Name: Bhoumik Shah

Roll: 12D100008
Course: ES 200
Date: 19/01/2015

Department: Mechanical

Armageddon of the Centaury

Global Warming Fact or Fiction
The largest world crisis known to every kid, adolescent and adult
growing up anywhere in the world from the developed countries to the
nomadic countries of Africa where this very issue has become a
hindrance to their economic development is GLOBAL WARMING. But
what exactly is global warming? How does a person cut through the
hype and publicity surrounding this issue and find the underlying truth
to this complex issue which has the world divided over.
According to the proposed theory about global warming which is
accepted and popular almost worldwide global warming is caused by
pollution caused by human activities. It is the direct result of increase in
the content of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The heat coming
from the Sun is in the form of radiations. Radiations strike the Earths
surface and get reflected. If the atmosphere would have not contained
some constituent gases, then all the heat coming from the Sun would
have been lost to the space after reflection. Considerable temperature
drop would have been observed on the Earth and the climate here
would have not been suitable for living beings to live in. These
constituent gases are called greenhouse gases. They perform the vital
function of maintaining heat in atmosphere. These gases consist of
mainly water vapour, Carbon dioxide and some other gases like Sulphur
Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide and Nitrous Oxide in small amount. Now as
per the theory, human development lead to industrial growth, vehicles
and electricity generation etc. resulting in increase in amount of
greenhouse gases in atmosphere as all the above mentioned
development activities require carbon fuels like coal, petrol, diesel etc.
and burning them evolves carbon dioxide on a great amount
accompanied by other greenhouse gases also. So in the recent period
the heat content, getting retained in atmosphere started increasing,
resulting in increase in global temperature. This total phenomenon is
mentioned as Global Warming. But how severely this temperature
change is going to affect us?
In the movie An Inconvenient Truth, US ex-Vice President Al Gore starts
off with saying the prevalent prejudice that the earth is too large that
the climate cannot be affected by the actions of human beings is no
longer true as with developments and improvements in the technology
at our disposal, the effects of our actions have a large impact on nature
which can and does actually change the climate of the earth. Gore goes

on to state how the levels of carbon dioxide is steadily increasing in our

atmosphere over the years and when superimposed on a graph of
changing patterns of the earths temperature, the two show a close
correlation. Gore tries to prove his point by giving the example of
various glaciers across the world. The summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa
used to be covered with ice but now the ice-cover has decreased
drastically. This decrease has happened over the past few decades
which also coincides with the economic boom and subsequent
industrialization and developments in the human society and the
consequential increase in the CO2 output. There are several other
examples of melting away of glaciers across the globe which shows its
a worldwide phenomenon.
The mechanism of global warming is very straight forward: sun
rays come from the sun everyday then some of it is reflected back
while the rest is trapped due to greenhouse gases like CO2, CH4,
water vapour, etc. . This unwanted increase of carbon dioxide ratio
has made the layer thicker so more rays are trapped, more than we
normally need for the sustainability of living beings. As a result, a lot
of temperature changing and unusual phenomena can be seen around
the world.
Al Gore starts off with a graph of progressively rising CO2 graphs
from the year 1900 & million years before 1900 and their relation with
the earths average temperature. Al Gore shows an impressive series
of "then and now" images documenting the widespread retreat of
many glaciers over the past century. Most dramatically, he shows
Kenya's Mt. Kilimanjaro, whose 11,000 year-old glaciers are almost
gone. The movie discusses Greenland and Antarctic ice caps. Al Gore
shows animations of what a 20-foot rise in sea level after melting of
these ice caps would do to Manhattan, Florida, India, and China. A 20foot sea level rise is what we expect if all of Greenland or all of the
West Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt. The risk of a catastrophic
melting and break-up of the Greenland or West Antarctic ice sheets is
very real, when we consider that sea level before the most recent ice
age was 15 feet higher than it is now.
Al Gore highlights a Winston Churchill quote The era of
procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients,
of delays is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period
of consequences. With wit, smarts and hope, "An Inconvenient Truth"
ultimately brings home Al Gore's persuasive argument that we can no
longer afford to view global warming as a political issue rather, it is
the biggest moral challenge facing our global civilization.
In The Great Global Warming Swindle British television producer
Martin Durkin, presents scientists, economists, politicians, writers, and
others who dispute the scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic
global warming. The documentary brings about a drastic paradigm
shift in the views of global warming fed in by school textbooks and

publicized by media. Durkins documentary plays a useful role: it

reminds us that the global warming issue is actually debatable.
The documentary says that the driving force for earths
temperature is not CO2 but The Sun. The film highlights the solar
variation theory of global warming, asserting that solar activity is
currently at an extremely high level, and that this is directly linked to
changes in global temperature. It put forwards the theory of relation
between sun spots (spots on sun where intense level of magnetic field
is detected) and the average temperature of Earth during that period.
Thus, no or less number of sun spots (solar inactivity or Maunder
Minimum) were observed during the little ice age of 17th Century
compared to now when more no. of sun spots have been observed.
The film argues that the activity of the sun is far more influential on
global warming and cooling than any other man-made or natural
activity on Earth. The percentage of CO2 in air is about 0.054% & is
very minute to cause any significant change in increasing Global
temperature.
It suggests that rather than CO2 driving temperature, it is the
temperature that drives CO2. Thus, explaining the similarity in
increasing CO2 levels and the increasing temperatures. The film
further asserts that human contribution towards CO2 in the
atmosphere is minuscule and that majority of contribution is from
volcanoes and oceans.
It argues that the consensus on climate change is the product of "a
multibillion-dollar worldwide industry: created by fanatically antiindustrial environmentalists; supported by scientists peddling scare
stories to chase funding; and propped up by complicit politicians and
the media". It suggests that the prospect of global warming has
created many jobs in journalism, the public sector, and academia
jobs that might be at risk if the idea of global warming comes under
question. Therefore, scientists, government officials, and members of
the media have a vested interest in promoting the idea of global
warming, if only because their careers depend on it. Prominent space
is given to Kenyan economist James Shikwati, who is quoted at great
length: One clear thing that emerges from the whole Global warming
debate is the point that somebody is keen to kill the African dream,
and the African dream is to develop.
Of course, The Great Global Warming Swindle is one-sided, and
that the producer definitely cherry-picked quotes and facts to suit his
belief that global warming is a hoax. At the same time, it is hard to
imagine Al Gore as being completely neutral when he selected the
statistics and connected this issue with his political goals to become a
president to be featured in An Inconvenient Truth. Both Durkin and
Gore made their respective films with an eye to their own agendas,
and neither is free of bias. The only question is who is correct.

Though there is some truth to the idea of global warming, the issue
of climate change should also be openly debated. Although the
majority of scientists do believe that global warming is a real
phenomenon, there are also some scientists who are skeptical of the
prevailing scientific consensus. And it is in the spirit of this debate that
The Great Global Warming Swindle is relevant.
An inconvenient truth and The Great Global Warming Swindle are
documentaries with contrasting ideas. The film The Great Global
Warming Swindle is however seems more convincing to me as it
brings forth more logical facts and the scientists themselves asserting
the facts. Being an Engineering student it is easier for me to side with
scientists putting up facts rather than a politician presenting graphs
and figures. Assuming the data presented in The Great Global
Warming Swindle is not fabricated or manipulated in any way (which
are the reasons used to criticize the documentary) the conclusions
are quite convincing and tempting to be accepted.
If it is to happen so, that the greenhouse gases are not responsible
for the climate anomalies then the various measures taken by us so
far are futile in combating the Global warming and we are still left
with the problem of temperature rise. If it is to occur so that the
activities in the Sun are responsible for rising temperatures then we
are the sitting ducks at the mercy of nature for humans can correct
their follies but not rebel against nature.
However as the saying goes that Prevention is better than cure, to
be on the safer side it would be wise to keep on controlling unwanted
emissions of various greenhouse gases like CO2 if technologically
some countries are capable to do so but it should not be forced on
developing and poor nations who are backwards and cannot afford it.