soak up half of these emissions. The rest stays in the air for centuries. | |
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|  | | Article Details: The task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures may be far more difficult than previous research suggested, say scientists who have just published studies indicating that it would require the world to cease carbon emissions altogether within a matter of decades. | |
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|  | | Article Details: The extraordinary winter conditions over the past year: snow in Johannesburg and Baghdad, Arctic sea ice returning with a vengeance, blizzards in China, and a sharp drop in the globe’s average temperature, have stimulated more debate on global warming. However, a host of climate experts say it is mostly good old-fashioned weather, along with a cold kick from the tropical Pacific Ocean, which is in its La Niña phase for a few more months. | |
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|  | | Quote Details: It is time to break our addiction to fossil fuels. The evidence of global warming is mounting. We threaten the global environment with our continued use of fossil fuels. Not only is this an ecological threat, it is a tremendous economic threat, facing all of humanity. Global warming will bankrupt the re-insurance industry, spread infectious tropical diseases, and increase severe and unpredictable weather | |
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|  | | Quote Details: There's nothing wrong with dealing with global warming. And it's a high priority for me. But there is a big difference between talking about global warming, which requires global solutions, and the idea of America warming. No one talks about America warming. If we're going to have solutions that deal, for instance, with a cap in trade program or a BTU tax or anything of that nature, it has to be global in its sweep. | |
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| | |  | | Quote Details: Most of the observed increase in globally-averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic GHG concentrations. It is likely there has been significant
anthropogenic warming over the past 50 years averaged over each continent (except Antarctica). IPCC 4th Assessment Report, Climate Change 2007 | |
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| | |  | | Quote Details: For this generation, climate change is our space race. The climate crisis is also one of the greatest economic opportunities in the history of our country. It will unleash a wave of innovation, create millions of new jobs, enhance our security and lead the world to a revolution in how we produce and use energy. | |
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|  | | Quote Details: Our guiding principle is clear: We must lead the world to produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and we must do it in a way that does not undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater prosperity for their people. | |
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|  | | Article Details: The author points out the inconsistencies between political rhetoric and the actual statements of the IPCC on global warming. While Senator Bernie Sanders states that "melting Greenland ice would cause a 23-foot rise in sea levels worldwide," the IPCC on the other hand, “projects that the melting of Greenland will cause a rise in sea levels of between half an inch and 4.5 inches by 2100.” | |
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|  | | Article Details: For those that don't want to wade through pages and pages of the IPCC's 4th Assessment Report, this article in the UCCS website summarizes the key points. One of those points is that it is “very likely” that emissions of heat-trapping gases from human activities have caused “most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century.” | |
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