Botkin and Gore Argument on Global Warming
Daniel Botkin and Al Gore have very different views on the issues of global warming. Botkin contends that the scare tactics used by Gore and many similar thinking environmentalists are simply a desperate means intended to alarm the public and force governments to take actions that are unnecessary and misdirected. Gore alleges that immediate action is necessary to avoid increases in the plant and animal extinction and the spread of diseases. Botkin admits that global warming is a fact, but as a scientist, he cannot agree on the severity and negative effects of the condition. While both men present compelling different arguments for their views on global warming, Gore has seized the attention of the public laymen by writing books and articles carefully aimed at this segment of the population, producing and Academy Award winning film on the subject, and winning the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2007 for his work in behalf of the issue. Botkin has continued to direct his position to the academic and scientific communities by writing textbooks and scientific articles and avoiding the public debate. Both men accept the fact that global warming exists, but Botkin renounces the gloom and doom predictions of gore and other environmentalists and contends that scientific evidence does not support the fatal forecasts of Gore and his fellow alarmists. The Gore evidence for the dangers of global warming is quite powerful. He states in his essay, “The Time to Act is Now”: The science us extremely clear: global warming may not affect the frequency of hurricanes, but it makes the average hurricane stronger, magnifying it destructive power. In the years ahead, there will be more storms like Katrina, unless we change course. Indeed, we had two more category 5 storms since Katrina—including Wilma, which before landfall was the strongest hurricane ever measured in the Atlantic. We know that hurricanes are heat engine that thrive on warm water. We know that heat-trapping gasses