Chapter 7 Question 4

In Kluger and Lindzen's essays, both authors talking about the growing concern with global warming. The authors, though talking about the same subject, approach the matter in opposing ways.

In Jeffery Kluger's essay, "Be Worried, Be Very Worried", he talks about the growing threat of global warning. He discusses the main cause for global warming, that CO2 emissions have caused upsets in the Earth's natural order. He stresses that the population is not aware of how extreme the crisis is, and explains the cycles that get increasingly worse each time they come around. He discusses each matter, including land, water, plants, and animals. Carbon that is contained in soil in high altitude regions is released when the soil is warmed. This creates a continuous loop, because the carbon that is released makes the climate warmer, thawing more land and releasing more carbon. Total human carbon output is 7 tons per year; the carbon in the soil amounts to 200 to 800 gigatons. This imbalance of carbon dioxide is causing the icecaps to melt, making land extremely dry and causing droughts, causing trees to ascend mountains and animals to become extinct.

In Richard Lindzen's essay, "Climate of Fear: Global-Warming Alarmists Intimidate Dissenting Scientists Into Science", he claims that global warming is made out to be more of a catastrophe than it really is. He talks about the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, and about how it should contribute to increasing climate, but that the public does understand that this should not be alarming or make a single person responsible for the minute amount of temperature change. The warming balances out the temperature differences between the poles and the equator, so Lindzen claims that natural disasters, such as hurricanes that depend on differences in temperature, should occur less.

Lindzen's essay was hard for me to follow, and Kluger pulled in a little bit of emotional persuasion when he stated that the polar bear will be extinct sometime around 2060. Although Lindzen has valid points about the temperature differences, I believe that Kluger's essay is more persuasive, because he provide more information about global warming and its effects, and what can be done to stop it.