2008 Woodie Awards
Global Warming in '07
Chris Essig/Online Interactive Editor
Issue date: 12/7/07 Section: Writers Outlet
- Page 1 of 1
I think we can all agree that one of the most pertinent issues of 2007 was global warming. While it has been a hot-bottom issue in the years past, the debate became much more heated after one significant event this year: Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Gore, of course, has been singing the same tune about global warming for decades now, particularly when he was vice president under Bill Clinton from 1992 to 2000.
But it wasn't until Gore released An Inconvenient Truth that the issue became a phenomenon. Gore, speaking from the apocalyptic and "scientific" point of view, claimed that global warming was not only real but largely human induced. Critics immediately bashed the film and claimed it a "pack of lies."
But no matter how vehemently they attacked the film, the issue wouldn't fizzle out. To make matters worse for the critics, scientists unanimously jumped on Gore's bandwagon.
The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change claimed they were "90 percent sure" that the increase of temperatures in the last few decades wasn't accidental or part of a larger trend. Instead, they said in a 21-page report, the current trend was a result of an increase of greenhouse emissions, and we are to blame.
This, of course, got everybody talking. Newspapers and magazines across the country weighed in on the issue.
Gas companies started promoting their support for ethanol on a much larger scale in 2007. Alternative energy sources have become viable solutions to the current "crisis" this year, and many states, including California, have taken the initiative to go "green."
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger himself has promised to reduce greenhouse gases and provide relief to this current epidemic.
And even some went a step further by claiming that the current crisis is so bad that it is not only irreversible but could spell doomsday for planet Earth.
Such was British scientist James Lovelock, founder of the Gaia theory, who < a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16956300/the_prophet_of_climate_change_james_lovelock"> claimed the situation is so meager that the world's population will plummet from 6.6 billion to just 500 million by 2100.
But scientific and political backing didn't fizzle out the issue either. Instead these bold statements only fueled "experts" who believed the opposite to speak up.
Among them is John Coleman, the founder of Weather Channel TV, who claims that global warming is the "greatest scam in history".
Coleman claims that "some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives" have "manipulated long term scientific data to create an allusion of rapid global warming."
In addition, the Oregon Institution of Science and Medicine has circulated a petition to "urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997, and any other similar proposals."
The Kyoto Protocol called for a global crackdown of greenhouse emissions and was signed by almost 40 countries. So far, 19,000 scientists have signed the petition.
If history has taught us anything, these latest actions will probably only intensify the fervor from either side.
As is it is easy see just in the short breakdown, neither side has, or probably will, move an inch on the issue of global warming. And that can only mean one thing: global warming, whether it exists of not, is something we will be talking about for years to come.
Gore, of course, has been singing the same tune about global warming for decades now, particularly when he was vice president under Bill Clinton from 1992 to 2000.
But it wasn't until Gore released An Inconvenient Truth that the issue became a phenomenon. Gore, speaking from the apocalyptic and "scientific" point of view, claimed that global warming was not only real but largely human induced. Critics immediately bashed the film and claimed it a "pack of lies."
But no matter how vehemently they attacked the film, the issue wouldn't fizzle out. To make matters worse for the critics, scientists unanimously jumped on Gore's bandwagon.
The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change claimed they were "90 percent sure" that the increase of temperatures in the last few decades wasn't accidental or part of a larger trend. Instead, they said in a 21-page report, the current trend was a result of an increase of greenhouse emissions, and we are to blame.
This, of course, got everybody talking. Newspapers and magazines across the country weighed in on the issue.
Gas companies started promoting their support for ethanol on a much larger scale in 2007. Alternative energy sources have become viable solutions to the current "crisis" this year, and many states, including California, have taken the initiative to go "green."
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger himself has promised to reduce greenhouse gases and provide relief to this current epidemic.
And even some went a step further by claiming that the current crisis is so bad that it is not only irreversible but could spell doomsday for planet Earth.
Such was British scientist James Lovelock, founder of the Gaia theory, who < a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16956300/the_prophet_of_climate_change_james_lovelock"> claimed the situation is so meager that the world's population will plummet from 6.6 billion to just 500 million by 2100.
But scientific and political backing didn't fizzle out the issue either. Instead these bold statements only fueled "experts" who believed the opposite to speak up.
Among them is John Coleman, the founder of Weather Channel TV, who claims that global warming is the
Coleman claims that "some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives" have "manipulated long term scientific data to create an allusion of rapid global warming."
In addition, the Oregon Institution of Science and Medicine has circulated a petition to "urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997, and any other similar proposals."
The Kyoto Protocol called for a global crackdown of greenhouse emissions and was signed by almost 40 countries. So far, 19,000 scientists have signed the petition.
If history has taught us anything, these latest actions will probably only intensify the fervor from either side.
As is it is easy see just in the short breakdown, neither side has, or probably will, move an inch on the issue of global warming. And that can only mean one thing: global warming, whether it exists of not, is something we will be talking about for years to come.
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