Debunking The Myth Of Global Warming
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Debunking the Myth of Global Warming
At various times since WW II warnings were sounded about the Earth entering another ice age. As a matter of fact, until the mid-seventies, average Northern Hemisphere temperatures actually went down, but by less than one degree Celsius ("Global Warming Treaty" 1-2). In the seventies, a number of scientists took this bit of data and predicted dire consequences for the Earth. The popular press picked up on this, and even Science magazine stated in 1975 "the approach of a full-blown 100,000-year ice age [was] a real possibility" (Shackleton 28). Although most Americans believe that humans cause global warming, there are many scientists who believe global warming is only a natural cycle.
Since the 1970's, temperatures have gone up again, and the tiny decrease in temperatures since WW II has now been replaced with an equally tiny increase in nighttime global temperatures. Nighttime global temperatures have risen about 0.065 degrees Celsius, according to measurements by Tiros II, a temperature measuring satellite ("Instant" 5). So what happens? The doom and gloom about another ice age is replaced with the doom and gloom about global warming. What people are seeing now and what people were seeing then are merely natural variations in temperatures around the globe. They are due to natural variations in all kinds of variables, including solar flares. Greenhouse gases allow incoming solar radiation to pass through the Earth's atmosphere, but prevent most of the outgoing infrared radiation from the surface and lower atmosphere from escaping into outer space. Many gases exhibit such “greenhouse” properties, including those that occur naturally in the atmosphere, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. This process occurs naturally and has kept the Earth's temperature about 60 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it would otherwise be. Current life on Earth could not be sust...