Hot topic: global warming
Global warming blown out of proportion

By Sarah Abbott
South Charleston High School

It amuses me that although we don’t entirely trust weathermen for tomorrow’s forecast, we’ll jump up and start running around in pointless circles when they tell us what the weather will be like in 50 years.

Yes, I’m talking about global warming. It’s on the news; it’s in our science books — it’s everywhere.

We’ve all heard about global warming for as long as we can remember. But really, what’s so bad about warmer weather? And what if it isn’t a drastic pollution of the atmosphere, but a normal climate change?

I never questioned global warming until this summer, when a friend recommended Michael Crichton’s book “State of Fear” to me. Read merely as fiction, it’s a decent action book. However, one of the underlying points of it is that global warming it is not human caused, and the author goes into surprising detail about the subject. I also had a science teacher last semester who was very knowledgeable about the topic, and our class once had a major debate on the topic.

I’ve come to believe that global warming is not serious. It’s a trend. Thirty years ago, scientists were scared of a temperature drop called “global cooling.” Coincidence?

During the medieval era, temperatures were hotter. Then, in 1680, they dipped back down in a period called the “Little Ice Age.” Temperatures have gradually increased ever since.

This shows that climate changes are normal. They’re nothing to be incredibly worried about. The polar bears and penguins will adapt because that’s what they are meant to do. They’ve survived before, and they’ll survive now.

Human activity may have increased over the centuries, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting the atmosphere as much as scientists say. They tell us to turn away from mass-produced, energy-burning things, which may be helpful in its fundamental purpose but is flawed in theory.

According to scientists’ reasoning, the production of larger amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, would make the atmosphere warmer. But that’s not logical. Research has shown that more carbon dioxide actually results in cooler temperatures, such as in the 1970s, during a period called the “post-war economic boom,” when greater amounts of carbon dioxide were produced due to new methods of industrial mass production.

When all is said and done (and currently it seems like a lot more is being said than done), global warming isn’t a big deal. It may even be nonexistent.

Sure, it’s a good idea to conserve fossil fuels, and, sure, we should be careful of our planet’s resources. But we shouldn’t be blindfolded to the fact that the reason we need to do this isn’t because of global warming.

Global warming is usually misguided propaganda, led in large part by politicians — not scientists — like Al Gore. Shouldn’t this tell everyone the real reason behind the promotion of the global warming theory?

It’s not to swoop in heroically and save the planet from magically blowing up one day. It’s so that we’re dependent on the thousands of people and billions of dollars going into global warming research.

Besides, I haven’t seen any global warming this winter. I think I’ve seen more hail and snow in the past few months than I can remember in most of my life. And what’s so bad about the weather being a few degrees warmer? It’s natural, so kick back and enjoy it instead of giving yourself a heart attack about it.

Don’t just listen to me, though. Look at the facts and decide for yourself. You shouldn’t let anyone form your beliefs for you - especially not politicians or the media.