Global Warming: A Modern Myth

‘Global Warming’ has been a buzzword in political circles in this decade. The western world continues to churn out ‘doomsday prophecies’ of the world coming to an end if nothing is done to contain the greenhouse gases in atmosphere. Most of the western media claims of a consensus among climate scientists that the earth is heating up due to increase in carbon emissions caused by human activity. According to them rising temperatures of our planet will lead to dramatic rise in sea levels, floods, wide spread droughts, intense heat waves, powerful storms, etc. The very concept of ‘warming earth’ is flawed since genuine data suggests that earth temperatures are falling rather than rising. Greenhouse gases are composed of water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, ozone and CFCs. Water vapor has more than 70 % contribution to greenhouse gases. The world is currently focused on carbon dioxide with actually constitutes less than 10 % and out of that less than 2 % is due to man-made causes. The prediction of an impending global catastrophe of historic proportions is based on computer simulations assuming increases in carbon dioxide component of greenhouse gases. These models do not take into account water vapor which is the major constituent of greenhouse gases. There is no way to control the amount of water vapor in atmosphere. The other claim is of rising sea levels due to the earth warming up. Sea level rise is actually a natural phenomena occurring since thousands of years and some computer models linking carbon dioxide to rising sea levels are not reliable. Melting of ice caps is also not due to increasing carbon content in atmosphere according to research of many scientists all over the world. The reasons of warming of earth can be explained by variations of solar output and the very nature of earth and atmosphere. There were alternate cycles of warm and icy periods since the earth came into existence billions of years ago so temperature rise and fall is inevitable.

Much of the hype surrounding global warming is due to ignorance and denial. To quote an example, the island of Tuvalu which people claimed will disappear soon if nothing is done to counter the effects of global warming. The scare was due to the extraction of plenty of fresh water in the island by the thriving Japanese pineapple industry leading to depletion of water table and sea water eventually entered in. Presence of salty water inland caused panic and most of them cried ‘sea level rising’. Another incident is that of the glacier of Kilimanjaro, where the ice was melting, the reason behind that was annihilation of rain forests around the mountain which lead to reduction in overall moisture content and therefore lesser snow and ice. Melting of ice had nothing to do with increasing carbon emissions. Nature itself produces plenty of greenhouse gases than humans do. A massive volcano eruption for just couple of hours will add several millions of tons of sulphur dioxide equivalent to emission of three years worth of sulphur dioxide from all factories and automobiles in the world. Oceans and decaying plants eject 90 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each on annual basis which is more than double the amount the human activity generates.

Warmer earth doesn’t necessarily cause treacherous mutations in climate. A study conducted in the Artic region by group of scientists assuming temperature increase of few degrees with higher carbon dioxide in air indicated that Artic ecological system’s productivity increased. Bolstered by historical facts, the study shows vegetation in land increased leading to higher population of reindeers and other animals. The plankton in the sea proliferated increasing the food resources for birds and fish which in turn are eaten by polar bears. The population of polar bears should increase if the temperatures in Artic region were to go up. The entire ecology will benefit should the temperatures increase.

Every year several billions of dollars are awarded to research organizations and academic institutions to carry out research on causes and effects of global warming. There will be panic among all these communities if everyone is to say climate is not changing due to human activity. Rich and powerful nations who had their share of growth and success by polluting the atmosphere for several decades are now forcing the developing nations to cede to aggressive targets of reduced carbon emissions. There are no moral or ethical grounds for the modern western world to dictate and define the scope of growth to developing world. Starvation, mal-nutrition, Islamic terrorism, denial of human rights, poverty and diseases are the most challenging issues in the current world not ‘climate change’. Millions of children and adults die in poor countries of easily curable diseases such as dysentery, stomach cramps, etc. Only technology, science and industrialization will help people by getting access to clean drinking water, food, shelter and proper sanitation facilities. Countries like India have immense potential to explore in terms of building more factories and power plants thus generating employment in the process. There are millions of Indians who deserve to live a better life and this is only possible if our government does not agree to any substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.