Global warming is one of the most controversial environmental issues to confront our world in the last few decades. As the ozone layer has been depleted through the release of carbon dioxide gases causing global warming there are still those who question whether global warming even exits, and if it does whether it should be worried about since science could possibly deal with it like it has with most other environmental problems. The world faces its biggest challenge environmentally from global warming. For global warming to start to take a step back however things need to start with the United States. Currently the United States is the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide gas since it relies primarily on coal power plants for its electricity and other fossil fuels. The most important obstacle facing global warming is the argument against its existence made by the American conservative movement because of the power the American conservative movement holds world wide.
As the worlds climate continues to change and the polar ice caps melt the world will be faced with many grim realities as the oceans inch further along the shorelines of the world's coasts. Global warming causes a myriad of environmental and other problems for the world that cannot be ignored and are very real, and leave its existence as a real problem not in doubt at all. One potential problem that could be caused by global warming is the potential loss of the worlds food supply. Extreme changes in the world's climate could result in reduced crop yields that could put into serious jeopardy the world's population and cause mass starvation. Also as the oceans increase from the polar ice caps melting due to global warming land is eaten away from erosion gradually causing there to be less arable land to be used for farming. Another problem raised by global warming is that as oceans rise and the currents are changed, that it will cause the oceans to have an effect on climate events. Green house gases also have a negative impact in that they cause untold trillions of dollars of economic damages in the amount of money that it costs to pay for the pollution controls for the greenhouse gases, to find alternative methods to using fossil fuels, and to use controls in the power plants and factories that currently use them now.
The idea of global warming really took off in the United States in 1988 because of James Hansen's dramatic testimony on the senate floor which was backed up by scientific fact. Hansen's testimony gave credit for the spike in temperature that the US was facing at the time to global warming and had the hard scientific facts to back it with. However from the beginning Hansen's testimony was met with opposition. It was met with opposition because it was given at a time when there was a conservative Republican administration in the White House, which would hate to place any environmental restrictions upon any of the industries which so generously contributed to its party.
The American conservative movement is extremely powerful in America. President Bush was elected to his two terms in office largely on the basis and knowledge by the American voters that he would not enact stringent environmental controls that would curb economic growth. This American conservative voice was able to help control both houses of Congress for much of the 1990s with the Republicans controlling both the Senate and the House of Representatives. With President Bush having been elected to two consecutive terms he has been able to make appointments to his two administrations of people whose beliefs about the environment and global warming are more reflective of his own and the American conservative movement then the scientific community.
How did we get to global warming in the first place? Global warming occurs when carbon dioxide is released in the air from pollution whether it's from factories, power plants or automobiles. Global warming comes from the release of
