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Craig Davenport Professor Campbell Extended Inquiry Project 20 March 2014 Earth: Icy to Dull the Climate, Hot to Relax it Away Have you ever wondered about the recent extreme weather and change in climate? About why there is a lot of snow in the southern region of the United States or why the polar ice caps are falling apart? Well, the climate is changing. According to Jonathan Strickland and Ed Grabianowski, over the last 100 years, measured from 1906 to 2006, the average global temperature has risen by about .74 degrees Celsius, where an increase of one degree can be considered global warming. There is no doubt that the climate has changed over the last century, but the debate is whether or not humanity is to blame. When looking at all of the data over the last one hundred years or so since the Industrial Revolution, it is very easy to just write it off that humanity is the root cause for global warming. However, the globe naturally goes through heating and cooling periods according to Don J. Easterbrook, Professor Eventus of Geology at Western Washington University, and his article for Global Research. So whos to say that its not merely a coincidence that the globe is experiencing drastic weather change on its own and humans as a whole are not the root cause? Its hard to say that we have no effect on the climate change whatsoever, but its even harder to prove that humans are the sole or root cause of it all. Global warming is a topic that is often discussed, however it is hardly understood by the majority of Americans. For example, a 2011 study conducted in San Diego by Michael Ranney shows that about eighty percent of the 270 people surveyed believed that global warming is
Commented [TO1]: Is this a scientific fact or a just a saying, like the temperature has increased thus it is global waaaarming (if that makes sense)

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occurring, where seventy-seven percent of the 270 believe that humans are playing a major role. However, hardly any of those surveyed were able to explain global warming, roughly twelve percent identified greenhouse gases as the major reason. In the same article, by Tania Lombrozo, the author states that Ranneys findings led him to create a website that explains how global warming works in order to educate the general public. According to Ranneys video, which explains global warming in about thirty seconds, the sun produces visible light rays that is transformed by the Earth into infrared light which slowly leaves the atmosphere because it absorbed by the greenhouse gases. So as humans produce more and more greenhouse gases the infrared light rays take longer and longer to leave the atmosphere, thus warming the globe. Seeing as the global temperature has increased by almost a degree Celsius over the last one hundred years, with a larger change when viewed from 1901 to 2001 versus the window of 1906 to 2006. Strickland and Grabianowski mention in their article that from 1901 to 2001 the average global temperature increased by .6 degrees Celsius, and shifting the window five years later adds an increase of .14 degrees Celsius. This adds to the belief that humans are accelerating the process. Recently, global warming has somewhat burned out. It is a lot rarer to hear such heated debate about the warming of the globe, in fact, it feels outdated to talk about global warming almost, especially with the recent severe winter storms in the southern regions of the United States. In fact, according to an article by Katie Corrado, an anchor for NBC/CBS in Syracuse, New York, the Great Lakes are 80.4% frozen over already in 2014, the most in a century. If the globe was warming still, the lakes would not be this frozen, with Lake Superior facing being totally frozen over. The globe seems to be cooling now instead of warming as it was in the early 2000s. In fact, the sun has actually been rather quiet over the last fifteen years, according to Jens
Commented [TO2]: Backing up claims with evidence, good stuff

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Pedersen, senior scientist at the Denmark Technical University. Pederson says that in a time where the sun should be at a solar maximum, the sun is at a very low point. It has very minimal sunspots and it should be very active around now. In fact, the last time the sun was at what is known as a solar maximum that was as quiet as the one of today is about two hundred years ago during what came to be known as the Little Ice Age. The Little Ice Age took place over two hundred years, from about the 1600s to around the 1850s, and the last one hundred and fifty years have been the recovery from that time period. According to Michael E. Mann of the University of Virginia, the Little Ice Age was primarily a Northern Hemisphere occurrence and was actually only about 0.6 degrees Celsius cooler than what we are experiencing today. So if the global average temperatures have increased just over seven tenths of a degree Celsius in the last one hundred years, and the Little Ice Age was approximately six tenths of a degree Celsius cooler would it not make sense to say we have recovered now from the Little Ice Age and thats all global warming has been? There are a lot of politics involved with climate change. For example, in 2007 Al Gore claimed during a speech that in the next seven or so years, the Arctic summer ice will no longer exist. However, Barbara Hollingsworth writes in her article for CNS News about how NASA has satellite evidence that the polar ice caps are the largest they have been since 2006, eight years ago now. In fact, the Arctic summer ice caps were even sixty percent larger in 2013 than they were in 2012 (as shown in the pictures at the end), approximately seven years after Al Gores claim. Climate change is a bandwagon that politicians can use easily use to gain a following because the majority of Americans do not know enough about recent climate change as shown in Ranneys 2011 survey, as mentioned earlier. It is hard to accuse politicians of over exaggerating global warming; however, at least Al Gores claim about the summer ice caps in the Arctic turned out to be completely incorrect.
Commented [TO4]: Comma maybe Commented [TO3]: What is solar maximum? I mean it obviously has to do with

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Over the last few years, all of the papers regarding climate change have essentially stopped using the term global warming, its all climate change now. This way the term will encompass all possible variations in weather over time. But what is the definition of normal climate exactly? According to the EPA, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the definition of climate is: Climate in a narrow sense is usually defined as the "average weather," or more rigorously, as the statistical description in terms of the mean and variability of relevant quantities over a period of time ranging from months to thousands of years. The classical period is 3 decades, as defined by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). These quantities are most often surface variables such as temperature, precipitation, and wind. Climate in a wider sense is the state, including a statistical description, of the climate system (EPA). In this definition of climate is portrayed as being about a thirty year period as the standard of measure. In which case, the global warming debate began in the 1970s and lasted till the early 2000s, when it switched to a climate change debate while temperature increase began to stagnate. It is easy to make an assumption and say that the global warming scare of the 70s was just exactly what it sounds like, a change in climate. From what we know of history, climate has changed throughout time, even dramatically, with the Ice Age and the Medieval Warm period both occurring long before the recent increase in anthropologic carbon emissions. That makes it harder to believe that the increase in human carbon emissions could cause such a drastic change to an entire planet. Climate is the average weather over a period of, on standard, three decades, and up to thousands of years. The majority of recorded temperatures and climate date back to no earlier than 1860 and nothing for more than 50% of the globe earlier than 1900,

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according to David Deming, Associate Professor of Geology and Geophysics at the University of
Oklahoma (Deming). Deming goes on to discuss a study by the University of Michigan, which

was repeated and confirmed by the Greenland Ice Core Project. It is a borehole study that starts with a well drilled deep down and let sit for a few months while the elevated temperatures from the drilling dissipate. A thermometer is then used to collect the temperature of various layers of the earth that can be used to estimate the temperatures of the area over even thousands of years (Deming). Their data, as represented in figure 3 below, provides evidence that global temperatures have fluctuated as much, if not more over the last thousands of years. However, it is important to keep in mind that this study is rather old and may not be as credible for today, with new research on climate change being published almost every day. Deming does address a good point though: the temperature rise over the last one hundred and forty years can be attributed to a recovery from the Little Ice Age in the 19 th Century, as mentioned earlier in this paper as well. (Deming). So what is normal climate? How will we be able to tell? It seems as though the answers to our future often lay in our past, yet it is extremely difficult to determine the climate of the past accurately. A normal climate may never be known exactly, but when have humans ever been able to explain everything anyway? To this day, new research on climate change is being studied and debated and published. By the time this paper is finished, new data may be published making this debate obsolete. But thats science. For example, on March 17th, 2014, NASA published a new study about how the trees of the Amazon are actually taking in more carbon dioxide than they produce (NASA). NASA has spent seven years observing the forests of the Amazon and have confirmed that the rainforests actually intake more carbon dioxide than they emit therefore reducing global warming (NASA). Granted, the rainforests are not exactly going to just debunk global warming

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all together, not with the mass amount of carbon pollution humans produce. With the Amazon all together removing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, it can combat climate change and could be linked to the recent leveling off of temperature increase. But thats just it. Global warming and climate change are full of predictions, and predictions are simply that: predictions. There is no guarantee that a prediction will be correct. For example, the IPCC, International Panel on Climate Change, has predicted an increase of up to about four degrees Celsius by 2100, as represented in figure four below (IPCC). As of right now, there is no way to tell if the IPCC will be right, and a prediction is only a prediction, especially with a lack of solid evidence of global warming over the last fifteen or so years. Whether or not global warming turns out to be anthropologically driven or not, its really hard to say carbon emissions are not a bad thing; it is on a similar level with pollution and littering. Being ecologically friendly is extremely important and being respective toward the Earth in order to prevent future global destruction. The Earth is our home and it is fair to say that humanity has not done the greatest job taking care of it. It should at least become a priority to maintain a healthy planet as best as humanity can whether or not global warming predictions turn out to be true. It may be too late to reverse any effect that has already started, but it is not too late to take better care of our planet. Global warming may or may not turn out to be true; as of right now the evidence is very spotty and often is only a claim with nothing backing it up. The final consensus on global warming comes down, at this point in time, to which evidence each individual believes. Until there is a one hundred percent consensus on global warming, there is still a debate, and only time will tell which side is correct.

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Appendix: Figure 1:

August 26, 2012 NASA photo of the Arctic Summer Ice Caps. Figure 2:

August 15, 2013 satellite photo from NASA of Arctic Summer Ice Caps.

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Figure 3:

Figure 4:

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Hyperlinks to Sources
http://www.cnycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=1006228#.Uvv91PldVx0 http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2013/12/16/251437395/global-warming-explained-in-about-a-minute http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/05/26/to-the-horror-of-global-warming-alarmistsglobal-cooling-is-here/ http://cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-hollingsworth/wrong-al-gore-predicted-arctic-summer-icecould-disappear-2013 http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/healthscience/2014/January/Cover-Up-Mounting-Evidence-BeliesGlobal-Warming/ http://www.globalresearch.ca/global-cooling-is-here/10783 http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/global-warming3.htm http://www.meteo.psu.edu/holocene/public_html/shared/articles/littleiceage.pdf

Davenport 10 http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba337 http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/glossary.html

https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/spmsspm-projections-of.html http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-084
Commented [TO5]: I thought this essay functioned very well as an informative essay. I thought that you gave opinions/informations on both sides of the debate without choosing whether one side was actually correct. That being said, I also feel as though this essay functioned very well with regards to informing people about global warming/climate change. There was a lot of effort devoted to understanding how climate change/ global warming is caused, comparisons to the past and present, and somewhat how the human race is involved. If the purpose of this paper was to inform and educate people about global warming/ climate change and the affects this is having then I think it accomplished that goal. However towards the beginning of the essay I got the impression that this essay would be more specifically about if humans are affecting global warming/climate change. If that is the case then I think a few things such as specific impacts human could be having on the environment to increase climate change, and natural envoirmental climate related cycles in the past (such as the little ice age) would help to compare the impact humans are making versus what is actually natural. Very good and interesting paper.

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