Global Warming Is a Serious Threat
Source Database: Opposing Viewpoints Digests: The Environment
Table of Contents: Further Readings | Source Citation
In his 1999 State of the Union address, U.S. president Bill Clinton stated, "Our most fateful new challenge is
the threat of global warming."1 Indeed, in the past two decades global warming has emerged as one of
the most pressing environmental issues confronting mankind. While a few skeptics continue to question the
severity--or even the existence--of human-induced atmospheric warming, the consensus among credible
scientists is that the phenomenon is occurring and is cause for concern. As stated by Ross Gelbspan, a
long-time journalist and author of The Heat Is On, a book on global warming,
For all but a small, noisy claque of doubters, the global-warming debate has long been settled. The
consensus: It's happening; the consequences will be stark; the world better start moving quickly to prevent
the loss of species and land, an increase in severe and dangerous weather, damage to the food supply and
the spread of disease.2
The Science of Global Warming
To understand the debate over global warming, it is important to understand the scientific concept known
as the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon involving the interaction of the
sun's energy with atmospheric gases. After the sun's energy, or solar radiation, enters the atmosphere, the
earth absorbs most of it while the rest is reflected back into space. Atmospheric gases, known as
greenhouse gases, absorb a portion of this reflected energy. The energy trapped by these gases warms the
planet's surface, creating the greenhouse effect. This natural process keeps Earth's atmosphere warm
enough to support life. However, as the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increases, so too
does the amount of heat they absorb: Global warming is the result.
The atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased dramatically in the past century.
Concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary greenhouse gas, have increased 30 percent, according
to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of about 2,000 scientists from 116
countries assembled to address the problem of climate change. Concentrations of the other main culprits,
methane and nitrous oxide, have risen 145 percent and 15 percent, respectively. At the same time, the
average atmospheric temperature has also risen between 0.3 and 0.6 degrees Celsius. Most scientists
agree that human activity is the cause of the rise in greenhouse gases, which are in turn responsible for
global warming. Thus, in its definitive 1995 report, the IPCC concluded, "The balance of evidence suggests
that there is a discernible human influence on global climate." 3
Greenhouse gases are produced by various human activities. The United States is responsible for about 20
percent of such gases. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), CO 2, which results
primarily from the combustion of fossil fuels in the generation of electric power, accounts for 85 percent of
these gases. The Natural Resources Defense Council reports that exhaust from cars accounts for about
one-fourth of the greenhouse gases emitted in the United States. Agricultural practices, landfills, and other
activities produce methane, the second largest contributor to greenhouse gases. Other greenhouse gases
are produced by industrial practices such as dry cleaning, chemical production, foam manufacturing, and
aluminum smelting.
The Destruction of Rain Forests Worsens the
Problem
In addition to industrial activities and automobiles, deforestation also contributes to global warming.
Destruction of the rain forests releases CO2 directly into the atmosphere. As the Rainforest Action Network
(RAN) explains,
Rainforests play a critical role in the atmosphere in part because they hold vast reserves of carbon in their
vegetation. When rainforests are burned, or the trees are cut and left to decay, the carbon is released into
the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2). This is the second largest factor contributing to the greenhouse
effect.4
RAN estimates that deforestation is responsible for 23 to 30 percent of global atmospheric CO 2 produced
annually.
Destruction of the forests also contributes to global warming by reducing the planet's ability to process
carbon. Rain forests are often referred to as carbon sinks because they absorb atmospheric carbon, thereby
keeping the atmospheric temperature from rising. Reducing the amount of forested land reduces the amount
of carbon absorbed in this way. RAN estimates that the world's forests are disappearing at a rate of 2.4
acres per second, severely compromising the planet's capacity to keep atmospheric warming in check.
Global Warming Skeptics
As Ross Gelbspan suggests, there remains a "claque of doubters" who maintain that global warming is not
happening or at least is not a serious problem. These skeptics, represented by groups such as the
Competitive Enterprise Institute and the George C. Marshall Institute, produce mounds of reports and fact
sheets purporting to disprove the theory of global warming and opposing efforts to address the problem by
regulating CO2 emissions.
The coal and oil industries are the driving forces behind efforts to downplay the global warming problem
since any real effort to reduce CO2 emissions must involve a reduction in our use of coal, gasoline, and oil.
As Ross Gelbspan explains, the oil and coal industries have used their enormous power to intentionally
mislead the public about global warming:
The reason most Americans don't know what is happening to the climate is that the oil and coal industries
have spent millions of dollars to persuade them that global warming isn't happening.
Together, oil and coal constitute the biggest single industry in history. Big oil alone does well over a trillion
dollars a year in business. Coal and oil products are used by every home, every car, every factory, and
every building in most countries of the world. Moreover, the invisible and well-funded public relations
apparatus of the oil and coal lobby reaches many, many minds.
Denying global warming is a clever strategy--but its shortsightedness carries the seeds of massive
destruction.5
The consensus in the scientific community is that the problem exists and is caused primarily by CO 2
emissions. This conclusion was echoed in 1999 by the Ecologist magazine, which declared, "Evidence of
human impact upon the Earth's climate is now irrefutable. We have emitted enough greenhouse gases into
the atmosphere to commit the climate to change."6
Predictions of Warming and Its Effects
The IPCC estimates that, by 2100, the atmosphere will warm between 1 and 3.5 degrees Celsius. But even
a slight increase could have a tremendous impact. For years, scientists have been predicting that global
warming would cause a variety of problems for planet Earth, including an increase in extreme weather
events such as floods, storms, heat waves, or droughts; melting of glaciers and ice caps; rising sea levels;
and changes in ocean currents. In recent years scientists have seen evidence that these problems are
already occurring.
The average ocean temperature has increased along with the atmosphere. Because water expands as it
warms, sea levels have risen between ten and twenty-five centimeters in the past 100 years. This trend will
likely continue and will be compounded by a related problem--the melting of polar ice caps and glaciers. As
Frederik Pohl, author of Our Angry Earth, reports, this process is already underway: "Big chunks of the
Antarctic ice cap are breaking off and floating away; every major glacier in the Northern Hemisphere is
retreating; the icy summits of the Andes in South America are disappearing." 7 The IPCC predicts that the
seas will rise another fifteen to ninety-five centimeters by 2100. The consequences of even a small rise
could be dramatic. As Pohl states, "There's an awful lot of real estate now used by humans that lies only a
foot or less above sea level; a good bit of that will be flooded." 8
Extreme Weather
Various climatic conditions and events that have occurred in recent years provide more proof that global
warming is taking place. The fourteen hottest years on record have occurred after 1980, and the 1990s
were the hottest decade of the millenium. The number of "extreme precipitation events"-- more than two
inches of rain in a twenty-four-hour period-- has increased 20 percent since 1900. In Europe, spring arrives
six days earlier and ends five days later than it did in the 1960s.
The severity of the El Niño event of 1997-1998 may have been the result of global warming. El Niño, a
warming in the eastern Pacific Ocean, recurs every three to eight years, resulting in various extreme
weather conditions worldwide. The El Niño of 1997-1998 was the warmest ever, causing catastrophes all
over the world--mudslides in California, floods in Burma, drought and fires in Indonesia, and a major
hurricane in Mexico that killed four hundred people. Stephen Beers of E magazine concludes, "If climate
experts are correct, then the latest El Niño effects may only be a taste of what's to come when global
warming unleashes its full disruptive power."9
To Protect Future Generations
Vice President Al Gore eloquently expressed the importance of controlling global warming in July 1998 in
response to the natural disasters that plagued the country that year:
Disasters around the country ... show just how vulnerable we are to extreme weather. That is why we must
continue to develop commonsense strategies to protect future generations from the grave risks of climate
change. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to listen to what the scientists tell us about global
climate change, to speak out forcefully, and to act decisively.10