Election Reflection

I must say that I was quite pleased with the voter turnout for this election. However i am pretty disappointed at how some people handled the results. I was looking at Facebook and could not help but feel somewhat disgusted at some of the things that I saw. People were bashing Obama more than ever with some going as far as to say they would leave the country and even making racial remarks towards him. It really was the most immature thing that I have seen in a very long time. I must however say that not everything I saw was bad. There were some individuals who stepped up there maturity levels and I really appreciate that they did. The most important one I saw was from a very conservative man. He said that while he is conservative and wanted McCain to win, he will support our President because it is our civil duty to do so. The remarks like this really restored some of my faith in the United States political system.

Preventative Measures

I think that it is time we treat global warming like it is happening until we receive scientific data that says that it is not. Here is a link of the top 50 ways that you can help to reduce your supposed affect on global warming.

Self Analysis

I believe that my way of thinking about global warming has changed over the course of this project. I am naturally a very contradictory person who usually sees most things in a scientific perspective. This project almost forced me to step outside of that comfort zone. Before I ever really thought about global warming I just assumed it to be a truth because of what I had learned in school. Now I realize just how incomplete of a science it actually is. We have practically no data about global warming at all and to be honest this is what made this topic so confusing for me. It was so hard to make post on a topic that had practically no data to completely support any claim that I made. But it at the same time forced me to actually develop my own opinion about the topic instead of just relying on others as i had done before. I also think that by responding to other people's post I became more aware of many political issues that i would not have noticed otherwise. The project also forced me to take on a more active attitude about global warming. I understand that it is a very complex topic but I do not believe that we, as a society, should just sit and wait for more scientific evidence. We must act soon to at least make an attempt to try to prevent the possible effects of global warming. I think that in this situation we should hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Implications

This is in my opinion the most important issue right now. Unfortunately it is not being treated as such. Global warming has the potential to affect everything about our way of life. The temperature increase would melt the ice caps and cause massive flooding in some regions. The new increase in temperature could also cause hurricanes to have a much more massive effect since they thrive in warm water situations. The new change in weather would also result in the possible extinction of many species of animals, such as the polar bear, that thrive in cold temperatures. There would be droughts in some areas and floods in others. Not to mention the destruction of some sea life and things like the coral reef. People should realize that the threat of global warming is far too great to waste time bickering over if it is caused by humans or not. We should do whatever is necessary to preserve the life of our planet before it gets too late and there is nothing that can be done to save us. I think that this issue should also be a driving force for finding better sources of alternative fuels. Regardless of the causes of global warming burning fossil fuels are putting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and fossil fuels are a non-renewable resource and will not last forever.

Theory Post

The climate of the earth is increasing. This is common knowledge at this point. So why are people still fighting? In the political world most politicians believe that human activites have had a great impact on the Earth. This however, is not where the debate is. The problem seems to be in the scientific community. It seems that half of the scientists believe humans have mostly caused global warming while the other half believe that this is just a part of the natural fluctuations of the Earth's temperature. Both sides could be right but there is no evidence to solidify either sides stance on the issue. I understand that each side believes they are right, but this affects the entire world and not just the pride of a few scientists. I believe that both sides should come together to try to get more data on global warming because the rift in the scientific community has only created a rift in the quality of data about it. This is unacceptable. The possible risks of global warming more than warrant preventative actions being taken. If we try to prevent things from getting any worse and it turns out that global warming isn't caused by humans, then what have we really given up? But on the other hand if we do nothing, we could end up seeing the death of our planet because of the stubborness of some scientists who would rather be right than try to compromise and think about what is better for the world overall.

Banks

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen has a plan. He wants to inject 250 billion dollars into banks. This will help the banks and should help Americans. About half of that money will go to large banks. The other half will go to smaller banks. Hopefully this will trickle down and help both banks and citizens. If successful then banks should start to lend more money. There is a lot of controversy about this. I don not understand why. Maybe someone could tell me what is so bad about this plan.

Just some links

For this post I decided that I would simply provide some links for and against humans causing global warming. I think that information like this is crucial in helping each person develop his or her own individual opinion about global warming and it's causes.
What Could be causing Global Warming
Global Warming fast facts
33 Facts about Global Warming

Analysis

Global warming is defined as the increase of the average temperature of the Earth. It is agreed by almost all scientists that global warming is occurring. The issue at however, is whether or not human activity is contributing to global warming. Some scientists believe that global warming is a direct effect of human activity while others still hold to the belief that it is just a natural part of the Earth and that humans have no significant effect on it. Regardless of the differing opinions of the scientific community, most politicians have chosen to believe that global warming is happening and that people must do something to stop it. John McCain plans to fight global warming and make America less dependent on foreign oil. Obama plans to do the same thing but has put more emphasis on how he hopes to accomplish his plan. Now you may be asking yourself what the big issue is if almost all members of both parties want to limit carbon dioxide emissions.
Truth is, that the government is editing documents to hide the truth about global warming. They are preventing some scientists from communicating what they have learned with the general public. This is a big deal. Global warming has become a huge market creating thousands of jobs for people here in America. It is basically one of the driving forces for the United States to become less dependent on oil and find other sources of fuels. It allows politicians to have more leverage in their push for making America greener. Without global warming there would be no need to make cars that produce less carbon dioxide and no need to push for people to regulate the carbon dioxide already being emitted.
At the same time oil companies have hired unqualified scientists to make it seem as though global warming isn't real. Oil companies stand to lose a lot if they can not convince the general public that there is no threat from global warming. The people would demand higher standards from oil companies and then want to find other sources of fuel even more than they currently do. This could result in the destruction of the oil market as we now know it and it is in part already starting the destruction of the oil market. With politicians pushing for more ways of alternative fuels, the oil market will eventually crumble. So the fact that global warming could be being caused by the burning of these fossil fuels only results in the oil market losing ground even faster. The only reason that the oil market is still successful today is because of the lack efficient alternative sources of fuels. However, I believe that the oil market will crumble the moment that there is some better option to burning fossil fuels.

The Burning Sun

It is true that the levels of carbon dioxide have fluctuated beyond what we believe to be the normal threshold. I do not deny this fact as i do not deny that it is possible, though not likely, that this has come from human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels. I still believe however, that there must be more data collected and observations made before we can truly say that human activity is the primary cause of global warming. It is known that the temperature of the earth has risen over the last few hundred years, in the last decade in particular, but there is no way for us to know that this is a direct result of only human activity. The natural cycles in Earth's orbit can alter the planets exposure to the sun which could cause the increase in temperature and carbon dioxide level. It is also not as likely that only human activity caused global warming to the degree that people say it does. About 450 million years ago the carbon dioxide levels were over ten times what they are now but the planet was at one of it's coldest periods in history. At the moment it is way to possible that this is just a time when the Earth is naturally more susceptible to the heat from the sun. If people really want others to believe global warming is caused by human activity then they should get more hard evidence first. Because without evidence this is just another empty claim like that of an oncoming ice age from the 1970's.

It's not the Heat, It's Human

I think it would be best to approach this blog by beginning with some background on the topic. Global warming refers to the the increase of the Earth's surface temperature and ocean temperature every year. Some people believe that while the temperature of the Earth naturally goes up, the activities of human beings has caused a dramatic increase in the Earths temperature. This is due mainly to the burning of fossil fuels which increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Upon first look it may seem that global warming is pretty scientific with no reason for opposition, but that is very wrong. From a scientific view point, there is not much data to support global warming. The scientific method shows that we must gather data to formulate and test natural events. This is not possible with global warming since we can not recreate the earth. I do believe that there is some validity to global warming, but that this time I think there is not enough evidence to really make global warming any more than someones opinion. Sure the temperature has changed,, but so what? The temperature has always changed and fluctuated over time. We can not assume that if Point A goes up then point B goes up that point A caused point B to go up. It is more complex than that. We must have some set of hard evidence to support global warming or else it basically just becomes another market where some scientist can doctor data to make it seem that humans have caused so much harm. Because lets face it, without any hard proof, global warming is only a way for companies to convince people to spend more money on things that will be more "green."