Global Climate Change

Weather

Evidence Supporting & Opposing Global Climate Change

Global climate change persists a hot point of contention on an international scale. This subject went from ridicule, mockery, and doubt to massive grassroots and nonprofit movements, heated debates, and media headlines. Though there exists scientific research that dates back into the mid 20th century regarding impending climate change, the subject was not take seriously by massive audiences until the 21st century. At first the debate over global warming was whether or not it existed. While the existence of global climate change continues to be debated, the debate has evolved and branched into a new direction -- whose fault is it and strategies for counteracting or reversing the damage.

When public figures such as former Vice President Al Gore began speaking publically regarding global climate change, average people as well as experts & professionals across fields, did not take these claims seriously. As more scientific research was performed, evidence mounted that at least, the Earth is in the midst of an environmental change of global proportions that has not been seen or recorded in modern times. Once this shift in the issue occurred, the debate became more about the precise nature of global warming (identifying markers) and the human contribution to the situation. Some argue that humans contribute significantly to the global climate change, and some argue that it is not possible to determine the contribution of the human race as measurements of key environmental changes may have been subject to poor measurement techniques and poor tools of measurements, particularly during the last few decades of the 20th century. Most modern scientists agree and acknowledge the statistical data that demonstrates significant changes in temperature and the patterns of other changes, but still there are many who are reluctant to commit to a position on the subject.

Global climate change is an alteration with unparalleled precedent regarding weather patterns of the planet. The global climate change must be supported by data that has been collected over a substantial duration of time, which range from decades, to millions of years.

Although "climate change" and "global warming" are often used interchangeably, rising temperatures are just one aspect of climate change. To understand why, it is important to distinguish between "weather" and "climate." The climate is the average weather over a long period of time. A simple way to think of this is: weather is what determines if you will use an umbrella today; climate determines whether you own an umbrella. Thus, when looking at climate change and its impacts, it is important to consider more than just global temperature trends. Changes in the climate other than average temperatures have more direct impacts on nature and society. (Bensel & Turk, 2011)

Climate changes have occurred repeatedly over the course of Earth's entire history, before, during, and likely, after the existence of the human race. Therefore, from the perspective of the Earth, global climate change is old news; the concept of global climate change, for humans, is new, which contributes to the hesitation and outright resistance or denial of its existence. Those who argue against its existence say that what some call "global climate change" can be explained away because industry waste, etc. Others simply contend that there are no definitive trends in the present data, and furthermore, current models are too crude to accurately predict future climate changes. Other arguments against global climate change are that taking measures to lower greenhouse emissions would not change any kind of global climate change, and really that if there is a global climate change, humans have very little effect on its coming or going. There are even those who say that a bit of global climate change would benefit the world; there is no stopping it, and there is no use in trying, if it exists at all. The human perspective is likely too limited to see our weather patterns clearly enough to firmly argue that now we have global climate change.

The scientific and political communities agree that a change is happening. There is evidence that substantiates and has been interpreted by authorities showing that the Earth is experiencing a climate change and that has been happening for at least a century. There is additional evidence that some human activities confound this global climate change. There is a lack of evidence in favor of or directly purporting that humans are the only reason for the change.

The Earth's lifespan far exceeds the lifespan of any and every species that has lived upon it. The strength and resiliency of the Earth is a concept that the human imagination cannot adequately quantify, qualify, or even understand. Throughout the Earth's history, it has experienced and undergone massive environmental changes, many of which occurred long before the human race and proved far more severe than the effects of greenhouses gases thus far. There is a substantial amount of highly credible scientific evidence that illustrates that the Earth is undergoing another kind of global change.

By 2005 a widespread scientific consensus had emerged that serious, large -- scale disruption could occur around 2050, once average global temperature increase exceeds about 2 "C, leading to abrupt and irreversible changes…This new theory of "abrupt climate change" has overturned earlier predictions of gradual change and has prompted some scientists to warn that unmitigated climate change could lead to the complete collapse of civilisation…This "global dimming" effect is diminishing as we clean up air pollution. As a result global average temperature could rise by as much as 10 degrees Celsius [approximately 18 "F] by the close of the century -- a catastrophic increase. (Bensel & Turk, 2011)

The effects of this change range from melting ice caps, raised temperatures, expansion of deserts, rising sea levels, and increased frequency & intensity of extreme weather such as hurricanes, tsunamis, droughts, and heat waves.