Global Warming †Argument Essay Essay

Global warming is the rise in the average temperature of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans since the late 19th century and its projected continuation. Many people across the country have been convinced that global warming is affecting us more and more with each passing day. Because of numerous campaigns by the likes of famous politicians such as Al Gore, the common citizen has been convinced that drastic action needs to be taken in order to stop global warming. However, contrary to popular belief, a large number of distinguished scientists and engineers do not agree that drastic actions on global warming are needed. There are several points supporting both sides of the argument about global warming, however many of them that say global warming is indeed happening use facts that are very broad and that do not solely relate to global warming. For example, the director of the USDA’s Climate Change Program said that, â€Å"Global warming will cause an increase in the number of ‘miserable days’ over the next several years.† That is a very broad statement regarding global warming and its effects, specifically because â€Å"miserable days† can be interpreted differently by different people. In the very same article, the author, Jason Koebler, adds that last year was the hottest year on record in the United States according to NOAA. This, too, is a very general statement and can be related to the climate cycles that Earth goes through. Later in the article, Koebler explains that, according to insurance broker AON Benfield, â€Å"Much of the United States was hit with abnormally dry conditions as drought cost more than $35 billion in lost crops and killed more than 100 people.† This obscene statement is a false cause because you cannot assume that global warming is directly causing these statistics. The statistics can be modified by several variables that have nothing to do with global warming. The effects of global warming is a widely misconceived notion that thousands of people are tricked into believing by misleading statistics. Many of the facts that are published relate to the point of global warming but are not solely caused by global warming. In an article in The New York Times by Justin Gillis, he explains that global temperatures are the highest that they have been in 4,000 years. He is indeed correct about this, as well as the fact that it may be a consequence of human activity. In the article, he explains that â€Å"the planet will be at least as warm as it was during the warmest periods of the modern geological era, known as the Holocene, and probably warmer than that.† Statistics like these tend to lead people the wrong way, convincing them that global warming is taking a huge toll on our planet and that something must be done. However, what is usually excluded from articles about global warming is information about alternative causes of temperature increases, such as changes in the amount and distribution of incoming sunlight caused by wobbles in the Earth’s orbit. A second misconceived notion is that CO2 is polluting our environment and that we need to â€Å"decarbonize† the Earth, when in fact CO2 is a colorless and odorless gas, exhaled by each of us, and a key component of the biosphere’s life cycle. Overall, global warming is a serious matter that has been brought to people’s attention in recent years because of temperature increases. The attention that global warming gained has raised the awareness of thousands across the country to be more aware of how they are individually effecting the environment, which in turn has helped the environment. However, contrary to popular belief, a large number of distinguished scientists and engineers do not agree that drastic actions on global warming are needed, and many articles have misleading facts that cause people to believe otherwise.