Position Argument on Global Warming

By Rayce Dendel
Salt Lake City Community College
July, 2016

Rayce Dendel
8:00 A.M
MWF
Position Argument

Overpopulation. Its not something that many people like to discuss, and I can understand
why. The connotation this word holds for some people is enough to keep it out of their
conversations and consequently out of their minds entirely. Overpopulation is not to be taken
lightly and I think anyone will agree on that, but it IS an issue that we as a species need to start
taking a long hard look at. Why? Well, the most notable source of evidence that the issue of
overpopulation should be a primary concern is that of the effect is has on the environment.
Throughout this paper, I will be discussing the consequences of overpopulation as related to the
issue of climate change and global warming. I will elaborate on why we need to start educating
the entirety of the global population to the severity and danger of this issue, exactly how
overpopulation and climate change are related, why we need to take action regarding these
interconnected problems, and some possible solutions that we may attempt in order to halt this
catastrophic destruction of our planet.
Over the course of this writing, I will follow a logical and step by step process to arrive at
a sound conclusion. I will start by identifying and discussing the two sides of the issue, and then
I will cover how this information applies to the argument im trying to make. First and foremost,
we must establish a base of understanding. This begins with the comprehension of two terms.
Climate change, and global warming. The two terms take different sides in the debate raging
around our environment and the impact we have on it, but despite this, they are actually very
closely related. The existence of global warming is still hotly debated by many people because
they believe in natural climate change. Lets start by examining the climate change side of the
argument, and go from there.

Dr. S. Fred Singer, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Virginia is

the primary voice of climate change, and says that our impact as humans is not big enough to
warp the composition of the Earths atmosphere, and that the change we are experiencing is due
the Earth progressing through natural heating and cooling cycles. Dr. Singer and others like him
argue that this has been happening for millions of years, and will continue to happen throughout
the existence of the planet. (Singer 2007) There are multiple studies that confirm this point of
view. The University of Canada and Michigan conducted a study in 2012 in which they drilled
619 bore holes across the seven continents. Bore holes are deep drill holes in which
scientists can bore deep down into the Earth, and in doing so, may examine the composition of
the soil and gravel in order to better understand what the environment was like when these rocks
were formed. What they found was that the temperature across all seven continents has varied
greatly in the past 5,000 years. (Huang, Pollack, Shen 1999) Since we know that we have been
pumping egregious amounts of CO2 into the air for only the past 200 years, this piece of
evidence for natural climate change is hard to ignore.
There are also many other studies that support the climate change theory. In 1999,
through precise measurements, scientists were able to determine that our Suns magnetic coronal
field has doubled in the past 100 years. (Lockwood, Stamper, Wild 1999) What this means is that
the amount of heat and magnetism we get from the sun has shifted, changing the amount of cloud
coverage we get, and in turn our Earth has reacted by heating up. When considering the debate of
global warming and climate change, we must keep in mind that our environment is often outside
of our control, as highlighted by this study of the Sun. This is yet another confirmation of natural
climate change.

A separate study conducted by Thomas J. Crowley concluded that at least 41-64% of the
temperature variance in the past 1,000 years was due to the Suns changing irradiation, in
addition to a phenomena known as volcanism. Volcanism is the occurrence of pyroclastic
material, gas, or lava being ejected from the Earths core, and in turn encompasses the study that
this event has on our environment and atmosphere. The study previously mentioned was
published by the National Climatic Data Center, and is widely regarded as one of the best
sources of evidence for natural climate change. (Crowley, 2000)
So, after looking at these few examples, we can see that there is a decent amount of
varying evidence that the Earth has naturally changed its temperature over the course of its
lifetime. This is where we will draw our first conclusion in the argument we are constructing.
The Earth is naturally heating up and cooling down, and there is nothing that we can do about
that. This is where we start to examine global warming. Next we will look at the other side of
this debate, and this is where the argument begins to tie back to overpopulation.
Global warming in simple terms explains that due to the increasing amount of CO2 and
greenhouse gasses we are emitting into our environment that our Earth is heating up. This is a
position that most people are familiar with. Global warming is widely accepted across the
globe as the primary cause of our warming planet. Many people are already familiar with figures
such as Al Gore, one of the leading activists against global warming. Even so, I will establish a
baseline argument in favor of this position so that we may put it into context with the rest of this
paper.
The first piece of evidence I would like to look at is our increasing population as a whole.
According to data from the United Nations, our global population is expected to reach almost 10
billion people by the year 2050. (DESA, U.N. 2015) This may not seem significant at first, until

you examine it from another angle. Consider for a moment that the human species as we know it
as only been around for about 200,000 years. Civilization began to form only 6,000 years ago.
(Howell 2015) It has taken us this entire length of this time to reach the population we sit at
currently, which is about 7.5 billion people. Now we think about the fact that in 2016, our
population is expected to grow by 2-3 billion in the next 34 years. This is absolutely insane! This
sort of growth is unprecedented in the history of our species, or the history of the planet for that
matter. Never before has Earth had to sustain such a large population of a single species,
specifically a physically large species. Think for a second about how we plan to grow by almost
33% (1/3) of our current population in only 0.6% of the time of our total history. (34 divided by
6,000 = 0.0056). I will be reviewing data on why this population increase matters and the effects
it has on our environment, but just taking a cursory look at these numbers should be enough to
make people stop and think about our EXPLOSIVE population growth, and why it may actually
be a detriment to our species. It doesnt take a mathematician to know that if we grow by 2
billion every 35 years, we will very quickly run out of room, and resources. Not to mention that
human growth rate is exponential, so we will continue to increase by larger and larger amounts in
a quicker period of time.
This leads me to my data confirming our negative environmental impact. Not only will
we run out of resources and space soon, but due to our increasing numbers we are ruining and
destroying space that we ALREADY have. According to a study conducted by the EPA, an
American governmental association dedicated to monitoring and protecting the environment,
carbon and greenhouse emissions have increased by 35% in the past 25 years. (EPA, 2016) This
number coincides directly to the extreme population increase we have seen at this same time. A
separate study conducted by NASA confirms that there is now more C02 in our atmosphere than

any time in the past 400,000 years, which helps explain our rapidly increasing heat. The figure
below illustrates this with an easy to understand graph. (Shaftel, Jackson, NASA 2016)

While we cant say with absolute, concrete certainty that our significant increase in
greenhouse gas emissions is the direct and only cause for our warming planet, there have been
many observations of the effects that we HAVE already had as a species, and there are some

things we can say FOR SURE were caused by our populations increase in carbon and
greenhouse emissions. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that an astounding
70,000 deaths occurred in the summer of 2003 in Western Europe due partially to the
extraordinary heat that the region was experiencing during that time. The heat was attributed to
the increase in emissions, not a natural phenomena. (This number is compared to other years
during the same period.) In the same report they confirm that our continued greenhouse gas
emissions interferes with rainfall patterns in certain areas of the globe, which cause fresh water
sources to vary and become scarce. This in turn causes a myriad of different health problems and
diseases for many different people around the world. On top of that, the report goes on to say that
nearly half of the Earths population lives within reasonable distance to the ocean shore or
coastline. (WHO, 2016)This is significant because global warming is thought to cause a rise in
ocean and sea level, which can be devastating even in minuscule amounts.
Unfortunately for us, the ocean levels are INDEED rising. According to the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the sea levels did not begin to rise until the start of the
20th century, right around when industrialization around the globe began to start into full swing.
They go on to say that since their measurements at the begin of 1900, they have noticed a steady
rise in sea level of about .005 inches per year. After remeasuring in 1992, they calculated the rate
of sea level rise to .12 inches per year, a number that they conclude is higher on average than any
point in the past several thousand years. (NOAA, 2016) The main cause of our rising oceans is
thought to be primarily linked to global warming. Coincidentally, according to National
Geographic, the top three contributions to ocean rise are said to be a direct result of global
warming and the growing amount of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere. (National Geographic
Society, 2015)

I will go over a quick review of the established argument before we move on. Natural
climate change is real. The Earth is naturally heating up. Its happening right now, as I write, as
proven by the studies and information presented above. Global warming is ALSO real. We are
having a very noticeable and negative impact on the world around us, and the more our
population increases, the more devastating our impact becomes. When combined, we come up
with a natural increase in the planets temperature that we, as humans, are compounding
exponentially with our pollution into the environment. In conclusion, both sides of the argument
are correct. I believe that this point is worth commenting on.
As humans we are conditioned to put things into boxes, or categories. Things are either
correct, or wrong. Left, or right. Black, or white. In terms of the global warming argument,
people seem to be under the impression that it is either one argument, or the other. We are either
100% responsible for our changing environment, or we have absolutely nothing to do with our
planets warming because its just a natural phenomena that has been going on for thousands of
years. I believe and argue that instead of being climate change or global warming, the issue
is in fact some combination of both. I believe this is a significant position to take because many
people dont seem to understand that the world is not just black or just white. The world is gray.
It is both black, and white, with black and white being the two respective ends of the same
spectrum. The same is true with the climate change and global warming argument. These terms
are merely two ends or extremes of the same spectrum, or issue, and until we begin to understand
how they are related and interconnected, we cannot begin to remedy the problem.
This is where overpopulation comes into play. When our numbers as a species werent
almost 8 billion, our industrial and polluting practices were much less impactful on the world
around us. Now that we have grown out of control, our planet is crumbling, in some cases

literally, and an end to the human species seems closer than ever. Many people dont like to think
of it like this, but frankly, we are parasites. We drain our host (the Earth) of all of its natural
resources in a destructive and systematic process, and the things that we dont consume (like the
air, the ground, ect. ect.) we corrupt and manipulate. We have poisoned our air with factories, we
have desecrated the ground by dumping chemicals into it, and in some cases we have farmed the
land using unsustainable practices to the point where it is no longer usable. In conclusion, we
have LITERALLY sucked the life out of our only planet.
The point of the paper thus far was to establish unflinching, unerring confidence that we
as a species have been systematically ruining our environment, due mostly to our staggering
population. And while we established what the naysayers of this argument hold to be true, which
is that our planet changes naturally, we have also concluded our own impact has a frightening
and undeniable presence. This in turn leads to my overall point of overpopulation. Since we can
see that humans have negative effects on our surroundings in large numbers, and we as a
population are increasing exponentially without regard to the environmental impacts, we must
discuss this problem without hesitation. We must set aside our predetermined opinions about
what overpopulation means. We must take a fresh look and perspective on ourselves as a
species and the effects we have on the world around us. This will not be easy. Most people
probably dont see themselves as parasitic entities because lets be honest, this is a pretty grim
and negative view to take upon oneself. But after examining the facts and constructing a logical
argument, I think this idea of the human parasite is undeniable. And by recognizing what a
detriment we are to our environment with our current population and industrial practices, we can
begin to remedy the problem.

This being said, there is no easy or clear cut solution to the issue at hand. Obviously we
as a species have the ability to discontinue all factory and industrial production tomorrow, but
this is ALMOST outside the realm of possibility. This solution asks that billions of people across
the globe change their lives quite drastically, and that they do so willingly. I dont believe that
this is a practical or realistic solution at this point in our existence.
What I DO believe is a practical and realistic solution is that of education. If we can
begin to educate more of the global population to this growing crisis, we can begin to change
parts of the way we live. One of the problems with asking the entire population of Earth to
change their living habits is that many of the people youd be asking to change havent learned
about the destruction of the environment, or dont believe that we (humans) have caused it. Once
people have become aware of the issue of global warming and its increasing severity, I sincerely
hope that they would be willing to change or alter their actions in a way that is more symbiotic
with the planet that we live on. Unfortunately, we have reached a point in our history where we
no longer have the luxury of ignoring our impact on the environment. When our numbers as a
species were small, it was easy to maintain our naievity to the destruction we cause. Now that we
are growing so fast, this issue can longer be swept under the rug. Why?
Well, to put it simply, when we have polluted all the Oceans and desecrated all the land,
(which we will eventually) we will have nothing left to eat or drink, we will be out of space, and
we will have nowhere left to go. The summation of this crisis is easy to understand. If we dont
do something about our population and the way we live, we will all die. This is the most succinct
and blunt way to frame this problem. To wrap this point up, the issue of overpopulation,
especially in the context of global warming and environmental pollution, will kill us all. I believe
that through education and the spreading of awareness about this issue we can begin to start

considering solutions. Until we can get all of humanity on the same page, we wont see major
change, unless it is through force and violence, and these methods present their own set of issues
both ethically and physically.
I would like to finish this paper with a more positive and hopeful spin. I have talked a lot
about how the planet is changing, and how we are to blame for at least 50% of the change, if not
more. I have mentioned how we resemble parasites, and how we have destroyed the beautiful
home we once cherished. I could go on. Instead, id like to look towards the future. It doesnt
have to be this way. We are not too far gone that we cannot remedy this problem. I believe that
humans have the power to change the world for the better, if we could just TRY. This starts by
acknowledging that we have grown too much as a species, and that we have had a negative
impact accordingly. Science can do amazing things, and if we started putting our considerable
force behind making a real, positive change to our planet, I think we could accomplish feats that
were previously undreamed of. I have seen examples of the positive impact on the environment
humans can have first hand, and they are incredible. We CAN spread education and awareness
about this issue, and the issue of overpopulation. We CAN change our gloomy future for the
better. The world is NOT entirely outside of our control, and if we start to realize this, then we
CAN start to make real change. All it takes is a single step in the right direction, and all of a
sudden we can be headed towards a bright, shining future, instead of one tainted with pollution
and desecration. YOU can make the change. YOU can be the difference. Historically large ideas
and movements have started small, and grown to be something bigger. The idea and movement
of environmental awareness and overpopulation is no different. Take the initiative. Make the
change. Be the difference. Together, we can survive and THRIVE, but only by taking the first,
small step.

REFERENCES

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