Global warming, now there are two buzz words guaranteed to start a debate any time they are mentioned around the old water cooler! Ask any group of people what they think of it, and you will get everything from: ‘Its the end of the world!’ to: ‘Its a left wing hoax designed to destroy our economy!’ So, let us look at just what the facts are.
Global warming was first observed (as hard as this may be to believe!) way back in 1896. In that year, a Swedish chemist named Svante Arrhenius was the first person to quantify just how much the world is warmed by carbon dioxide. In his report, he warned that the world was ‘evaporating our coal mines into the air.’ He was largely ignored.
Then, in 1979, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences issued a report that rising carbon dioxide levels could cause temperatures to rises, and warned that a ‘wait and see attitude’ could be dangerous. Unfortunately, the naysayers in all this are a very powerful group: oil, coal, gas, automotive and steel. All industries that create vast amounts of the greenhouse gases, and all with very deep pockets. Since the late 1980s, they have funded a whole host of lobbying groups like the Global Climate Coalition, and the Information Council on the Environment, specifically to downplay the danger or deny it outright.
On top of that, there is the problem that this issue is not something one nation can address alone. Recently, in the State of California, Governor Schwarzenegger signed an executive order with the goal of reducing car emissions ten percent by 2020. While quite the laudable effort, it will accomplish nothing! China and India are poised to become highly industrialized counties, meaning: more cars, more power plants, more greenhouse gases being vented into the atmosphere. And thats just two nations. What of the rest of the world? It was because of the global nature of the problem that the Rio Treaty on voluntary emission reductions was signed in 1992, and later the Kyoto Treaty was negotiated. However, while President George H.W. Bush signed the Rio Treaty, its mandates were never enacted; and, under pressure from lobbying groups, President George Bush did not sign the Kyoto treaty.
In recent years we've seen the effects of Global Warming: killer heat waves in America and Europe, wilted crops, smaller snow packs and receding glaciers, and bigger and stronger hurricanes. So, we must ask ourselves: who are we to believe? There are thousands of scientists around the world, from all manner of political and social backgrounds who agree that global warming is happening. And then there are the naysayers, all of whom are backed by industries that have a vested interest in preventing any actions that would endanger their profits. Which ones are impartial, do you think?
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