Global warming. It does exist. It doesn’t exist. The endless discussion continues on. According to the website for Live Science, global warming is the “gradual increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere and its oceans, a change that is believed to be permanently changing the Earth’s climate.”

There is no question that the Earth’s climate has progressively changed through the years, but how much exactly? Is it at a level where our planet’s inhabitants should be concerned? Are we the people to blame? If you look at the facts that NASA has put out, there is an overwhelming amount of facts supporting global warming as something that is currently happening and should be watched. In fact, 97% of climate scientists agree that global warming is a result of human activity. In the last 1,300 years the warming of the Earth has sped up at a greater rate. This has been confirmed through technological means such as satellites to capture images from above the Earth as it continues to orbit. The way scientists have considered global warming to work is through the greenhouse effect. When the rays from the sun hit the Earth’s atmosphere, a portion of the heat from the sunlight is reflected back into space, while the remaining heat is soaked by greenhouse gases made up of methane and carbon dioxide, which are gases already present in our atmosphere. The problem is these gases have been increasingly lingering in the air since the Industrial Revolution. If these gases are spreading at a greater amount that means that the more the sun shines, the increase in the amount of heat that will get caught in our sphere, thereby raising the overall temperature of the planet. How is this the result of humans, you ask? The answer is that we release greenhouse gases through activities including driving cars, using an excessive amount of electricity which we receive through power plants, landfills, and so forth. By reducing any of these activities is meant to show a reduction in what has been an increase in heat because of the greenhouse gases spreading.

On the surface, this seems to be a logical explanation that the Earth’s temperature is in fact heating up, however many would disagree. While there is no question that the Earth warms in some way, there is conflict as to how much and what is the cause. A study done by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences came out stating that if you look at the leaves on plants, the amount of carbon dioxide being absorbed has been underreported by 16% meaning there has been over reporting of just how much greenhouse gases still pollute the air. So while there is warming that is occurring, the preventative measures to combat the problem have been wildly over exaggerated and are unnecessary costs as the issue isn’t as big as it seems to be portrayed. Furthermore, John Coleman of The Weather Channel has high doubts that global warming is a true event. He claims that heat waves are decreasing, polar ice and polar bears are on the rise and the amount of storms we see has remained consistent. In fact, there are reports that polar ice has increased by 50% since 2012. But how credible can this guy be? The views gathered are from findings made by the NIPCC (Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change). In these findings, the NIPCC makes the bold statement that there has been no such warming in the last 18 years.

Much concern has also been expressed about the accuracy of models showing the changes in climate. Roy Spencer, who once worked as a scientist for NASA, decided to take 90 climate models and view the results of their similarities. These models serve the purpose of showing surface temperature as well as satellite temperature. He said that these models have failed to do their job and that “more than 95 percent of the models have over-forecast the warming trend since 1979, whether we use their own surface temperature dataset (HadCRUT4), or our satellite dataset of lower tropospheric temperatures (UAH).”

Sources: 

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2013/12/17/cryosat-satellite%20-findings-arctic-ice-increase/

http://www.express.co.uk/news/clarifications-corrections/526191/Climate-change-is-a-lie-global-warming-not-real-claims-weather-channel-founder

http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/522307/Climate-Change-Doubts-Study-Shows-Overestimate-Forecast-Weather

http://www.iop.org/news/13/jul/page_60512.html

http://www.livescience.com/topics/global-warming/

http://nsunews.nova.edu/global-warming-work/

http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2015/06/07/what-does-global-warming-mean/

http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2014/02/18/5-scientific-reasons-that-global-warming-isnt-happening-n1796423/page/full