Results so far:
| Yes | 31% | 358 votes | Total: 1161 votes | |
| No | 69% | 803 votes |
Is global warming a hoax? No.
I know that this might be confusing to the reader because this article is written to the yes side of the debate, but global warming is a reality in just the same way that global cooling is a reality. The temperature of the earth has been fluctuating since it was first created. Ice core samples from deep within the Antarctic glaciers are up to 425,000 years old, and the evidence they hold suggests the earth has been warming up and cooling down on a regular basis over periods of around 100,000 years. In fact it would seem that we are currently at the start of a cooling period.
What the question is really asking is whether global warming as a result of human activity is a hoax, to this the answer is a definite yes!
An obscure scientific hypothesis has existed since the 1880's, theorizing that an increase in CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels would increase the greenhouse effect of the upper atmosphere and therefore increase the temperature of the earth. However, based on the calculations used in this Victorian hypothesis the mean global temperature should have risen by more than 1 degree C by 1940, but it had not. Consequently this idea was not taken seriously, until that is when Margaret Thatcher in the 1980's, as the British Prime Minister turned this hypothesis into a major international political issue, and since then the environmental gravy train has continued to gather speed.
So why did Mrs Thatcher introduce the idea of global warming as a political issue? Because it was a means to an end in her political agenda. As the only woman leader of a major Western country she needed to be taken seriously on the international stage, and having a degree in Chemistry gave her an advantage over the other world leaders who were regarded as being scientifically illiterate. Her advisers quickly realized this and so encouraged her to make global warming an issue at every international summit, and so Britain became the number one promoter of the looming global warming disaster. Her ability to hold her own when debating this issue gained her the respect she had been looking for, which then carried across to the other political ideas she would propose.
The other world leaders needed to keep up with Mrs Thatcher on the issue, and so went back to their respective countries and asked their scientists for corroboration of what was being said. Despite the inaccuracies of the theory and the dubious nature of the science they were told that global warming could have major economical implications, especially for countries like the USA.
Margaret Thatcher had other reasons for promoting the idea that CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels would increase global warming, she could use this environmental argument for building more nuclear power stations in Britain. These nuclear power stations would provide us with a supply of electricity without increasing the greenhouise gasses in the atmosphere, and their by-product would be used to build the British nuclear arsenal. Furthermore the nuclear power stations would break the countries dependence on coal and thereby give her the ability to take revenge on the miners who had toppled the last Conservative government, she could close down the coal mines and be rid of the NUM (National Union Of Mineworkers).
To ensure that she had the academic backing for this theory money was thrown at any scientific institute that was prepared to agree with her, if some university wanted to ensure funding for a research project all they had to do was make sure they included the environmental angle in their application. No university professors were going to publicly disagree with the theory of global warming for fear of losing the funds they needed to exist.
So that is how the idea of global warming came to be a political hot potato, but the terminology soon changed to "climate change" when ironically, during this same period of time, scientists were talking about the start of the next ice age because the average annual temperatures were getting colder during the mid 1980's.
So why is it that the worlds leading experts who say that the climate of the earth is not being affected by human activity are being ignored? Al Gore rolled out some eminent scientists to back him in his address to the world, but they were not necessarily experts on the causes of climate change, but experts on the effects of climate change. Meteorologists can be found quite easily on the Internet telling us that the whole thing is a myth and that the science does not hold water. The whole theory of global warming through human activity is based on humans contributing to the greenhouse gasses that fill the atmosphere, yet the total contribution of humans is only 1%, the other 99% is from the earth its self.
The media is quick to jump on freak weather activity and use climate change as the cause, but they are equally quick to ignore the counter evidence against global warming. What about the unusual frosts in California during the last winter that caused a billion dollar loss of crops? What about the fact that during the time that sea ice has diminished in the Arctic it has increased in the southern ocean by 8%? How about the fact that the American weather satellites, regarded world wide for their accuracy, show no overall change in global temperatures since 1999? Why are all these things being ignored?
Money and power are the all too familiar answers. In the same way that Margaret Thatcher found the idea of global warming was advantageous to her, politicians the world over will not stand up and dispute the idea for fear of committing political suicide. And the measures that have had to be taken by the major countries of the world to combat this imagined disaster has generated billions in extra taxes for their coffers.
In 2006 the UK government raked in 35.4 billion in environmental taxes, this is an increase of 63% since 1994. Taxes on carbon fuels such as petrol and diesel gave them over 66% of this revenue, (23.4 billion). Climate change levies, and landfill taxes have been introduced since 2001 generating around 1.75 billion a year. Transport taxes have risen by 41% since 1994 including vehicle excise duty (road tax) and air passenger duty. The hardest hit with these taxes has been the ordinary household, their contribution to these obscene taxes was 54% in 2006.
So it would not be wise for any government that is able to generate this kind of revenue from it's people to suddenly announce that the very reason for the taxation was a fallacy, and for them to admit that their taxes would make no difference to global warming at all. Even better if you can convince the general public that there is a good reason for these taxes, then they will happily pay up without question. In 2007 32% of people who took part in a survey in the UK thought that climate change was amongst the top 3 issues affecting the country, and 10% of those surveyed thought that climate change was the number one issue. Clearly the media and the government spin doctors have done a good job!
In addition to this, what about the massive industry that has grown up around the climate change issue, the environment ministers, the environmental journalists, the TV show "experts", etc, etc? All of them are making money on the back of the global warming scam.
Learn more about this author, Steve Barker.
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Tens of thousands have died in hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis in just the last few years. With natural disaster increasing every year and climate change destroying crops and lives around the world, it is inconceivable that anyone would believe that global warming is a hoax.
The latest report from the World Conservation Union said that global warming is threatening a minimum of 40 percent of the world's species. Gray whales have been washing up on beaches after starving to death due to rising ocean temperatures which killed off their food supply. Hundreds of Pacific seabirds have starved and washed ashore because global warming led to lower amounts of plankton which reduced the number of small fish to feed them.
Britain has suffered its worst flood in sixty years and experts focus the blame directly at global warming for modified rain patterns. China authorities believe rising temperatures are responsible for an increase in their heat-related deaths.
Global warming is blanching the coral in the Florida Keys which kills the coral and indigenous fish. At one time, Elkhorn coral ran along the base of the Caribbean but now they're almost gone.
Lobsters have been dwindling down at an alarming rate from New York State to Massachusetts due to warming waters. Wild pacific salmon have already disappeared from more than 40 percent of their sanctioned habitats.
Due to global warming, malaria has spread from three districts in western Kenya to 13, leading to epidemics in Rwanda and Tanzania. Malaria has extended to higher altitudes in places like the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level. Not long ago, a larva of the anopheles mosquito, the malaria carrier, was found for the first time in Moscow.
Cholera showed up in the warmer waters of South America in 1991 and spread from Peru into Mexico, killing more than 10,000 people. Ticks recently began to expand along the coastlines of Scandinavia, which was once too cold for ticks to survive and Lyme disease has doubled in the area since the late 1990's. Diseases for which there is no cure are increasing. Swine flu or H1N1 spread rapidly around the world before countries had a chance to close its borders.
Therefore, global warming is not a hoax- it is a very real threat.
In view of the fact that our climate is changing rapidly along with the serious worldwide unrest and failing economy; all evidence points to the "beginning of sorrows" that Jesus Christ spoke of in Matthew 24.
"For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be."
In the book of Revelation, it is said that a time is coming when a loaf of bread will cost a day's wage.
There is a planetary alignment taking place in the universe which is supposed to be complete by December 21, 2012 and it has a number of people brushing the dust off the bible and seeking answers.
This event only happens every 26,000 years so there's simply not enough information to make any kind of precise prediction. For this reason, any predictions at this point would be mostly speculation.
However, Jesus talked about the events which would take place prior to his return.
"And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21:25-28)
There is only one truly safe place.
"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6)
Jesus is coming to take his people back. Right now we have a choice but when the Son of God appears, it will be too late.
"Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindred of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, THE ALMIGHTY." (Rev. 1:7)
Learn more about this author, Pat Lunsford.
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