Climate Change: Overstated and Misunderstood

Ever since the advent of weather observation and prediction technology in the past 150 years, science has created a consensus that the earth is getting warmer, and that human influence is to blame. Some even blame this change, known as global warming, for bouts of extreme weather including cyclonic storms, droughts, wildfires, and heat waves. These scientists (and much of the public) believe that our influence is the problem, as our emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses, the product of the usage of our fuels, are polluting the atmosphere and trapping energy from the sun within. However, a minority group, scientists and public skeptics alike, believe this warming trend is merely a coincidence with the earth’s naturally cyclical climate, and that the activists are overstating something they know little about. Many even agree that if the prospect of our influence were to be true, the effects are not at all that bad, unlike what it is hyped to be. Thus, global warming has become a debatable theory. Much like legislation that prevents schools from teaching evolution as anything more than a theory, now there are also laws that mandate that global warming be considered debatable, and to argue both sides of it (Jonas).

Today, some scientists are skeptical about the consensus on climate change. This can be compared to a situation in ancient times, where the majority of people believed the earth was flat, and only a minority dared to question that consensus. These challengers note that something not known is how much does the earth’s atmosphere respond to added carbon dioxide (McNider and Christy). This means that no one has any idea of what CO2 levels did to the earth’s climate before meaningful history. So, as many sci...

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...carbon emissions will benefit agricultural yields and benefit humanity (Climate Consensus’ Data Need a More Careful Look).

People need to stop and think for a minute, away from the unfounded claims of inevitable catastrophe and think in a well-educated manner about the actual implications ahead. There is too much uncertainty in how emissions actually have affected, and will affect the climate. Upon moderate investigation, weather events that have been blamed turn out to not have any correlation. Science doesn’t know everything of the impacts of carbon dioxide, nor can they ever know. Global climate change is such a popular topic, but it actually seems to turn out to be a lot of misinformed hype and opinion. The public needs to set aside the hype about global warming and consider the facts and uncertainties surrounding it, rather than just swimming with the current.