Global Warming: True or False? Global warming, most of us have a general idea of what it is but I’m going explain it in a little more detail. In a nutshell, it’s the steady rising of Earth’s temperature. What’s causing this is greenhouse gases plus the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is what happens when certain gases like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and water vapour trap heat. These gases let in light but keep heat from escaping, causing the Earth to warm. The amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is a lot more than it was in the past. Levels of greenhouse gasses have gone up and down over the course of history but it has never been higher than it is this century.
The term “global warming” is not actually that accurate. Scientists use the term “climate change” more often than not because the Earth’s wind and ocean currents move heat around the globe in ways that can affect places differently. One town might be in a heat wave while another could be cold. One city could have excessive rainfall while someplace else could be having a dry season. The effects can vary from place to place but the cause is the same. There are many things that global warming could do to our planet. The most apparent one is the melting of Earth’s ice. That part has already begun. Ice is melting worldwide, especially at the North and South Poles. Glaciers, ice sheets, Arctic sea ice and all the other blocks of ice in between are melting and will continue to melt if the temperature doesn’t start to drop back to normal. You’re probably thinking, “Who cares about the glaciers? It’s just ice.” Well, if all the ice melts that means the sea levels will rise. It will flood all the coastal cities. New York, Miami, Venice, New Orleans, Shanghai, they’ll all be underwater and those are just the ones that are the most vulnerable. Even the most powerful cities could be flooded if they’re near the ocean. On top of that, there will be less freshwater available. We’re lucky to be living in Canada. Our country has one of the largest groups of freshwater lakes in the world. But others aren’t so fortunate. Only 2% of the Earth’s water supply is usable freshwater. 75% of that 2% is in glaciers. A lot of people depend on glaciers for drinkable water.
Some other effects include intense storms and changes in ecosystems. There’ll be more rain followed by longer and drier droughts. Entire ecosystems will change and species could even become extinct. If the weather gets hotter, the animals will want to move farther north where they could live more successfully. But some species won’t be able to move and they’ll die out because they’re not used to the extreme heat. But despite all the evidence for global warming there are many individuals who are skeptical about climate change and don’t believe that the Earth is warming at all. Some argue that the climate changes at all the time. It’s happened before so it’ll happen again, right? Well, usually change in climate is a natural thing that happens. Global temperatures and levels of greenhouse gases have changed time and time again in the past due to changes in the sun, volcanoes and other natural influences. But today, the amount of carbon dioxide is more than a third since the Industrial Revolution. Historically, Earth’s temperatures swing back and forth between the weather we have today and weather so cold that sheets of ice covered a lot of North America and Europe. But those things happened over the course of centuries and even millenniums but now things are happening over decades. That’s a big difference and Earth just can’t keep up with the quick shift in temperature.
Another reason some people are skeptical is because not all scientist agree on the issue. In April, 1998 a man named Art Robinson of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine created the Petition Project, also known as the Oregon Petition. The petition states that the suggested limits of greenhouse gases would harm