Running head: IS GLOBAL WARMING REAL?

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Is Global Warming Real?

Bonifacio, John Paulo D.

Far Eastern University – Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts

Abstract:

The debate between scientists and sceptics over global warming created a lot of noise over

the past years. Pros believe that it is true due to the effects of human activity, while cons

believe that there are no accuracy and correlation in most data. With contradicting beliefs,

arguments and counter arguments have emerged to prove their stand. Some believe that

global warming is a phenomenon that is already occurring, and some believe that it is a hoax.

Those who stand that it is real, the reason being for the heating of our planet is the infamous

greenhouse effect that is booted by human consumption. On the other hand, sceptics say that

climate models that predicts events are still unreliable, and that greenhouse gas emissions

has a weak relationship with global warming.

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I. Introduction.

In the past years, the changes in the planet’s temperature has been a source of debate.

This issue invites more research to support the existence of global warming, and as well as

scepticisms that question it. According to ProCon.Org (2019), the two sides of the debate is

that some believe that, as a direct result of human activity, there is an increase to the planet’s

temperature but, on the other hand, some believe that such human-generated emissions are

too small to create substantial changes to the planet and that climate models are inaccurate..

With that said, my stand is that I do believe that global warming is real. This topic is

significant because, for years, the debate about global warming has been a topic of most

scientists primarily because, according to Shaftel (2019), this could affect humanity in its

entirety, which is why it is continually given attention, to know whether it is real, how will it

change our lives, and how can we avoid it.

Definition of Terms

Global Warming is the event wherein greenhouse gases amass in the atmosphere and

absorb solar radiation and sunlight that recoiled from the surface of the earth (MacMillan,

2016).

Greenhouse gases are gases that has the ability to absorb infrared radiation, and

reradiate it, which comes from the Earth’s surface (Mann, n.d.).

Greenhouse effect is a natural process that warms up the surface of the earth by

absorbing the sun’s energy, and brings the planet’s temperature at around 33 degrees Celsius

which makes it habitable for life to exist (Manual, 2018).

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Climate Models, according to Harper (2018), are long term analytical method used to

predict average climate conditions that will occur over time. These models help scientists

test hypothesises and draw conclusions regarding climate systems.

Review of Related Literature

The Earth's climate has changed throughout history, and for the past centuries,

atmospheric carbon dioxide are continually beating all-time high records (Shaftel, 2019).

According to WWF (2019), such is true because of drastic contributions done by human

activities in order to produce and meet the supply and demand of all human beings, some of

these are burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and even farming.

Claims about the topic are validated by a climate model, since this issue would only be

studied at it goes on through time, scientists use these models to predict the changes the

planet would experience in the next years (Cosineau, 2017). However, a lot of sceptics doubt

that these models are accurate. According to Soon (2000), everything that occurs in our

climate today, good or bad, is not alone the response of Earth to global warming. It could be

that these are just environmental consequences caused by human activity.

II. Argument.

One of the most contributing factor that proves global warming is the effect of man-

made activity. The link between global warming and human mishaps is proven by the so-

called greenhouse effect. According to Shahzad (2015), the phenomenon is real due to the

observable increase in the planet's temperature that is boosted by our burning of fossil fuels,

deforestation, and even our consumption of food. Such activities increases greenhouse gases
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such as carbon dioxide which helps in absorbing and trap heat in our planet. In line with this,

in the past years, statistics from NASA show drastic increase of carbon dioxide in our

atmosphere which is caused by natural and man-made activities happening simultaneously

(Shaftel, 2019).

The strongest evidence that global warming is real resides within our oceans, said

Shankman & Horn (2017) since the earth’s surface is 71% water. According to them, the rise

in global temperatures does not only happen in the air, but majority is actually in our vast

waters because more than 90% of the excess heat produced by the greenhouse effect is

absorbed by it. Since 1992, the rate of the heating of our oceans doubled, thus, producing

warm vapors which results to hotter wind temperatures (Shankman & Horn, 2017).

Therefore, if greenhouse gases magnifies the greenhouse effect in a way that it causes

drastic temperature changes and that humans continue to produce such emissions on a high

rate, then we can say that the warming of the planet is real.

III. Counter Argument.

The climate models used today are just in their infancy state (Baliunas, 2000). Davies

(2018) stated that there are deficiencies to the current climate studies due to the lack of

general calculations that depicts the true consequences of interacting climate components,

and mismatches between global warming observations and models. Such occurrence created

the confusion in the scientific community which was caused by various biases in model

interpretation and in the observations (Lewandowsky, Risbey, & Rahmstrof, 2018).

As for the carbon emissions, according to ProCon.Org (2019), a study was conducted

about the earth’s climate 400 million years ago, the results show that with carbon levels 5
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time higher than it is today, an intense event of glaciation happened, and not warming. Also,

it stated that there are no direct causal relationship, though sometimes correlated, between

CO2 and global warming.

Therefore, with climate model inconsistencies, discrepancies could significantly

change our understanding of global warming. It is not the planet's response, but the

consequences of man-made actions. Also, if the greenhouse emissions does not have

undeviating relationship with the increase of temperatures, then we can say that global

warming is not real because it debunks the greenhouse effect.

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IV. References.

Baliunas, S. (2000). The Issue of Model Validation. Retrieved from

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2000ESASP.463..243S

Cousineau, L. (2017). Climate Model. Retrieved from https://www.climate-change-

guide.com/climate-model-definition.html

Harper, L. (2018). What Are Climate Models And How Accurate Are They?. Retrieved

from https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2018/05/18/climate-models-accuracy/

Lewandowsky, S., Rahmstrof, S., & Risbey, J. (2018). The 'Pause' in Global Warming in

Historical Context: Comparing Models to Observations. Retrieved from

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aaf372/meta

MacMillan, A. (2016). Global Warming 101. Retrieved from

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/global-warming-101

Mann, M. E. (n.d.). Greenhouse Gas. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/science/greenhouse-gas

Manual, B. (2018). What Is the Greenhouse Effect?. Retrieved from

https://www.livescience.com/37743-greenhouse-effect.html

ProCon.Org (2019). Is Human Activity Primarily Responsible for Global Climate Change?.

Retrieved from https://climatechange.procon.org/

Shaftel, H. (2000). Global Climate Change. Retrieved from

https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/
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Shahzad, U. (2015). Global Warming: Cause, Effects and Solutions. Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316691239_Global_Warming_Cause

s_Effects_and_Solutions?fbclid=IwAR1rvo7FtWbVABCdzvHOS7XI1vzWinMu9R1

a1o6ptWwqrK4Z_nFkIsxbY2M

Shankman, S. & Horn, P. (2017). The Most Powerful Evidence Climate Scientists Have of

Global Warming. Retrieved from

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03102017/infographic-ocean-heat-

powerful-climate-change-evidence-global-warming

Soon, W. (2000). Calculating the Climactic Impacts of Increased CO2. Retrieved from

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2000ESASP.463..243S

World Wide Fund. (2018). Causes of Global Warming. Retrieved from

https://www.wwf.org.au/what-we-do/climate/causes-of-global-

warming#gs.14fnvm
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Critique of Argument

Stated in the argument, carbon dioxide plays a big role on boosting the greenhouse

effect in the planet. On the contrary, a study finds that carbon dioxide does not primarily

boost global warming. Only 0.5% of 11,944 studies explicitly said that anthropogenic

activities are the main reason for global warming (ProCon.Org, 2019). Also, according to

Wood (2017), the earth has more trees now than it did 35 years ago. This proves that the

greenhouse gas emission of the planet is being negated, naturally, as it should be. On top of

this, water vapor from the ocean is not an indicator of global warming rather, it is a mean of

naturally regulating the earth’s temperature (Shaftel, 2019).

If this is the case, then global warming is not real. This means that the planet is just

undergoing the natural greenhouse effect process. The warming that is happening is part of

this process, and anthropogenic contributions are just a small part of the total emission of

the planet. Therefore, we can say that global warming is not real because the ‘phenomenon’

is part of the natural system of earth and that humans do not contribute as much as many

have thought.

Critique of Counter Argument

Stated in the counter argument, climate models that predict the climatic changes in

the future are inaccurate. For Hausfather (2017), this is not the case. He stated that climate

models have been helpful for us to understand climate problems and that climate models,

even in their earliest years, are spot on without technological assistance. As for the

relationship of carbon dioxide emissions and the planet’s temperature, there is an obvious

correlation (Lallanila, 2018). She stated that anthropogenic contribution of greenhouse

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gases has changed the climate since the dawn of the industrial revolution and the top leading

cause is carbon dioxide emissions followed by deforestation which is responsible for the 6%

of the global emission, and 17% for the latter.

Therefore, since climate models are proven to have accuracy, we can say that global

warming is real because these models predicted so. The warming of the planet, as expected

by these models, is here. Also, we can conclude that the phenomenon is real due to

anthropogenic influences which is also backed up by climate models as these show the

relationship of greenhouse gases, natural and man-made, to the greenhouse effect.

Conclusion

For the past years, global warming’s existence has been questioned. Skeptics

have questioned how maybe this is just a part of a natural process, an event wherein we

experience the climate extremities similar of that of the ice age but, my stand is that global

warming is real. We experience the rise of temperature because of anthropogenic and

natural influences combined. The greenhouse effect is a natural process. If disrupted, then

cascade of horrifying event could affect the entire planet. The planet’s temperature will

experience a variety of temperatures, but this is natural. Yes, the greenhouse effect is a part

of this natural process but it's not just the amount of warming that is significant—it's the

pace.
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References

ProCon.Org (2019). Is human activity primarily responsible for global climate change?.

Retrieved from https://climatechange.procon.org/

Shaftel, H. (2019). The causes of climate change. Retrieved from

https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/

Wood, J. (2018). Earth has more trees than it did 35 years ago. Retrieved from

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/08/planet-earth-has-more-trees-

than-it-did-35-years-ago/

Hausfather, Z. (2017). Analysis: How well have climate models projected global

warming?. Retrieved from https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-how-well-

have-climate-models-projected-global-warming

Lallanila, M. M. (2018). What is the greenhouse effect?. Retrieved from

https://www.livescience.com/37743-greenhouse-effect.html