Putting Global Warming on Ice Essay Example for Free

Putting Global Warming on Ice Essay What makes the earths temperature rise and fall? Do greenhouse gases block solar heat from leaving the earth, or is it only a product of solar activity? Many people have theorized on what causes temperatures to change. A catch phrase named Global Warming came to popularity. Environmentalists from all walks of life joined the global warming fight. According to Thomas OConnell the global warming debate wasnt accepted in the 60s and 70s when he studied it. It only became popular recently in the 90s. Everyone believed that humans were causing a catastrophe by punching a whole into an ozone layer in the sky, letting harmful rays of sun in. People fought to shutdown plants in order to stop the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Everyone believed the global warming claims coming from senators and environmentalists. Today in the 21st century, science has stepped up to disprove the common myths of global warming. Many of the theories and claims of global warming are easily disproved with science. Science is the only tool that can be used to tell whether theories are fact or fiction. The first issue of global warming is the recent Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty designed to cut greenhouse emissions from successful countries. The international Kyoto protocol has been in debate for many years. The Kyoto protocol is an international treaty to reduce developed countrys greenhouse emissions, specifically carbon dioxide, to 7% below their 1990 levels. As President Bush came to office he refused the U.S.s involvement in the treaty. President Bush wasnt even the man that killed the idea for the U.S. (National Center 2). A bill, stating that the U.S. wouldnt ratify any climate treaty that would harm the United States economically and would have no consequences for developing or 3rd World countries, was passed with a unanimous 95-0 vote by the senate before President Bush was elected (National Center 2). The treaty isnt about global warming. It was designed in order to transfer success from developed nations like the U.S. to developing or struggling countries (Tuccille 2). Research declares that China, India, and Brazil who are not affected by the Kyoto Protocol will increase their CO2 emissions by 16% more than the United States even without  the Protocol in effect (National Center 3). Proponents of the protocol confessed that the treaty would not have the beneficial environmental impacts advertised and that the costs of implementation would be much higher than the public had been told (National Center 1). U.S. economy would suffer if we agreed to partake in the Kyoto scheme. Gasoline prices would increase by as much as 66 cents per gallon, electrical costs would also increase up to 80%, energy intensive products such as chemicals, steel, paper, and cars would rise in price by as much as 15%. (National Center 2). The economy of the USA would be devastated, states Thomas OConnell. The minority income would be lowered by about 10%, 864,000 African Americans as well as 511,000 Hispanics would be unemployed (National Center 2). Oil and fuel used for farming would be taxed or restricted causing in a higher cost of producing and lower profits of products including corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, hogs, and milk (Heartland Institute 2 and 3). Businesses taxed by the government for their emissions would result in raising costs for their consumers (Heartland Institute 3). New regulations would be implemented for automobiles making carpooling mandatory and would penalize owners of trucks and sports cars. The average household income would even drop by about $2,700 (Heartland Institute 2). Even the unbiased and credible Time magazine quoted, the campaign against global warming seemed to be over before it even started referring to the Kyoto Protocol (Tuccille 1). Are we prepared to disappear from the map in order to prevent 1 degree Celsius of warming for the next Century? One of the hot issues on global warming is that humankind has had something to do with the temperature. Man-made emissions such as carbon dioxide have been claimed to cause global temperatures to increase over the years. Ever since the industrial revolution in the 1940s man has continued to emit gases such as CO2 into the air. Many people claim that CO2 is what blocks heat from escaping the atmosphere. They also claim that mankind has poked a hole in something called the ozone layer, a protective layer above the atmosphere that keeps harmful UV radiation out, which lets more solar rays in. How convenient. The fact is that 98% of these greenhouse gases are natural to the earth. Man has not emitted them and they are not pollutants. They are mostly water vapors and clouds (Zipperer 2). Does that sound dangerous to you? The earth  has even cut down on the rate of carbon dioxide emissions from the years 1973-1990 (Lindzen 1 and 2). Even if we did have a lot of CO2 in the air evidently the effects wouldnt be catastrophic. In the past the atmosphere has had much more amounts of CO2 in it before without significant increases in temperature (Lindzen 4). Richard Lindzen, a professor of meteorology at MIT, claims that a doubling of CO2 in the earths atmosphere would only result in a 1 degree Celsius increase in global temperature (National Center 3). Another greenhouse gas is methane. Methane is more harmful than CO2 but will not increase significantly for another 100 years if it continues at its current rate (Michaels 1). Many credible experts in the field of science have agreed that man is not responsible. Over 17,000 scientists from all over the world have signed a petition declaring that there is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the earths atmosphere and disruption of the earths climate (Heartland Institute 5). Even if there were significant cases of warming global temperatures the effects wouldnt be as tragic as everyone thinks. There are many benefits to the warming of the earth, as there are consequences. Warming on a global scale would have dramatic effects on life and climates. Some effects may be harmful but many of them are beneficial. Some ideas about global warming consequences are myths that are unlikely. Many people say that global warming is linked with the uprising in tropical storms. Storms such as hurricanes coming from the southeast into Florida coasts have been getting stronger for many years, but in 1991 there was a drought of storms that ranged to 1995. The amount and intensity fell way below the average, which suggests that these storms were not affected by the warming of the earth (Bible Believers 3 and 4). Others claim that sea levels have risen all over the world because the polar ice caps are slowly melting due to the warming. Tests have proven that temperatures at the poles are actually getting colder and that sea levels have been rising for centuries before we had any affect on the c limate (Bible Believers 3). Former Vice President Al Gore spoke of diseases migrating due to climate warming. He spoke of diseases like the Black Plague and Cholera, which he believed were  spread because of weather patterns. Rats, who spread the Black Plague, lived in both warm and cold climates so they had no reason to migrate. His second example Cholera has been a problem in both warm and cold climates and can be easily treated by purifying the water we drink (Heartland Institute 9). Many people have never heard possible benefits of global warming before. Having a warmer climate is very beneficial. Historically, very warm periods in time resulted in flourishing life such as plants, animals, and fish (Bible Believers 4). Even large amounts of CO2 can be beneficial. More CO2 in the atmosphere fuels plants, which makes more food for all walks of life. Vikings were once able to farm what is now a cold and icy Greenland (Zipperer 3). A warming of the earth would result in longer growing seasons and would deplete world hunger and crop failure (Robinson 3). Global warming wouldnt be all that bad, but we do not have a way to tell if there is or will be any warming because of the difficulty to predict the weather. In order to make predictions about weather, people have designed computer models that estimate changes in weather patterns. The models are designed from past weather data and possible factors effecting the weather. What modelers do not know is that global weather is very hard to predict, maybe even impossible without the right understanding and tools for the job (Robinson 2). Factors such as clouds, precipitation, oceans, and the sun are misunderstood and often underestimated (Zipperer 2). Modelers also leave out possible advances in the future such as nuclear energy and the positive effect it would have on the environment (Lindzen 2). Our current technology isnt even close to being advanced enough. Errors in the data are equivalent to 50% (Lindzen 3). These computer models could not even predict weather from the past. While global temperatures have raised by .3 to .6 C over the past 100 years models have over predicted the increase to be from .7 to 1.4 C by the year 1990 (Heartland Institute 7). Climate modelers have even inputted their own bias into the data, shifting variables to what they want them to be. Climate modelers have been cheating for so long its almost become respectable, says Richard A. Kerr, a writer for Science magazine. Further research on the topic is necessary in order to accurately determine whether we have a problem or not. Many people of profession have studied global warming and what may affect the outcome of their results. When measuring from the surface global temperatures have increased by about .6 degrees Celsius with a .2-degree error, but parts of the United States including the southeast have cooled slightly since the late 19th century (NOAA 2). For those 100 years of slight warming, 70% of it occurred before the industrial revolution in 1940 in which man began to emit gases into the air (Zipperer 2). The surface on and around the equator has remained plus or minus 1 degree Celsius of its current temperature for billions of years (Lindzen 4). Research has also been done to determine the affect on rising and falling temperatures. Scientists have found very close relations with solar activity from the sun and the current temperature patterns, which suggests that fluctuations in temperatures are out of our hands (NOAA 5). Satellites are the best way to determine global temperatures. They are unbiased and have only a 0.001-degree Celsius of error (Heartland Institute 6). These satellites have confirmed that there is no evidence of global warming. If anything there is a slight cooling in the atmosphere (National Center 3). Very reliable agencies have done their own research on global warming. Many scientists have tested the greenhouse theory carefully and have found that greenhouse warming isnt even occurring and that rising temperatures are do to different stages of solar activity (Robinson 1). In 1995 the IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, did not prove that humans were affecting global temperatures (Heartland Institute 8). Their report, Climate Change, includes a statement, The balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on the global climate (Heartland Institute 8). Dr. Roy Spencer, a meteorologist and team leader of the NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, quotes, The temperatures we measure from space are actually on a very slight downward trend since 1979 the trend is about 0.05C per decade cooling (Heartland Institute 7). In a recent poll only 17% of the meteorological society and the American Geophysical Society believe that global warming is a product of man (Bible Believers 2). Representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency are threatening to withdraw their support from a global warming study done by the government. They have said that the report has an extreme/alarmist tone and that it does not appear to fairly reflect the scientific literature and the historical record  (Torres 1). The representatives claimed that the report also had scientifically inaccurate statements about the potential implications of climate change for air pollution and human (Torres 1 and 2). Usually, in scientific law, if a hypothesis fails through experimentation it should be discarded, but the theory of global warming and greenhouse gases as a result of man is still considered substantial hypothesis even though it has been proven to be unlikely (Robinson 2). The debate of global warming may continue on for many years to come. Mankind may never see any rising in global temperatures, but nevertheless it will be speculated. Thomas OConnell At this moment in time there has not been any reliable and convincing evidence that the globe is dangerously warming. Global temperature is a product of natural variables that affect the earth. Man has little if any influence on this temperature. Many of the greenhouse claims have been poorly researched and have yet to be proven credible. Hopefully in the future science will prevail and provide the real answer. Until then, people interested in global warming should do research of their own in order to formulate their own opinion. Life on earth has adapted or evolved to the environment. The earth will never adapt or change due to a single species; the earth is far too powerful. As this paper comes to a close a quote sums up the main idea. Thomas OConnell once said, As the rhetoric of the proponents gives w ay to real problem or is this phenomena more closely related to political agendas. Ill wait for the science.

Comparing the Beauty of Poe and Emerson Essay -- comparison compare co

The Beauty of Poe and Emerson      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As stated in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Poetic Principle," a concept of beauty can only be achieved through the use of emotion, an "excitement of the soul," a necessary element to any worthwhile poem (Poe 8). Poe's fascination with the mystery of death and the afterlife are often clearly rooted in his poems and provide a basis for himself and the reader to truly experience his concept of beauty. Although also a believer in portraying beauty through poetry, Ralph Waldo Emerson found beauty to be eminent in nature and all things created by the Oversoul. Beauty for Emerson is not an idea or unknown, it is visible all around him.    To Poe beauty can only arise from "excitement of the soul," and such emotion can only be brought upon by feelings of melancholy.    He reiterates the importance of melancholy in The Philosophy of Composition--"Now, never losing sight of the object supremeness, or perfection, at all points, I asked myself--- "Of all melancholy topics, what, according to the universal understanding of mankind, is the most melancholy?" Death --- was the obvious reply. "And when," I said, "is this most melancholy of topics most poetical?" From what I have already explained at some length, the answer, here also, is obvious-- "When it most closely allies itself to Beauty: the death, then, of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world-- and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such a topic are those of a bereaved lover" (Poe 265).    Melancholy and beauty go hand in hand for Poe. If his goal is to bring about the "excitement of the soul," then that can only be achie... ...mself on the beauty of melancholy and the mystery of the afterlife to the point of extreme emotion, while Emerson relayed beauty through the Oversoul. Both revolutionaries of nineteenth century poetry, their works will continue to place a sense of beauty in all who reads them, and live up to the saying: --beauty is in the eye of the beholder.    Works Cited Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Each and All." The Columbia Anthology of American Poetry. Ed. Jay Parini. New York: Columbia UP, 1993. 95-96. ---. "X. Essays. The Poet." The Harvard Classics. <wysiwyg://48/http://bartleby.com/5/110.html>. Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Philosophy of Composition," The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe, vol. II, 1850, pp. 259-270. ---. "The Poetic Principle" (D), The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe, vol. III, 1850, pp. 1-20. ---. "Annabel Lee." Parini 161-162.

Promissory Estoppel Essay

Sometimes an agreement without consideration will be enforced. This happens when a promise which foreseeably induces promisee to act or forebear becomes binding because injustice can only be avoided by enforcement of the promise. Promise A promise is an assurance, in whatever form or expression that a thing will or will not be done. Actual Reliance The promisee must actually and justifiably rely on the promise by the other. Detriment Promisee must have relied on the promise to his detriment. Foreseeable Reliance The promisee’s reliance must be reasonably foreseeable to promisor. Injustice Cannot be Avoided In deciding if injustice can be avoided courts will consider: 1.Availability and adequacy of other remedies, particularly restitution or cancellation. 2.The definite and substantial character of the action or forbearance in relation to remedy sought. 3.Extent to which the action or forbearance corroborates evidence of the making and terms of the promise. 4.Reasonableness of action or forbearance. 5.Extent to which the action or forbearance was foreseeable by promisor.

How to Give a Great Group Presentation

Whether for an introductory course, internship, or senior seminar, group presentations are part of everyones college experience and can be a source of very real anxiety. Next time you are assigned a group presentation, dont panic—instead, embrace the opportunity to learn and demonstrate your abilities. Read to find out what you can do to make your next group presentation memorable. Distribute the Work Evenly The first step to planning an A-worthy presentation is to make sure everyone carries their own weight, though this is easier said than done. This step will set your presentation up for success but can be challenging to pull off. It is likely that at least some of the people in your group will have unmatched academic abilities and work ethics, but this problem can be overcome. Outline the work that needs to be done for the whole project and divvy up roles based on what people are comfortable doing. Make the expectations of each person clear so that there is accountability from start to finish—if something gets sloppily finished or is left entirely undone, the issue can be traced back to whatever group member is responsible and handled accordingly. If necessary, discuss problems with the professor. Dont let one persons laziness sabotage your entire groups work. Schedule Deadlines and Rehearsals in Advance As a college student, it can be incredibly difficult to manage your own time let alone synchronize the schedules of several different group members. Planning to get together as far in advance as possible makes it less likely that other commitments are prioritized over important group planning time. At your first group meeting, set a timeline for when things need to be done. Schedule meetings, deadlines, and rehearsals as far into the future as the assignment allows. Never plan to cram at an all-night stress fest the night before—tired and over-extended group members will have a hard time executing even the most well-planned presentation. Present Together Just as you should use the strengths and weaknesses of group members to assign planning roles before the presentation, you should consider the abilities of every group member when deciding how the presentation itself should actually be delivered. Cohesion is crucial to a great presentation. People will notice if one or more group members do not speak or the presentation gets off-topic each time a new person takes over, and weak delivery does not bode well for your grade. When you are planning how you will present, ask yourself and your group members the following questions: What is the best way to deliver this material?What presenting strengths does each group member have?What goals must be met during the presentation?How will we divide and conquer scripting the presentation?What will we do if the presentation gets off-topic or a member forgets their part? Prepare for Emergencies Hopefully, you have put the time into creating an outstanding presentation, so dont let small hiccups derail it. Make sure that you know each others responsibilities well enough to take over for them in times of crisis. You never know when someone will get unexpectedly sick, face a family emergency, or be otherwise unable to show up for a presentation. Have a system in place where one group member can serve as an understudy for another group member so that your presentation does not crash and burn if someone is not there. Make the most of your preparations by planning for any scenario and remember to work as a team when things go wrong. Rehearse For a crisp presentation that leaves a strong impression on your professor and classmates, you need to rehearse. At least one run-through from beginning to end can smooth out any wrinkles, help nervous members overcome their fear, and ensure that you havent left anything out. Go through your parts as planned and offer each other constructive feedback immediately after. This may be uncomfortable, but helpful peer feedback can prevent negative feedback and bad grades from professors. Frame comments to members positively with a glow and a grow: one thing they did really well and one area for improvement. You should also discuss a dress code right before you rehearse so that all group members don the appropriate attire for the occasion. Lend each other clothes to help each other out if needed. Stay Present During the Presentation As long as your group is up there presenting, you need to be giving the presentation your all. This means that, even if your part is over, you should remain alert, engaged, and undistracted. This will make your presentation look and sound better while also enabling seamless emergency transitions. If you pay attention to your whole presentation, you will be much better prepared to step in for someone that needs rescuing—also, odds are that everyone else (professor included) will be more likely to pay attention if they see you paying attention. Celebrate Group presentations can be very effortful and time-consuming, so celebration is definitely in order once its over. Reward yourself as a team for a job well done to bond after the potentially traumatizing experience you have shared.