CR Chaper 7 Question 4

In Jeffrey Kluger and Richard Lindzen's articles they discuss global warming. They differ in their approaches to the discussion. Of course they both talk about the cause and effects of global warming but then they give different points of view.

In Jeffrey Kluger's "Be Worried, Be Very Worried" Kluger discusses how global warming is being caused by people and what is taking effect with global warming now. There have been many natural disasters and he seems to believe that the CO2 emissions are what is causing these disasters all over the world. It is believed that the increase in CO2 is causing the glaciers and ice caps to crumble and slush causing a rise in sea level that could "swallow large parts of coastal Florida and most of Bangladesh." He states that scientists have predicted global warming occuring and that most have concluded people are the cause of it. Another example he gives is feedback loops occuring causing soils to warm up and decompose therefore releasing gases in the air. This occurance could lead to warming and permafrost thaw. Permafrost thaw happening could cause a loss of thermoregulation, giving warmer oceans and colder continents. All of it mainly goes back to the overproduction of CO2 causing and environment for plants and animals to slowly disappear.

In Richard Lindzen's "Climate of Fear: Global-Warming Alarmists Intimidate Dissenting Scientists into Silence" Lindzen has differences in the way he discusses global warming. He feels like people overreact about this issue. He agrees CO2 should be a factor in the global warming but states "...what the public fails to grasp is that the claims neither constitute support for alarm nor establish man's responsibility for the small amount of warming that has occurred." His finding on the Iris Effect, where cirrus clouds with high temperatures can give negative climate feedback that reduce the response to growing amounts of CO2, he believes was discredited because it went against global warming. He basically believes people play it up bigger than it really is.

I agree with Lindzen's standpoint that global warming is made out bigger than it is but Kluger's article was much more effective. He had much more effective evidence and was much less biased than Lindzen was. Klugen knew how to support his theory on what he was writing. Lindzen did so poorly.