Climate Change

During the last couple of days, controversy has risen in regard to whether or not mankind has contributed to the drastic climate change we have encountered in the last decades.

Like usual, let’s start with our brief history lesson:

Many attribute French physicist, Joseph Fourier, as the father of Climate Change studies. He was the first to study and describe the “greenhouse effect” in a paper delivered to Paris’s “Académie Royale des Sciences.”

In 1861, Irish physicist John Tyndall carries out one of the first studies on radiant heat and the absorption of radiation by gases and vapors, including carbon dioxide and water and its effects on the climate.

Between 1896 to 1958, studies from Svante Arrhenius, Guy Stewart Callendar, John Hopkins, Hans Suess and Roger Revelle, among others, spark the interest of many scientists about what is causing the rapid increase in temperatures in the world and the extinction of many species. The study of the “greenhouse effect” shapes up and we begin discovering what emissions are coming from man-made chemicals and the exploitation of fossil fuels are doing to our environment.

1970 marks the year the United States government brings together a patchwork of federal programs concerned with various aspects of the environment under the control of a single regulatory agency, creating what is now the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That same year, on April 22^nd, we celebrate “Earth Day” for the first time.

In 1979, the first World Climate Conference is held in Geneva and the World Climate Program is established.

In 1992, Brazil hosts The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. It takes place in Rio de Janeiro and is attended by 172 countries. It is the first unified effort to get to grips with global warming and leads to negotiations which result in the Kyoto Protocol^1,2. Industrialized countries agree to cut their emissions of six key greenhouse gases by an average of 5.2 percent. Under the terms of the agreement, each country—except developing countries—commits to a reduction by 2008—2012 compared to 1990 levels. Notably, the U.S. Congress votes 95 to 0 against any treaty which doesn’t commit developing countries to “meaningful” cuts in emissions.[1]

In 2001, newly elected U.S. President George W. Bush renounces the Kyoto Protocol, stating that it will damage the U.S. economy. The third IPCC report declares that the evidence of global warming over the previous 50 years being fueled by human activities is stronger than ever.[2] The United States and Australia become the only two industrialized countries that refuse to come to terms with the Kyoto Protocol. Australia signs the protocol in 2007[3]; the United States has yet to comply. To this day, all of the world’s industrialized countries have gone “green” with the exception of the United States (and some African and Middle Eastern countries that don’t have a significant impact on emissions)—you can check who they are on this map:

President Obama was to ratify the protocol in Kyoto or a successor to this protocol[4]^,[5] at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Copenhagen[6], hosted a few days ago. Several emails and studies have been leaked into the media from “notable” scientists who presume to be holding back information about the real impact mankind has contributed to this phenomenon. Sources like the NY Times[7], publish articles stating that many of the facts are presumed to be altered to help us believe that climate change was a normal course of Mother Nature, and that we as humans just have to deal with it. All these emails came out just a few days before the first time, after Kyoto, a sitting US President was set to attend a UN Climate Change Conference.

Reducing emissions to levels the Kyoto Protocol requires would make many companies reduce the amount of pollution they create and invest in technology to help process and clean their residue. American companies have been fighting this since the beginning because they will have to spend more money to modernize their technology. Although the EPA agrees with many of the international studies, it hasn’t increased to worldwide standards yet.[8] Although some states, like California, have adopted stricter climate standards within their state agencies[9], we haven’t nationwide.

Were these emails just coincidence? Do you think all of the other studies dating back to the 19^th century are made up? Do you think that our waste can simply be processed by Mother Nature with no consequences? Let us know what you think in our blog—we want to hear what you think about this. Remember, we at GetOutLB.com are working hard to make this a vehicle of self expression. Help us by commenting and letting us know what you think and want to discuss. Please send us your articles, opinions, comments and suggestions for this section to FactCheckGOLB@gmail.com.

BLOG: Climate Change

Cause and effect is the relationship between two things when one thing makes something else happen. For example, if we eat too much food and do not exercise, we gain weight. Eating food without exercising is the “cause” and weight gain is the “effect.” There may be multiple causes and multiple effects. This rule, if you think about it, applies to everything in our world. How can climate change be any different?

It is interesting to hear the debate by people who say that humankind has nothing to do with the increase of temperatures worldwide, that the pollution we generate doesn’t cause any harm to us or that the polar ice caps are melting because they were just overrated and we needed more water in our ocean.

It is sad to see that the United States wants to be the world leader, but when it comes to climate change and human rights, we still have a lot of work to do.

Come on, really, we have nothing to do with the destruction of our world?

What do you think?

[2] http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/fq/effects.html

[3] http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071203-AP-aus-kyoto.html

[4] http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/06/04/04greenwire-obama-weighing-appearance-at-copenhagen-climat-94106.html

[5] http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/obama-brings-us-in-from-the-cold-1026303.html

[6] http://en.cop15.dk/

[7] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/science/earth/21climate.html

[8] http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/fq/effects.html

[9] http://www.climateregistry.org/

1. Hipolito M. Wiseman says:

   February 8, 2010 at 11:06 am

   Another 5 star articles. I put this on Digg too. Thanks.