Reasearch Report on Global Warming - Myth or Reality Research Paper

Reasearch Report on Global Warming - Myth or Reality - Research Paper Example Yet, whether these changes can be attributed to or called ‘global warming’ is a difficult question. Apparently, the global warming theory is surrounded by controversy. This being said, a web research of the information and arguments relating to global warming was performed. The results of the web research suggest that global warming is a myth rather than reality, and the press coverage of global warming in the U.S. distracts public attention from the scientific evidence, which denies the existence of the global warming phenomenon. The goal, scope, and questions of research Global warming is one of the most popular objects of professional research. The press explores the meaning of global warming and its effects on the environment. Rising temperatures and changes in concentrations of carbon dioxide are believed to be reliable measures of global climate changes. In the meantime, more researchers begin to question the importance and even existence of the global warming phen omenon. The goal of this research was to decide whether or not global warming is real and realistic. The main question to answer was â€Å"Is global warming myth or reality?† Scholarly articles and book resources found on the web were used to answer the research question. Global warming: myth or reality? Global warming – myth or reality? – this is the question the public and research community are trying to answer. Books and articles provide a wealth of evidence supporting the relevance and existence of the global warming phenomenon. Temperature, sea level changes, and precipitation serve the main indicators of global warming (Maslin 23). Scientists use these indicators to estimate how the global climate changes under the influence of the industrial revolution (Maslin 23). Scientists were able to reconstruct changes in surface temperatures over the last 1,000 years – based on this information scientists produced a continuous record of temperatures, which indicate changes in surface temperatures of 0.74oC over the last 130 years (Maslin 25). The 20th century witnessed considerable fluctuations in temperature: the 1960s-1970s were the period of cooling (Maslin 25). However, generally, the planet is warming and even temperatures in the lower troposphere have been steadily increasing, approximately 0.1-0.2oC every ten years (Maslin 25). Global sea levels and precipitation are another two indicators used to judge the scope of the global warming phenomenon. The two most important precipitation data sets include the Global Historical Climate Network and Hulme (Maslin 30). It is noteworthy, that no definite global trends in precipitation have been found so far, but regional changes in precipitation are more than obvious (Maslin 30). North and South America experience significant increases in precipitation (Maslin 30). The seasonality of precipitation is changing, too (Maslin 30). Scientists observe long-term changes in precipitation in sout hern Africa and the Mediterranean (Maslin 30). The data on changes in sea levels adds to the body of evidence supporting global climate change: over the past 100 years, global sea levels have risen at least 12 cm (Maslin 31). Between 1961 and 2003, global sea levels were rising by almost 2 mm per year, and between 1993 and 2003, global sea levels steadily increased by 3.1 mm every year (Maslin 32). Scientists use