Analysis

There are so many arguments centered around global warming that come from all angles of the spectrum. I try to look at the different spectrums of arguments against global warming and going green. “Polls over the past five years have shown that 40% of people in Britain resolutely refuse to accept that our emissions are changing the climate. In the US it is over 50%.” This is a stunning statistic to me. I would hate to be caught up in a state of confusion on the issue of global warming. Though the evidence outweighs the untruths, companies that have a high impact on the Earth and climate continue to synthesize these false arguments to keep their businesses running and costs lower. These businesses hire scientists to say that global warming isn’t real so they can still have some confused individuals spreading the word that it’s not. Many religious groups seem to be caught up in the issue. Since conservatives generally don’t believe in global warming, religious groups tend not to as well. This is not to say though that all religious groups have the same beliefs on the issue.

It seems like a main argument in the battle against going green deals with the fact that going green is expensive. Though getting started with going green may seem expensive at first, you can save a lot of money in the long run. An example is changing all the light bulbs in your house to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). Though they do contain mercury, it is such a small amount that it cannot hurt you if it breaks. CFLs can save you a lot of money on your energy bill. Businesses seem to take the pledge to go green now a days because it’s “trendy.” In the end though, they find that it turns out to be a cost efficient turn. My point is that there IS a point to going green . I read an argument recently about colleges with us young, hip students being radical in this idea of going green. They gave an example of taking away trays in college cafeterias to conserve water. As a college student myself, I have had no problems with my school going trayless.

Our world is affected by global warming. In the 1800’s, Earth’s global temperature was 13.6ºC. Earth’s temperature rose to 14.5ºC by 2007. This + 0.9º difference may not seem like a lot, but it is. This is evidence of global warming. Not only is temperature changing, but other parts of our climate are changing as well. These changes cause and will continue to cause “human destruction.” Through this blog, I’ve already discovered that contrary to what I was taught in school, water vapor is counted as a large part of greenhouse gas emissions, in fact, it is the largest.

Politically speaking, President Obama is working on creating new jobs that deal with the global warming/going green field. Also, he plans to implement a cap and trade program, which can yield both positive and negative results. With US carbon production expected to increase by forty percent, we need a program that actually works to reduce carbon emissions. Cap and trade sounds wonderful in theory, but it can be argued that with companies having to buy permits for more emissions, prices will go up for certain products, such as a twelve cents per gallon increase in gas prices. With the economy in the condition it is, many people simply cannot afford the increases, so the cap and trade plan does not seem feasible. United States legislature is making strides in the fight against global warming. The American Clean Energy and Security Act was passed in the House of Representatives in June. The bill includes sections on renewable electricity standards, emission cuts, emission permits, and investments in emission technology just to name a few things.