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Rogerian Letter on Climate Change and Adoption of Renewable Energy Technologies Jaron John ERH 221W-01 Many conflicts and social problems plague the world today. From terrorism to child birth rights. Many of these issues however, can be handled at a country or even state level but one problem stands out as one that must be solved as a united world, and that is global warming. Since 1988 the media has spread the issue of global warming. Before James E. Hansesn’s testimony to the senate in 1988, climate change was strictly a scientific fact of an evolving planet.1 Now, it is a major concern from capital hill to the average home owner. It has gotten to the point where anyone running for a national office whether it be for congress or president, will be asked their stance on global warming. But why are there sides to this argument? Can’t scientist prove or disprove that the earth’s temperature is rising and if it is, are humans causing it? Both of these questions are what have many American citizens on the fence about the issue. Most people can agree that the earth’s temperature is rising but what separates the two sides is; will the temperature peak soon and fall back down as it has in the past and are humans the real cause of the current temperature rise? 1 Aaron M. McCright. “Challenging Global Warming as a Social Problem: An Analysis of Conservative Movement’s Counter Claims”. Social Problems, vol. 47, no. 4, 2000, pp. 500 One of the leading climate change skeptics is Myron Ebell. Myron is the Director of Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), the chair of Cooler Heads Coalition think tank as well as the nominee to lead the EPA transition team for President elect Donald Trump. Myron’s latest stance on climate change is that he believes that man-made climate change exists yet does not believe that it is a serious problem and that policies that are trying to be passed are going to be ineffective and will cost much more than people anticipate. In his speech at the Heartland Institute’s 7th International Conference on Climate Change, Myron focuses on remaining to use energy producing technologies that currently exist and combating the regulations that the Obama administration has set on the oil and gas fields. He says that the democrats that are supporting the push for clean energy are ignorant and gives an example of how one leading congressman said that the atmosphere consisted of 40% CO2 when in fact CO2 is only .04%. Myron points that the Obama administration is placing the regulations to hurt the big names in the oil and gas field and therefore hurting the economy and creating unemployment. He also suggests that the “left” is in a fantasy world thinking that by preventing global warming they are saving the planet. Later in his speech he compares renewable energy technologies like solar panels and wind power to a hamster running in a wheel. I personally can see where Mr. Ebell is coming from on these points. No one wants to cut jobs in this economy, and no one wants unintelligent people making decisions in Washington on their behalf. Those who believe that human acts are causing the sudden rise in global temperatures contribute this to the rise in CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. However, the opposing side will argue that there is not enough historical data to truly track the rise and fall of the average global temperature. Climate models are also believed to be unreliable and even if they are, how can scientist know for sure that the current increase in temperatures are due to the CO2 emissions by humans? In fact, more than 1,000 scientist disagree that human activity is the primary reason for the increase temperatures. Scientist also believe that CO2 emissions do not necessarily cause global warming. CO2 levels are believed to precede rising temperatures, not cause them. In 2003 an ice core study was conducted that covered the last four climatic cycles (past 240,00 years), during which scientist concluded that CO2 levels only rose because the temperature of the earth was rising.2 Dr. William Happer at Princeton University also found that even the amount of CO2 admitted will have little impact due to the already high level of CO2 that occur naturally in the atmosphere. He concluded that the CO2 level has reached a plateau of holding in greenhouse gasses and that the increase emission of CO2 will have a miniscule effect on Earth’s average temperature.3 In 1997 over 150 nations attended a conference in Kyoto Japan to compose a framework that would set guidelines to hold countries accountable for their greenhouse gas emissions. The goal of the treaty is to cut the greenhouse gas emissions of country by 5% by 2012. In 2001, under the Bush administration, the 2 3 Climate Change ProCon.org. Section 3. Climate Change. Section 5 US dropped out of the treaty. This was believed to have been done by lobbyist and conservative think tanks. I can see why there is skepticism for the current cause of climate change. With political bias taking place during research and lobbyist and conservative movements changing the view of the U.S. on climate change it is easy to find fault with the issue. I agree with the view point that climate change occurs naturally and that it will peak and then fall again. During my research I also found evidence that backed what I originally thought which was that CO2 levels are rising and temperatures are rising but, the immediate effects of the Earth are miniscule. I also agree that the media has caused this issue to became a social issue and is now another divide between liberals and conservatives. Where my view differs form the general consensus, is when we add in the human element. It is my belief that humans are directly responsible for the unnatural, exponential rise in temperatures. The data, no matter how conservative think tanks, like Mr. Ebell’s, twist it, it’s overwhelming that the increase emissions of CO2 in the atmosphere is directly correlated to the rise in the average surface temperature on earth. Mr. Ebell jokes at how low of a percentage CO2 is in the atmosphere but he doesn’t mention at how fast that percent is rising and how much of an effect that has on our ecosystem. I can also agree with the view that climate change models may be faulty. We don’t have records of the climate past 1659, anything before that is a guess. So it only seems right to question how can we assume that the climate of the earth is changing faster than usual. I also find great fault in Mr. Ebell’s opinion because he is being directly funded by big oil and gas companies. Of course he’s going to push for more mining and drilling and of course he’s going to do everything he can to degrade the effort to produce clean renewable energy. If he doesn’t the companies that pay his salary will go bankrupt. Mr. Ebell is a short term thinker. He seems to only care about what will put money in his pocket right away. If he was smart he would be lobbying for the renewable energy technology companies. It is almost inevitable that the technology and scientist behind solar panels will become so efficient in converting sunlight to electric energy that drilling for coal will be like throwing your money down a well. It is my wish that we start fighting the rise in temperatures now by investing in renewable energy technologies. We can no longer rely on the government to make up it’s mind on whether global warming is real or not. We must take a personal investment into saving the environment and saving our own money at the same time. With government tax breaks and rebate on installing green energy generating devices in your home or business people will be more eager to install these devices and save money on their electric bill. With people doing this, the demand for electricity, that is mostly produced by coal, will decline significantly. I believe that power companies should divert their money to building clean energy developments instead of research on where to dig the next coal mine. People fear what will happen to the thousands of jobs that rely on the coal industry but I don’t see why we can’t invest in clean energy technologies in those areas and put those people to work building and maintaining these. No matter which side you are on and even if human aided global warming turns out to be entirely false, there is little to no downside in investing in clean energy technologies. Bibliography "Climate Change ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016. McCright, Aaron M., and Riley E. Dunlap. “Challenging Global Warming as a Social Problem: An Analysis of the Conservative Movement's Counter-Claims.” Social Problems, vol. 47, no. 4, 2000, pp. 499–522. www.jstor.org/stable/3097132. "Myron Ebell, ICCC7 - Climate Conferences." Climate Conferences. N.p., 05 Dec. 2012. Web. 29 Nov. 2016. <https://web.archive.org/web/20160530171251/http://climateconferences.heartland.o rg/myron-ebell-iccc7/>.