Global Warming: Fact or Fiction?

As scientists log increments in the average temperature of the earth, debate marches on about whether or not this warming is natural or caused by the activities of people. Some people who have studied global issues would say there was no such thing as global warming and it is all a big hoax. However, there are those who would say that humans have been negatively impacting the environment ever since the industrial revolution.

The best place to start is to look at what we have already been led to believe.

The Greenhouse effect is the relationship between the earth and the sun. The sun provides the earth with the heat and energy it needs and the earth releases back that energy into space.

The greenhouse effect comes into play as the gases in the earth trap that energy so that it cannot be released back into space therefore, warming the earths environment.

The greenhouse effect is a natural process and vital to our survival, without it, the earth would be cold.

Methane, carbon dioxide and water vapor are all gases that trap energy from the sun thereby enabling the warming of the earth.

That plants provide carbon dioxide (CO2) is a very well known fact but that they also remove carbon dioxide is a lesser known fact.

This is because these plants become fossil fuels like coal and oil when they die and get buried into the earth.

The carbon dioxide is removed from the air around it when coal and oil is burned.

Before cars filled our streets and machinery was invented 200 years ago, global warming was a non-issue.

The natural gases which came from the earth would trap energy. However, since the industrial revolution, large quantites of gases are being spewed into the atmosphere and getting trapped resulting in global warming.

Activists and researches cannot agree as to whether or not humans are causing global warming, but I think we can all agree that when something unnatural occurs, it affects the natural.

If we are producing more gases than what is known as natural, then you would expect that this would have an affect on our environment, but whether or not this affect is causing global warming, well, we will have to leave that down to the scientists.

It is said that in the last century the earth has warmed by 1%, although this is not a massive amount, it still could be an unnatural 1% which would have an effect on the earth’s climate.

The fact of the matter is that even the most knowledgable scientists in the world cannot understand everything about how the earth works. We can’t assume that we know it all because there may be unknown factors that have not been accounted for.

It is easy to conclude that humans are having some kind of impact on the environment in comparison to 200 years ago, but is this the cause of global warming? I don’t believe it is possible to say either way. But what we do know is that we need to do what we can to help the environment.

Whatever the real truth is, you can definitely make a difference by turning your home into a green house (pun intended) and build a renewable energy generator. We can help the earth this way, one household at a time.

Ralph Somers

Moderator of Ralph’s Green Energy Guide