Global warming: Popular vision vs. scientific fact

Journal Article · · Electric Perspectives; (United States)

OSTI ID:6890365

Michaels, P J ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville (United States)

In the popular vision, environmental apocalypse looms over the land. It's a vision of catastrophic global warming that ultimately leads to crop failures, rapid and inundating surges in sea level, enormous hurricanes, and burning forests incapable of renewing themselves. It's become warmer, yes, and perhaps will be warmer still, but to the degree of catastrophe The available data on climate change say no. It's true that virtually all scientists directly involved in climatological research (this author included) believe that the earth will warm some as a result of the increase in emissions that absorb infrared radiation or enhance the greenhouse effect. Indeed, though the media portray the debate otherwise, global warming is not a struggle between true believers and skeptics. The fact is that while the scientists who have examined the issue know that the planet has warmed slightly in the last century, few will ascribe much, if any, of that warming to a change in the greenhouse effect. Further, warming itself does not imply the apocalypse that dominates the rhetoric of many environmentalists. In fact, within certain quite broad limits, how much the world warms is irrelevant. More important is how it warms whether during the day or at night, whether in the winter more than in the summer, and whether such other factors as changes in cloud cover can modify that warming. Once you know how it warms, the spectre of environmental disaster dims rapidly.

• OSTI ID: 6890365
• Journal Information: Electric Perspectives; (United States), Journal Name: Electric Perspectives; (United States) Vol. 17:1; ISSN 0364-474X; ISSN ELPED9
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540110*
ALKANES
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON DIOXIDE
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
CLIMATES
CLIMATIC CHANGE
GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELS
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
HYDROCARBONS
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
METHANE
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NITROGEN OXIDES
NITROUS OXIDE
ORGANIC CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC FLUORINE COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PUBLIC OPINION
SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS
TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT