Global Warming
Is Global Warming a Conspiracy? Global warming is the rise in the average temperature of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans since the late 19th century and its projected continuation. Since the early 20th century, Earth’s mean surface temperature has increased by about 0.8 °C, with about two thirds of the increase occurring since 1980. Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and scientists are more than 90% certain that it is primarily caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases produced by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all major industrialized nations. However, a minority of scientists still skeptical of the notion that mankind is significantly influencing the climate of the earth, and consequently, they argue against taking certain measures to avert this so called global warming. In the article The Goal Is Power: The Global Warming Conspiracy by Charles Kadlec from Forbes, Kadlec considers the global warming as a conspiracy, just as these minority scientists did. Meanwhile, another article Report: Human Activity Fuels Global Warming by Anne Trafton from MIT news seems to agree with the mainstream. The author believes that human activities should take most responsible for global warming and certain measures must be taken in order to cease the global warming and to adapt to the effects of climate change. Ultimately, I believe the MIT news article is more persuasive than the Forbes article. The consequences of this result are that readers of the MIT news article will be convinced, but the Forbes article readers will not. Some people may say that the Forbes article is somehow persuasive because it provides a couple of evidences and it appeals to emotion, which can affect its audiences powerfully. However, the evidences provided by the Forbes article is not concrete and efficient enough, and the data and evidence provided by
Cited: Wikipedia, . N.p.. Web. 30 Apr 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming>. Kadlec, C. "The Goal Is Power: The Global Warming Conspiracy.". N.p.. Web. 30 Apr 2013. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/charleskadlec/2011/07/25/the-goal-is-power-the-global-warming-conspiracy/>. Trafton, A. "Report: Human Activity Fuels Global Warming." n.d., n. pag. Print. <http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/climate.html>.