The Causes of Global Climate Change

Global warming: one of the hottest and most politically charged issues of the 21st century, and for good reason. The potential harms are massive: Ice sheets melting (causing sea levels to rise and a decline of available fresh water), more common droughts and floods, stronger natural disasters and a complete over-haul of our ecosystem (nationalgeographic.com). Combine these factors and add in a few hundred years, we could have a messy situation.

We know what might happen if the trend of increasing universal temperatures continues, but nobody can seem to pinpoint the exact reasons as to why this is happening. Is it a natural phenomenon? Are humans causing it?

Or as Charlie Perry, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist, suggests: Variation in the number of sunspots causes climate change and dismissing the widely accepted theory that it is caused by high levels of carbon dioxide (Lawrence Journal World 3). For background, a sunspot is a region on the Sun's photosphere that is cooler and darker than the surrounding material. Sunspots often appear in pairs or groups with specific magnetic polarities that indicate electromagnetic origins. He points to the fact that every eleven years, the sun goes through cycles of high and low sun activity; right now we are at a period of minimal sun activity. In fact, in 2009 the sun was on track to set a record of the least amount of sunspots in a three-year period (1). However there is an inherent problem to his argument: He provides no scientific data as to how sun activity affects the temperature of our climate. The only piece of evidence he could provide was that one of the cycles occurred in 1913, which he says is “a time when old-timers talk about it being really cold” (2). Readers sent in let...

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...hen there is a world-wide organization that spends years of research before publishing reports on global warming.

Works Cited

"AR4 SYR Synthesis Report." IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. United Nations, 2007. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. .

"Global Warming Effects Information, Global Warming Effects Facts, Climate Change Effects - National Geographic." Environment Facts, Environment Science, Global Warming, Natural Disasters, Ecosystems, Green Living - National Geographic. National Geographic. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. .

"Definition: Sunspots." Amazing Space. Space Telescope Science Institute. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. .