Approximately every 100,000 years Earth's climate warms up temporarily. These warm periods, called interglacial periods, appear to last approximately 15,000 to 20,000 years before regressing back to a cold ice age climate. At year 18,000 and counting our current interglacial vacation from the Ice Age is closer to its end than its beginning (Geo Craft). This leads to the growing debate of today, is global warming man-made? Or is it just a cycle that the Earth goes through? This is a controversial issue today, however, global warming is not man-made, in fact, it is a normal cycle for the Earth and the carbon dioxide levels are completely normal. Earth goes through long periods of warming and cooling ages, it is completely normal for the Earth. It is the Earth’s recovery cycle. Of the 186 billion tons of carbon from CO2 that enter earth's atmosphere each year from all sources, only 6 billion tons are from human activity. Approximately 90 billion tons come from biologic activity in earth's oceans and another 90 billion tons from such sources as volcanoes and decaying land plants (Geo Craft). Many people believe that global warming is man-made due to the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is the theory that the atmosphere has obtained too much of the greenhouse gasses, namely carbon dioxide (Enviornmental Defense Fund). Which in turn is causing the Earth to overheat itself, hence, global warming. This is a controversial issue today, however, global warming is not man-made, in fact, it is a normal cycle for the earth and the carbon dioxide levels are completely normal.

Often times, history repeats itself. This is true in life, in war, and in the Earth’s cycle. In the 1970’s many environmentalists were concerned about “global cooling” because of manmade atmospheric pollution blocking out the sun, which would freeze the earth, kill all life forms, and make Earth completely uninhabitable. Since about 1940, the Earth did in fact appear to be cooling but then in the 1980’s and the 1990’s temperatures began to increase which created the theory of “global warming” (Geo Craft). According to The Cooling World written by Peter Gwynne in 1975, “Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change, or even to allay its effects. They concede that some of the more spectacular solutions proposed, such as melting the Arctic ice cap by covering it with black soot or diverting arctic rivers, might create problems far greater than those they solve” (Gwynne). Obviously, this is part of Earth’s cycle, if it was not for this cycle, well then we would still be living in the ice age because the glaciers would have never melted to begin with. It’s a pattern. A pattern that we must discover and learn because without it, people will constantly be living in fear, under the impression that if something is not done, the world will end… However, as stated in his speech to the senate on July 28th, 2003 by James M. Inhoffe, “With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phony science, could it be that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? It sure sounds like it (Notable Quotes ).” Periods of Earth warming and cooling occur in cycles. This is well understood, as is the fact that small-scale cycles of about 40 years exist within larger-scale cycles of 400 years, which in turn exist inside still larger scale cycles of 20,000 years, and so on (Geo Craft). As history does not lie, where do current scientists and environmentalists get their information from that could disprove the hard facts?

CO2 is odorless, colorless, and tasteless. Plants absorb CO2 and emit oxygen as a waste product. Humans and animals breathe oxygen and emit CO2 as a waste product. Carbon dioxide is a nutrient, not a pollutant, and all life-- plants and animals alike-- benefit from more of it. All life on earth is carbon-based and CO2 is an essential ingredient. When plant-growers want to stimulate plant growth, they introduce more carbon dioxide (Geo Craft). How can there be too much carbon dioxide if it is constantly being recycled by humans, by plants, and by the Earth itself. Many scientists claim that carbon dioxide levels have increased in the past 200 years compared to the carbon dioxide levels before the industrial revolution. Scientists believe that we are the cause of global warming because of the amount of CO2 we produce form burning fossil fuels. “The case for a "greenhouse problem" is made by environmentalists, news anchormen, and special interests that make inaccurate and misleading statements about global warming and climate change. Even though people may be skeptical of such rhetoric initially, after awhile people start believing it must be true because we hear it so often our modern climate represents a very short, warm period between glacial advances” (Geo Craft).Natural disasters actually produce more carbon dioxide than humans do. The eruption of Mt. St. Helena sent more CO2 into the atmosphere than humans did. It actually caused global cooling of one degree (Baez). Former president Bill Clinton stated in his address to the United Nations, “In the United States...we have to first convince the American People and the Congress that the climate problem is real” (Geo Craft). It is very important for people to make their own opinions using their knowledge and the resources available to them. Often time’s people will only ever listen to the media, where they may not give all of the facts.

Now, many people believe in global warming because of all the hype in the media. Al Gore is a well known supporter of global warming. The greenhouse gas effect is the idea that we, humans, are the sole cause for the increase in the carbon dioxide levels. Global warming supporters believe that before the industrial era there was less CO2, which of course would be true. With the advancement in technology, cars, and energy sources we are emitting more carbon dioxide than ever before, which is causing a buildup of the CO2 in the atmosphere. Al Gore believes, "The violent impacts human civilization has on the earth’s ecosystem add up to a worldwide ecological crisis that affects and threatens the habitability of the earth. But the deterioration of our atmosphere is by far the most serious manifestation of this crisis. It is inherently global and affects every part of the earth; it is a contributing and causative factor in most of the other crises; and if it is not quickly addressed, it has the potential to end human civilization as we know it” (Gore). Al Gore believes that humans are the cause of global warming and that we should all step up and take action, yet he still flies around in his personal jet and drives fossil fuel, CO2 producing cars around. If he wants people to believe in his cause then he should lead by example. Right? Well the truth is that, if humans really were the cause of global warming there would be some event or sign that would push people towards believing in global warming, some kind of a threat to civilization. But instead, we received record high snow levels all of the country. Petr Chylek, a scientist of physics at Dalhousie University states, "Scientists who want to attract attention to themselves, who want to attract great funding to themselves, have to (find a) way to scare the public . . . and this you can achieve only by making things bigger and more dangerous than they really are."
Global warming is not man-made, in fact, it is Earth’s cycle and the CO2 level are completely normal. This constant cycle of warming and cooling is Earth’s way of recovery. Carbon dioxide levels are completely normal for the Earth and the greenhouse effect does not apply to the “global warming hysteria” of today. There is no reason to fear the effects that global warming could create on the Earth because nothing will happen because we are not the cause of global warming, it is Earth’s cycle: we cannot stop it or prevent it. In the grand scheme of things, the world is not going to end due to global warming, there will be not catastrophic events caused by global warming. There is no reason to fear or to panic, but little actions can be taken to make our Earth a better place to be. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Simple, yet effective.
Works Cited
Baez, John. Temperature. 1 October 2001. 27 February 2011 <http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/temperature/>.
Enviornmental Defense Fund. edf.org. 29 January 2009. 27 February 2011 <http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=35215&gclid=CmmU7Pqtoa>.
Geo Craft. geocraft.com. 27 February 2011 <http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/ice_ages.html>.
Google. Notable Quotes . 27 February 2011 <http://www.notable-quotes.com/g/global_warming_quotes.html>.
Gore, Al. Climate Path. 27 February 2011 <http://www.climatepath.org/user/775/external>.
Gwynne, Peter. NewsWeek. 28 April 1975. 27 February 2011 <http://denisdutton.com/cooling_world.htm>.
Notable Quotes . Notable Quotes . 27 february 2011 <http://www.notable-quotes.com/g/global_warming_quotes.html>.