Global warming IS real

Global warming has been a hot button topic for decades. Starting with the science community, it’s migrating to social and political communities as well.

With that comes the injections of personal belief and religion. Unfortunately to those who feel global warming is an exaggeration: facts cannot be changed due to personal aspects.

First, it’s a common misconception that climate change and global warming are two independent phenomena. They aren’t. Climate change is defined as the change in global and or regional climate patterns. Global warming is the steady pattern of increasing global temperature.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), whose mission it is to understand and predict changes in climate and the many aspects of our planet, temperatures globally have been on a steady incline. 2016 marks the highest average temperature since 1880, the year we started keeping records.

Second, why is the common thought amongst Americans that religion has the highest opinion over science? Religion is based off personal accounts of history, almost like a game of telephone. Science is a method. It is a sound basis for discovering what is true in a repeatedly tested process. So are Americans too scared to be wrong about their opinions than to accept something as proven true? It’s possible to be religious and still trust science.

Lastly, I’d like to draw attention to the ever increasing number of extreme weather events. Hurricane Alex hit in January of 2016 even though the season runs from June to November. Alaska saw temperatures 10 degrees above average in February and the northeast saw up to 20 degrees below average. Countries such as Japan have even seen an increase in earthquakes, such as the 2011 earthquake that produced tsunami waves 10 meters in height.

Further information can be found at reputable sources such as NOAA, The Weather Channel, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and  National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI).

The best thing citizens can do is continue to support the agencies in the wake of Trump’s gag rule and funding cut-off for these agencies.