Global Warming Essay: Union of Concerned Scientists vs Competitive Enterprise Institute

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Global warming has been an issue for quite some time now and only recently has it been adopted by a mass amount of people in their efforts to fight against it. However, there are people and organizations who claim that global warming does not exist or is not caused by human activities. After reading my text, Taking Sides, on the debate between members of UCS and members of the CEI, I wanted to do a little research of my own to see if the claims they were making were accurate. Even though members of the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Competitive Enterprise Institution argue two opposite sides of the global warming issue, they have much in common within their tactics to win the debate. Both organizations have credible and discreditable backgrounds and pay enormous amounts of money to those in administration to gain their support as well as donating money to other organizations for their support. The UCS and CEI also use scientists to prove their positions to be correct, and they both provide scientific evidence on both sides. What is Global Warming? Global warming is an issue we are all pretty familiar with. It is the climate change that we, humans, are responsible for. The warming of the earth’s atmosphere is caused by the fossil fuels we burn, clearing of forests, and the carbon dioxide and other harmful gases we release into the air (Cunningham, Cunningham, 2009). There are other harmful toxins we use such as pesticides that are supporting global warming. Some effects of global warming include: increase in weather catastrophes, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and the impact on species could lead to extinction (Cunningham, Cunningham, 2009). “Many scientists regard anthropogenic global climate change to be the most i... ... middle of paper ... ...to those in administration to gain influence over political proposals on what to do about global warming and if there should be anything done about it. ExxonMobil is the most profitable company in the world and has a great deal of power. Both organizations have scientists working on research to prove their side of the debate and have credible and non-credible data. They have influenced many other non-profit organizations to becoming part of the global warming coalition. Similarly, the Union of Concerned Scientists has over ten million members fighting against global warming and companies like ExxonMobil. During the Kyoto Protocol, UCS members were fighting for the purpose while members of CEI were fighting against it. However, in The Washington Post, author Steven Mufson, writes that ExxonMobil is misunderstood and does acknowledge global warming (Mufson, 2011).

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