Most skeptics of Global Warming have said and will say again, “The earth has taken care of itself for millions of years. It goes through cycles from time to time. It doesn’t matter what humans do, Mother Nature is stronger than us all.” Although these opinions have some truth and relevance in the argument against the reality of Global Warming and its effects on the planet, it also seems incredibly short sighted to not explore the emerging data that has continued to grow in recent years supporting the idea that humans do indeed have an affect on how the planet and her inhabitants will continue to live and grow in the years to come. With advances in technology measuring these effects more accurately and faster than ever before, it is no longer an option to live lazily with blinders on, allowing the past million years to dictate the opinions of what is happening at this very moment. The world is changing and Mother Nature is having plenty of help from the human race. It’s time for eyes to be opened. Just look around.
The first example comes directly from first hand experience here in ______ PA. One of the most beautiful and amazing things about the landscape is the rolling hills and lush valleys. Also as amazing, are how those hills and valleys become natural viaducts whenever there is an excess of rain. As the rain falls at length, the existing creeks begin to rise, naturally. However, when they are unable to hold the swell of water any longer, they run over into (for lack of a better term) “sub-creeks”. These sub-creeks have obviously evolved out of necessity. They provide alternative pathways for the water to flow freely back to a primary water source, usually a river or lake.
Recently, in a quiet community located in ________, PA, (a suburb of _______) a housing development was built on land that had previously been home to a farm. In the process of building this new plan (with not one house at an estimated cost of under $300,000, but that’s another story) the builders of these new castles happened to block off one of these sub-creeks. They needed somewhere relatively close to the worksite to dump the excess landfill, so they chose a natural trough in the land. This particular trough, a sub-creek, ran parallel to a narrow two-lane road. Isn’t it obvious what was going to happen next? The results of this mistake were shown immediately following the first heavy rainfall. As the rain fell, the creeks began to rise. When the level of water was too much for the existing creeks to handle, they spilled into their support system, the sub-creeks. But, because this particular system had been altered, there was nowhere for the overflow to escape…except onto the road. Many homeowners, whose driveways connect to the now flooded region of roadway, are forced to make due with this situation. So now, in this small area of _____ Pa, known for its abundance of rainy days, a roadway gets flooded every couple of months causing a great inconvenience to commuters and homeowners alike because of human interference with a successful naturally generated ecological operating system.
This small, some might say, insignificant example is but a microcosm of the actual problems the human race can, and will, inflict upon this planet. When Mother Nature’s ability to protect and regulate herself is taken away or greatly altered, how can the long-term effects not be disastrous to the human race?
The present changes to this planet are not just some dirt being pushed around causing a few people some small inconveniences. The problems now include the increase of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide, Methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and sulfur hexafluoride (unmistakably correlated with the enormous increase of human population on this planet), which affect the overall temperature of the Earth more now then ever before.
Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, human activities have caused an increase in several greenhouse gases, most notably carbon