Global Warming
A primer

Global warming – is it something humankind has caused? Is it serious? Is it reversible? Is it affecting me? Does it even exist? These are all good questions, to be sure. And there are many more questions in the area of this mankind-threatening phenomenon than there are answers.

Does global warming exist? Naturally, the fact that this question exists causes people to wonder if global warming is one of those things that has just been blown out of proportion. If your opinion is still in question, here are some things you might want to know. Things that might help you come to an informed conclusion.

The Polar Bear is being considered for protection under the Endangered Species Act. According to National Geographic News, Polar Bears will be the first mammals to get protection under the act specifically due to global warming. It is global warming, you see, which is rapidly destroying their unique habitat.

NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies is headed up by James Hansen, who is known as that agency's top authority on earth's climate matters. In a recently published New York Times article, Hansen told reporters that he was being held back regarding his information on global warming. The article also stated ". . . Hansen said it would be irresponsible not to speak out now, particularly because NASA's mission statement includes the phrase to understand and protect our home planet." In the Washington Post, on February 11, 2006, an article noted Hansen's comments on the NOAA censorship of his findings by saying "It seems more like Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union than the United States." Hansen added that NOAA officials said they have this policy solely for the protection of their scientists "if you buy that one, please see me at the break, because there's a bridge down the street I'd like to sell you."

Recently, as the Greenland ice shelf slipped again, scientists and concerned groups were able to get a small part of their message to the public. The ice shelf segment is falling into the ocean at a rate almost double that of just ten years ago. Climatologists warned of ocean water levels rising over ten meters – globally, as well as other climate disasters. Global warming, it should be noted, will not just cause the immediate effects of flooding. Katrina showed us – on a very small scale – the ancillary effects of flooding including disease, starvation, and a critical lack of drinking water.

"Feedback loops" are a great part of the global warming threat. A feedback loop occurs when the escalating temperature on Earth alters the environment in ways that actually create even more heat, thereby causing more global warming. And according to scientists who are working in the Arctic, feedback loops are already well underway, and represent the greatest threat to humanity through global warming.

As the Arctic Ocean ice and snow melts back, less highly reflective white areas exist to bounce the sun's rays back into space. Instead, the darker water areas absorb light, and thus the water heats up, which causes more ice to melt, and so on. In just the past thirty years alone, over a third of the Arctic summer sea ice has utterly disappeared.

A period of global warming in earth's history is known as the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). This has been the area of study for University of California Professor James Zachos. During the PETM earth's surface temperatures jumped by 9°F. This inordinate temperature rise was fueled by a massive release of carbon dioxide and methane into the planet's atmosphere. Professor Zachos determined that about 4.5 trillion tons of carbon entered the atmosphere over a period of 10,000 years. At our current rates, this is the same amount that will be created and released into the atmosphere by the burning fossil fuels during the next 300 years. This means that greenhouse gases are being released about 30 times faster than the rate of emissions that triggered a period of extreme global warming in the earth's past.

What's in this article is merely the tip of the iceberg – no pun intended. You could spend all day every day studying the rapidly growing research and opinions on this important topic. To see more, and get a view from the other side of the aisle as well, try these links:

http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/default.asp
This will give you loads of data on global warming.

http://www.globalwarming.org/
This link is by an organization called "The Cooler Heads." The position of this group is that global warming is not as it appears to be. NOTE: The Cooler Heads Coalition was formed on May 6, 1997 under the auspices of the National Consumer Coalition out of concern that the American people were not being informed about the economic impact of proposals to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Nor was the American public being provided with balanced information about the science of global warming. Myron Ebell, director of global warming and international environmental policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, is the Cooler Heads group leader.

http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/kids/
This site is for kids, and gives youngsters a presentation on global warming issues that they can understand and relate to.