Some U.S. climatologists believe that the apparent warming trend we have been experiencing over the past few years may be in part due to improper placements of weather surface stations. These stations, sited in various locations all over the United States, serve to collect data concerning our climate. Although strict guidelines govern where these stations should be located, Surface Stations.org, a website dedicated to surveying the stations, shows that our nation’s surface stations are not meeting these requirements. This website displays photographs of surface stations that are positioned beside airport runways, large industrial areas, and sewage treatment plants; all of which distort temperature readings. One station in Forest Grove, Oregon, is placed directly behind an air conditioning unit, which continually blows hot air onto the surface station meter. I think everyone would agree that this causes the station’s temperature readings to increase.
Laurie David, writer and global warming activist, argues that in the past decade temperatures have been the highest recorded in history. However, this claim is invalid. The earth’s temperature may have increased somewhat, but that increase has remained well inside the natural range of temperature variation shown over a period of 15,000 years. According to Dennis Avery, the greatest warming period actually occurred around the tenth and fifteenth centuries, and this warming period was about 3.2 degrees warmer than today. In addition to this fact, environmental policy analyst H. Sterling Burnett states that the most consistent form of climate measurement, global satellite data, confirms that there is no evidence of warming in the past eighteen years.
Politicians, environmental activists, and some scientists have managed to produce some arguments supporting their theory on human-caused global warming. For example, former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth promotes the idea that we are the source of global warming. In the film, Gore presents several arguments supporting the theory, including the ones mentioned in previous paragraphs, and calls us to take action against it. Nevertheless, it remains merely a theory that has yet to be proven with concrete scientific evidence, and even if it were to be proven, humans do not possess the power to control the climate and therefore would not be able to put a stop to global warming.
In conclusion, all evidence that global warming is a threat to humanity can and has been refuted by scientifically proven facts. Science has confirmed that our weather has been following typical patterns of warming and cooling for at least a million years, and geologists have found that these patterns generally span 1500-year cycles. The idea that global warming is the fault of humans is nothing more than propaganda being forced upon the public for a political agenda.
Works Cited
Avery, Dennis. “Challenge to Scientific Consensus on Global Warming.” Earth Times (Sept. 2007). 12 Sept. 2007. <http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release.1764 95.shtml>.
Burnett, H. Sterling. National Center for Policy Analysis: Myths in Global Warming. 23 May 1997. <http://www.ncpa.org/ba/ba230.html>.
David, Laurie. Home Page. 10 Sept. 2007. <http://www.lauriedavid.com/index.html>.
Watts, Anthony. A Resource for Climate Station Records and Surveys. 29 Aug. 2007. 10 Sept. 2007. <http://www.surfacestations.org/odd_sites.htm>.
