Wolf 1

Rachel D. Wolf

Professor Heather Johnson-Taylor

English 1201

22 June 2019

Global Warming – Human Created or Naturally Occuring?

I can vividly remember my middle school principal coming over the loudspeaker,

a sharp crackle of static always came as a prelude to the announcement itself. We were to

gather in the auditorium to watch a film that afternoon in place of our usual classwork.

As a middle school student, any time away from the traditional classroom setting is a

welcome breath of fresh air, but I wouldn’t know until a couple of hours later what a

wake up call the film that was selected for us to watch would truly be.

An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s 2006 documentary detailing the tangibility of

climate change, rocked my entire world on that day. I rode the bus home that afternoon

without my headphones in, a seemingly trivial detail that I recall well. I was so consumed

by my own thoughts after viewing the film that I didn’t want even my truest love, music,

to interrupt my processing of what I’d just seen. I went home to my parents and we had

our first (of what would wind up being many) serious talk about politics, our

environment, and what it means to be a “good” person on a larger scale. The argument

surrounding global warming and climate change is a subject that I look back fondly on as

my introduction into what became a lifelong passion for the environment, a keen interest

in observing politics, and a genuine desire to explore conservation efforts.

I feel strongly about the subject of climate change for several pertinent reasons.

The prospect of our climate changing irreparably is a concept that affects every single
 Wolf 2

person living on this planet. Climate change does not discriminate against who it will

target, making awareness on it so extremely important. Prior to doing research for this

assignment, I think that the answer to my main question is that climate change is indeed

man-made, and not a product of naturally occurring weather systems. I believe strongly

that the believer’s stance on this topic is one that should be widely recognized and

accepted as fact. I fear for the state of our children and our grandchildren’s worlds if our

current generations don’t get on their feet and make their voices heard – and those two

generations I mentioned would only be looking at the short term of what is possible. I

would say that I know more than an average person off of the street about the climate

change, but I look forward to reviewing some newer numbers and projections than what I

have likely been last to see.

Following up on my last statement, there are a lot of figures concerning trending

carbon dioxide levels, the resulting global temperature rise, warming and rising oceans,

the diminishing ice sheets, among other topics that need to be looked into and condensed

into a reader friendly way for me to shed light on the difference between natural weather

patterns and the significance of the trends that have led to global warming. I am not

familiar with those numbers off of the top of my head, and know that I will run into more

subject matter revolving around my topic that will interest me and support my question

that I am not even aware of yet! I look forward to using NASA recommended

information to start with, and utilizing the databases for research that Sinclair and this

section have offered access to. On this topic, my most desired research question to

answer is:

“Is global warming nature’s cycle, or is it a human-created phenomenon?”