Climate Change is Here
Over the last 50 years, scientists have compiled research and data that have concluded that the global temperature is rising. The question that remains is whether "Global Climate Change" is caused by nature or by man. Some believe that human emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are to blame and that they are causing the temperatures to rise. Others feel that there is no human influence and it is part of a natural trend. If the research shows that temperatures are rising at a rate not observed before, it is our obligation to stop turning our backs to the subject and acknowledge that is happening. Only this way can we can begin to reverse it before we reach the point of no return.
The relationship between atmospheric CO2 levels and temperature is one that only further proves the influence we have over it. In his book, "An Inconvenient Truth", former Vice President Al Gore reveals that by using ice cores from Antarctica, scientists are able to look up to 650,000 years into the past.
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English: Al Gore's Hearing on Global Warming
English: Al Gore's speech on Global Warming at the...When examining these cores, they have the ability to measure the CO2 in the air year by year using microscopic pockets of air that were trapped in the ice and measuring their CO2 content. When this data is taken and plotted on a chart showing a year by year progression of CO2 levels and is compared with a temperature graph for the last 650,000 years, it shows that the two line up almost perfectly. If it can be accepted that CO2 levels and temperature influence each other, then the next logical step is to realize that if the CO2 content in the atmosphere increases because of human emissions, then the temperature will rise as well (Gore 43-47).
Murray Weidenbaum's article in...