The Global Warming Debate

The debate about global warming centers around three questions:

Is global warming caused by human activity?
What will be the effects of global warming?
What actions should be taken?

     Almost all scientists agree that the planet is warming, but there is some disagreement over certain areas of the whole issue. The majority of climate scientists think that the sudden rise in temperature is due, at least in part, to the increase of carbon dioxide and methane that humans are emitting into the atmosphere. They say that what the globe is now experiencing is an enhanced form of the greenhouse effect. Other scientists say that something else must be affecting the temperature. Some scientists think that the earth will warm between 1.5 - 6 degrees during the next century. Some think it won't. Some think that this severe warming will create drastic changes in the earth's surface, weather patterns, and living creatures, causing many environmental crises if we don't do something about it. Some think that the warming will go unnoticed or even be beneficial to the earth and its inhabitants. Some think that even though the warming may have a negative effect on the world, it would be too costly to do anything about it, while others think that it would be even more costly to do nothing.
     The participants in the global warming debate can be generally catagorized as either "proponents" or "critics." Proponents typically believe that global warming is primarily caused by human activity, and that if we dont make changes in our lifestyles or policies, that it will have extremely negative effects on the earth and its inhabitants. Critics usually believe one of some of the following: that global warming is not caused primarily by human activity; that it's effects will not be terribly negative or; that the cost to combat it will be too great.
     To read more about global warming and the debate surrounding it, select one of the following topic areas:

Select a Section
of Debate:

Or return to another
section of the Global
Warming site: