To what extent should we consider global warming a threat?
First off, I would like to say that out of all the articles I have read, this by far has to be one of the most questioning. I think this due to the fact that global warming is one of the more controversial topics with scientists disagreeing with each other constantly.
I do feel that we should not be threatened by these higher concentrations of CO2 yet, but rather we should study them more before diving into assumptions. Yes, the article did state that the station itself was specifically made for CO2 research, however, there are other things that play into this. Take for example the natural cycle of the Earth, not only are we polluting the atmosphere orurselves, but the Earth has its natural cycle where we it will experience periods of heat and cold (i.e. The "Mini" Ice Age, pre- 1800's). Other than that, as said before, take more time to fully comprehend this phenomenon and find ways to solve it.
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Patty Yu
5/13/2013 03:59:52 pm
I agree. Just like the metaphor in the article, describing the earth as an electric blanket, it will still take some time for the system to catch up, because there are so many interlinking ecosystems and organisms that interact and effect each other, so it takes a while to hit us. And yes, it will give us some time to study and understand it further, so we can find a reasonable efficient way to dampen our impacts.
This may be just a rather extreme flux in the earth's temperature cycle, but what if our human impacts have pushes it to the so-called "tipping point" and it may cause the system to go out of control? I think that global warming is just a major threat to humans. Nature can always regenerate itself and sprout new life. But because we are so reliant on the world's resources to power our technology and ultimately our lives, we cannot afford to lose it all in natural disasters, such as floods, earthquakes, typhoons and what not. We are not able to adapt to this big change that will happen, because without our knowledge/technology we are very vulnerable. This also ties in with overpopulation, since we've past the carrying capacity of our "livable" land area, and we're overly exploiting the resources that are available to us. We can't help it, as Ms. Crom says, "Inertia". It's still not far into global warming for us living in the developed world to feel the threat, but I think we definitely need to act fast, and act BIG (:
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Laura Yu
5/14/2013 09:02:40 am
Shall human beings interfere with this rise of CO2 or let the nature restore the balance of ecosystem in its own way? Yes, the trend is disturbing and it may be a major threat or maybe not. Anyway, it does not seem that human being can find a solution because the industrialization, globalization and overpopulation are inevitable for human beings. People are trying to find a cleaner way of production and life.
I think the rise of CO2 in the atmosphere is a reaction of the nature or the Earth to deal with this issue, in a way similar to a human body reacting to invading virus by having a fever. In this way, the fever will raise the temperature of the human body to a level to kill the virus. The global warming is like a fever and it will take a toll on the nature, the planet and human being. This means, the global warming is exactly how the Earth reacts to address the issue of industrialization and overpopulation by raising the level of CO2 to such a level, so that the ecosystem on the Earth can be restored to a balance.
The nature or the Earth has its own way of equilibrium and human shall just follow it.
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Yejin Son
5/14/2013 09:44:31 pm
To what extent does scientific data affect people to believe the scientist's prediction?
In this article, it said that scientists measured an average concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide of 400 parts per million . But, in the past it was 350 parts per million, which is less than now. Due to this result, because the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide is increasing, scientists estimate that it will grow up faster and human will going to face the serious problem.
If there was no accurate number data, people might not believe scientists about that increasing carbon dioxide concentrations will grow faster, because there's no accurate data they would not feel that this problem is serious. Therefore, scientific data plays an important role in science world, because it’s one of the ways that makes people to believe the scientific explanation.
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Catherine Kim
5/16/2013 03:17:35 am
Carbon dioxide, which is the main greenhouse gas that contribute the global warming. As the world has been developed, it is unavoidable to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to be emitted to the atmosphere. Since global warming is the main controversial issues in the world, almost every people knows about it. Even people, including us, know what spurs the speed of global warming, and how it will be negatively impact on the earth, such as on environment and on human. Furthermore, we all knows how to slow the speed the global warming, such as reducing amount of carbon dioxide and etc. But why still the speed of global warming seems to be never slow down and what is more, it is hardly hear and find that the rate of carbon dioxide is decreasing. People always worry about the issue, but the data shows how inattentive we are that we only say in word not show it as an action. Still, by reading the article, we are worry about global issue and our future, how ever nothing can change unless we show how we care the earth, environment, and ourselves by actions.
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Nat
5/16/2013 10:39:19 am
"To what extent are the ethical implications of leaving the problem of climate change to the next generation?
I agree with what Patty says and that we should definitely act big and act fast...and ACT NOW. This article frankly scared me and I think that this is proof that we are NOT going in cycles and we definitely cannot afford to just "not feel threatened". The fact that we have had a 'high' within our time clearly shows that we have been doing something to the environment and we have gone out of line. Sure, WE may not feel threatened, but how ethical is it for us to continue doing what we do so that the devastating effects of climate change will be felt by the next generations to come.Don't we have a responsibility as human beings to try and provide a better world for the next generation and to work towards progress? "
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Zay Park
5/16/2013 02:59:36 pm
How come we notice that increase of carbon dioxide level is caused by us?
Many people and scientist, they believe that human activities like driving cars, running factories, etc. However, can we say that the increase of carbon dioxide level is caused by those activities only? In my opinion, I think that have other reasons, for example, development of technology. Machines and methods we used 30years before and these we are using now is different a lot, because technologies develop rapidly nowadays. Machines that we are using now is lot more accurate than machines we used before, therefore, the data we took before could be the mis-collected one. Therefore the result could be different from we estimate. I'm not saying that the carbon dioxide level of past and now is just almost close but it shows different because of the difference of technology development, human activities might be the one of the factor that made the carbon dioxide level higher, however, the amount of increase would be not that much we see in this article.
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Niki
5/16/2013 03:00:30 pm
To what extent how people perceive previous science prediction believe in that way?
We watched video of Professor Moore in TOK class, according to him, he said there is less doubt about the result what scientist said. So we can't not sure about the result. It means global waning is just general climate just like Ice Age, repetition of weathering change. So my knowledge issue is To what extent how scientific record and language that scientist used can influence the way we perceive and believe in certain way?
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Bella park
5/16/2013 03:05:45 pm
Despite human's efforts, we still can find out that the amount of carbon dioxide is increasing. Why we have to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide? Do we have to develop new strategies to prevent increasing number of carbon dioxide? Because it is one of the main reason that causes global warming in the world. The greenhouse gase come from the carbon dioxide causes the temperature rise. Because the infrared ligh have long wavelength, it is absorved in the atmosphere. In addition, since discriminat development of forests, excessive use of fossil fuel, increasing Freon gas concentration and increasing methane gas concentration are cuased by increasing amount of carbon dioxide. We should make a plan to reduce it. If this situation continues, the polar ice melting will become more faster and result in a rise of the sea levels.
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Kyle Jeon
5/16/2013 03:19:12 pm
To what extent human is the main cause of producing carbon dioxide.
Nowadays, carbon dioxide which is increasing dramatically day by day is a main global issue. There has been a controversy whether human is the main cause of producing carbon dioxide. Actually, human’s activity produce lots of carbon dioxide. Before the industrial revolution, human did not use machine a lot. Therefore, there were not much carbon dioxide existed at that time. But after industrial revolution, human started use machine a lot. To run the machine, it require lots of fossil fuel, natural resource and etc. Therefore, naturally amounts of carbon dioxide produced increase a lot. For these reasons, at some point, human are the main cause of producing carbon dioxide.
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To what extent can human beings and human impact on the environment be considered 'natural'?
5/16/2013 03:20:25 pm
To what extent can human beings and human impact on the environment be considered 'natural'? It is a known fact that because of the human activity in the past few decades, the pollution level of the planet Earth has spiked up. One of the most concerning change is the increasing CO2 and other various green house. Especially CO2 levels have been rising a lot, primarily because of the consumption of fossil fuels. But to what extent can these be considered as unnatural or natural? Humans, are in essential an animal in the planet Earth. If the change of the planet is led by the natural development of humans from science, can these changes be considered as unnatural?
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Woo Min Park
5/16/2013 03:21:39 pm
To what extent can human beings and human impact on the environment be considered 'natural'? It is a known fact that because of the human activity in the past few decades, the pollution level of the planet Earth has spiked up. One of the most concerning change is the increasing CO2 and other various green house. Especially CO2 levels have been rising a lot, primarily because of the consumption of fossil fuels. But to what extent can these be considered as unnatural or natural? Humans, are in essential an animal in the planet Earth. If the change of the planet is led by the natural development of humans from science, can these changes be considered as unnatural?
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Hong Jae Kim
5/16/2013 03:21:52 pm
How far humans are responsible to this phenomenon
In this article it said the level of carbon dioxide recorded as top in this period. Go back to past where the carbon dioxide are release massive amount. Back to the industirlal reveloution in England people started to build factory to produce more products. But this led emissions of a lot of carbon dioxide. After that people build more factory they started to use train and car which also produce carbon dioxide a lot. So now our planet Earth encountered serious problem, humans need to be responsible for this phenomenon
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