Global Warming vs. Caring for the Environment

Global warming is a real issue, Earth's average temperature is getting warmer. This is caused by several factors.

• Solar activity


• Urbanization


• Deforestation


• Pollution


• Green House Gases

Man contributes to 4 of these 5.

Urbanization creates "heat bubbles". This effect can also lead to suspect data readings as land based temperature sensors tend to be located near urban centers the average temperature will always be warmer. The larger the area and the more concrete and buildings the more skewed the reading can be. Plus that also means more electricity for the infrastructure and the concentration of pollutants is generally more than the local environment, with reduced natural resources, such as trees and vegetation, can bear.

Deforestation is reducing the earth's natural cooling mechanism, as well as contributing to massive pollution due to burning huge expanses of forest every year. And since forests remove not just CO2 but also serve to help filter particulates form the air the effect is multiplied. Plus bare ground heats faster and retains the heat longer than trees.

Pollution is perhaps man's worse contribution to the environment. Snow contaminated with particulates falls onto permanent snow caps, but since that snow is not pure white it no longer reflects the majority of the sun's energy but absorbs it, making that snow melt faster. The particulates continue to gather on the snow cap absorbing heat continuing the process. Particulates, along with VOC's and ozone combine to form smog. Air pollution contributes to respiratory distress and negatively impacts the quality of life of many people. Particulates also absorb heat in the atmosphere allowing the air to heat up leading to the chemical reactions that cause haze and smog. Nitrous oxide and ozone also contribute to respiratory problems for millions of people.

Green house gases are a wide variety of gases that all contribute to a theory called the green house effect. Water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and groups of fluorocarbon containing gases make up the bulk of green house gases. For millions of years water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other gases formed the natural green house effect that allowed life as we know it to flourish on Earth. Without this atmospheric phenomenon the average temperature would be about 40 degrees F.

The problem is in determining how each of the 5 major factors I've listed have worked together to create the problem we are now experiencing. The biggest contribution to the increase in earth's temperature is due to solar activity. The rise in temperatures of our neighbors in the solar system bears testament to that fact. But the other four factors also play a role in warming the environment.

And here lies the crux of the problem. Developing countries and the UN have said that they will not address urbanization, deforestation or pollution as they will pose impediments to the developing nations and give an unfair advantage to the nations that developed their economies prior to the recognition that those practices on a global scale are bad. So the US will not address 3 of the 5 issues, 4 of the 5 since they cannot do anything about solar activity.

That means the UN has to focus on green house gases. Of the green house gases they can do little about the major contributor, water vapor, so the IPCC doesn’t list it as a green house gas. They don’t want to address methane, the next worse contributor, because while already developed nations can address the primary sources of methane (farms and landfills) developing nations do not want to direct any resources to pollution control. That leaves nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and the fluorocarbons. Like CO2, NO2 is primarily formed as a byproduct of combustion, especially of fossil fuels. Nitrous oxide is associated more with air pollution than global warming so to avoid muddying the waters of global warming vs. air pollution they don’t address it except as tail pipe emission from cars although that is a negligible source on modern vehicles.

That leaves the UN with little choice than to declare carbon dioxide as the main cause of global warming. And in doing so they arranged a group of scientists to validate faulty science and declared the debate over.

Unfortunately for the UN there are a huge number of respected scientists (and rational thinking people) that have declared the debate far from over. They have pointed out that carbon dioxide may be one piece of the puzzle but it not the defining issue.

As long as China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Malaysia and other countries spew forth so much pollution their countries are enveloped in a brown haze that is often visible from space the issue of global warming is moot as far as I am concerned. The potential effects of air pollution, particulates and gases, are a much more serious threat to the health of the globe and it’s inhabitants than a random and meaningless carbon dioxide theory that is based more on economics than science.