A Quick Note on Global Warming

And the Very Real Threat It Still Represents

Mar 25, 2009

Though today global warming is a popular subject, that wasn't always the case. Now, a new idea presented by Garret Gruener and Daniel Kammen might be the best solution

The world is heating up. That is a fact. It will cause raging wildfires, dengue fever, and enough Katrina and other category five hurricanes to last a person a lifetime. Global warming, however, was not always believed to be a fact; even after an international panel of scientists came together to agree that global warming was indeed happening (4, Union of Concerned Scientists, Nonprofit Organization), former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney took to the airwaves (5, ABC News), claiming it was still debatable that global warming was one of mankind's creations rather than a natural occurrence. As a result, many people doubted its severity and took little heed to any warnings.

Responsively, today global warming is very much on the public's minds; with documentaries, movies, songs, and every kind of website, bumper sticker, and t-shirt imaginable it is pretty hard not to take notice. Now, the American constituency would like to know how it is going to be stopped. Scientists can fight it. Scientists can debate it. Scientists can even claim the affects will not be that bad; until there comes the report that climatologically slanted catastrophe is not imminent, though, the population is still going to demand some action.

Suggestions for Slowing Global Warming

Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned debate dealing with global warming's cause, there still is not a clear cut way to fix the problem. If someone were to say that the reason for climate change was because of something mankind has been doing, one course of action seems to be the little things an average person can do around the house. Recycling, carpooling, and planting a tree can help reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Worldwide, nations must cut emissions in half over the next fifty years. To do that, the United States alone would have to cut their emissions down by eighty percent. If people had known to do this years back, the world would not be in the predicament it is in right now.

The Global Cooling Taxes Idea

Garrett Gruener, the founder of AskJeeves.com, and Daniel Kammen, co-director for the Berkley Institute of the Environment, propose that America use a 'global cooling tax' as an incentive to use cleaner energy sources (1, Los Angeles Times). This would mean that those with heavy gas guzzling cars such as Hummers who drive ten thousand miles a year would have to pay $200 a year whereas someone who drove a car such as a Prius would only pay $50. This is the best proposal to stop climate change simply because everyone will now have reason to help; including those who are still on the fence about whether or not humans are part of the problem.

James Hansen, head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, is in support of the idea, even going so far as to write a letter to President Obama on the issue (6, Bright Green Blog) To cut down on miles, there would be more car pooling, biking, bus catching, or even walking, which could, in turn, help America's obesity problem. It would not be too complicated for those who do not quite understand using sugar as biofuels, or wind energy, or anything else the scientifically minded have conceived: it would just be a simple, clear cut, right or wrong, solution. In the end, isn't that what everyone wants? They want someone to sit down, tell them what they need to do to stop the rising problem of global warming, and to insure that everything will be okay.

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The copyright of the article A Quick Note on Global Warming in Climate Change is owned by Mary Faler. Permission to republish A Quick Note on Global Warming in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.