Fighting over the Environment: the Global Warming Debate
The global warming debate has come to the forefront in recent years due to increased publicity over the issue. Those who deny that global warming is a problem claim that the issue was raised by the government and big industry that stands to make a profit from the changes that are brought about by solving the issue. Although the evidence is not conclusive as to the issues that are brought about due to global warming, there is no debate as to whether the earth has increased in carbon dioxide emissions and that the earth's temperature has increased almost one degree Celsius over the last one hundred years, double the amount of the previous one hundred years.
Argument
The global warming debate is not over the empirical facts but over the supposed effects of the warming and CO2 emissions increase. Proponents for stopping global warming say that this has caused the increase in tropical storms in the last thirty years as well as increasing the water levels of the oceans which can cause major issues if the trend continues. Those who deny global warming is an issue in the global warming debate say that the earth has been constantly warming over time as a natural course of action and has been documented as such. In addition, the water level increases and other changes are not new developments either, as tropical storms have been documented for years, with some years being worse than others, as well as the ocean water level steadily rising over the years. Thus said, they claim that the global warming is a swindle, helping free enterprise and government to grow.
Despite the global warming debate, there is no argument that the general population and big industry has been steadily polluting the planet. There is no argument either that action must be taken in order to change habits so that the health of the environment which includes plants, animals and humans is made better. There are many simple things that can be done by individuals that do not increase anyone's pocket book except for the individual making the changes, since they will be saving money in energy costs. One way is to take a cloth sack to the grocery store so that plastic or paper sacks that create waste and take energy to produce are not used. Also, when using the dish washer, it should be fully loaded before washing so that less energy is expended. Clothes should be dried outside when possible to also save on energy costs. These simple measures do not help big industry, but do save on energy expenditures and helps to protect the environment.
