Global Warming

There is also a lot of data that proves that the earth is really heating up. For example, “the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have increased by 30% over the last century”( http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=13). This causes a greenhouse effect on the earth and heats it up. Also, “average temperatures have increased by up to 0.6°C since the 19th century; the four hottest years since accurate records began have all been in the last decade”. This is telling us that the earth really is heating up. There are countless more reasons why global warming really does exist, but these are one of the important ones.

Although these are very good arguments, they might not be accepted by all people. In fact, some people actually oppose these reasons with solid counterexamples. One of the strongest examples that this second side has is that the data that proves that global warming could be wrong. For example, when the other side says “average temperatures have increased by up to 0.6°C since the 19th century”, they are proven wrong. This is shown in the data between the 1930s and the 1970s. “It is true that records show that average temperatures have increased over this century; however, temperatures actually dropped slightly between the 1930s and the 1970s. This was not associated with a reduction in fossil fuel emissions – in fact, they were increasing over this period. Basically, the other side states that temperatures increased on earth since the 19th century. But, this data says that temperatures actually decreased during this 40 year period. This also may prove that fossil fuels are actually not the cause of this temperature increase, because the use of fossil fuels actually increased during this time period. That would mean that more carbon dioxide would be present in the world and the temperature should increase, but it didn’t.

Also, there is the reason that there actually isn’t enough data to prove that global warming exists or not. For example, we do not have temperature records that tell us every possible temperature that earth ever had. We have accurate records of the temperature, which is true, but we really have no idea of temperatures that were present a few million years ago. This same problem could have actually happened a few million years ago, but the earth seems fine at the present time. We just do not know. If accurate data was present, and the temperature patterns are actually repeating, then there would be no cause for worry. If data covered a longer range of time, it might be proven that global warming actually doesn’t exist.

Global Warming is a very fiercely debated topic. There are so many reasons to prove that it actually exists, and so many reasons to prove that it doesn’t exist. It all comes down to which data is more believable. At present times, it seems that global warming actually does exist, because there are so many reasons to back it up. But, there are just as many reasons to prove all of them wrong. If the earth really is heating up and global warming is true, then we should stop thinking about the debate, and actually start thinking of ways to protect the earth from it.