“AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH”

“AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH”

This article is based on an Al Gore's documentary called “An Inconvenient Truth” about global warming that I saw last weekend. It is an article that reflects some important aspects treated in this film and a final conclusion with my own opinion. Important aspects such as “the global warming as a bogus argument”, “ the formal explanation of what global warming is”, “the causes and consequences of global warming”, “ how should we all react when we hear warnings of scientists” and “ the acceptance of the problem of global warming as a real fact”.

Fuente: youthvoices.net

Global warming as a bogus argument is turning into a reality. Believing or not in global warming is an important issue because nowadays a lot of people still have in their minds the idea that the earth is so huge that we cannot cause a damaging impact on the earth's environment. But this idea is completely ridiculous because it is not true; the earth's atmosphere is so thin that we all are able to change its composition.

At the beginning of this film Al Gore illustrates a formal explanation of what global warming is. The radiations of the sun warms the earth and some of this radiation is re-radiated back into space as infrared radiation, and some of this infrared radiation is trapped by the atmosphere and stays inside it. This fact keeps the temperatures of the earth within certain limits and that is positive, but the problem is that the thin layer of the atmosphere where this happens has increased in thickness due to the pollution that causes the global warming that we are all causing ourselves, so the atmosphere is heating up globally. When there is more carbon dioxide the temperature rises, which means it increases because it traps warmth from the sun. Carbon dioxide has never exceeded 300 parts per million in the last 650 million years, but actually it is superior to the level it has ever been, well above the natural cycle and in the next 50 years (maybe less) it will continue increasing. The problem is that so many people say: “¿so what?” for us it is fine as it is now; this is not a political problem, but a moral issue, and if we allow this to happen, we have a serious ethical problem. After the accident of his son, Gore devoted himself to trying to understand the earth in which he lived in, he went to the Antarctica, to the North and South Pole etc. The possibility of losing what was most precious to him, gave him a capacity he might not have had before. He understood that what we take for granted may no longer exist for our children.

What does global warming cause? Due to global warming, the temperature increases are taking place worldwide, including the oceans. When the oceans warm up they cause strong storms. In last years there were major hurricanes and in 2004 there was also a record for tornadoes in the U.S. and typhoons in Japan. The science books were rewritten because they said it was impossible to produce a hurricane in the South Atlantic, but in the summer of 2005 the world witnessed the first hurricane that devastates Brazil. In addition, a lot of damages were caused, including the world's largest oil industry. Hurricane Katrina caused billions in damages. The hurricane went through increasingly warmer waters, as the water temperature increases, the wind speed does too. Hurricane Katrina was formed over Florida and when it arrived to the Gulf, the hurricane received the warm water mass and its energy and became more and more strong. This fact brought with it horrendous consequences.

The consequences of global warming are numerous. Global warming creates more evaporation from the oceans feeding the clouds and also absorbs moisture from the ground, the evaporation of the earth increases with these high temperatures and this also has terrible consequences. A warning sign is the Arctic zone because it is one of the two regions all over the world which is experiencing a faster impact of global warming. Over the next 50 to 70 years it will have totally disappeared. ¿How is it possible to melt so quickly? Once again, because of global warming. Another devastating consequence of global warming is the loss of species that is taking place at an increasing rate. The same phenomenon that changes all these patterns also affects the seasons, the species migration changes and the species are affected in the same way as global warming. Coral reefs are fading and the species that depend on them are also in danger. The species loss is occurring at a rate a thousand times higher than in the previous natural rhythm. There are many vectors of infectious diseases that concern us which are expanding its field of action. In the last quarter century, 30 of the so-called new diseases have appeared and many of them have caused tremendous problems. In addition, there have been re-emerging diseases that had already disappeared.

How should we all react when we hear warnings of scientists around the world? If the global warming issue is not the talk of voters, for politicians it is very easy to ignore it. They just need to say: “yes, we will solve it”, but the reality is that they do not do it. Many scientists have been persecuted, ridiculed, deprived of their employment and income, simply because they had discovered facts that led to “An Inconvenient Truth”, a truth that they insisted in disclosing. The documentary tells us the story of Phillip Cooney, a man who worked for the American Petroleum Institute. This man was put in charge of the environmental policy thanks to President Bush. One day he received a report from the Environmental Protection Agency that warned of global warming. He avoided it, and even though he had no scientific formation he decided to change what the scientists had said. It was an embarrassing issue for the Casablanca and that man had to resign after a few days.

The acceptance of the problem as a reality is the first step. If we accept the problem of global warming as a real problem, maybe it is not too late to solve it. We should do something to solve the problem. Gore explains in its documentary that if one day we use more efficient appliances we could save on global pollution, pollution that goes directly into the atmosphere. If we make cars more efficient and if we use renewable technologies, we will produce less carbon dioxide. Every action counts and we could progressively reduce our carbon dioxide emissions. We have everything we need except, perhaps, the political will. Each of us is a cause of global warming but we can make decisions to change it, decisions related with the products we buy, the electricity we spend, the cars we drive etc. We can make decisions to reduce our emissions of carbon dioxide to the point of 0. The solutions are in our hands, we only need the determination to make it a reality because our future as a civilization in is danger, and the fact of being able to live on the earth as well. This is a moral issue we should be concerned about.

In my opinion I agree with Al Gore in everything, I think we should all collaborate so that together we can stop this major problem called global warming which increases every day. We should become aware of the seriousness of this problem and try to be as environmentally friendly as possible to help the cause. It is not so difficult because, after all, we all live in this planet and if we do not take care of it...what is going to happen to our children or to the future generations? They won't ever know what a glacier is, unless they look up pictures about them in history books about “what the earth was like one day”.