CHP 7 Question 4

Both “Climate of Fear” by Lindzen and “Be Worried Very Worried” by Kluger discuss aspects of global warming. While both articles are about global warming they differ greatly on there points of view.
Kluger provides evidence for the fact that it is occurring and how. He claims that humans are responsible for the initial start of global warming but there are many other factors which have a much more direct impact on the rising global temperature. Kluger goes on to talk about the melting of main land ice which in the long run could raise the sea level by 23 feet which would put a large chunk of Florida underwater and all of Bangladesh(Kluger 272). What really caught my attention in this article was about the “feedback loops”. The idea of so many sources that increase the temperature of our earth is alarming. The fact that just the melting of permafrost could put out between 200 and 800 gigatons of CO2 compared to the 7, the entire human output of CO2. The piece then goes on to discuss the effects of global warming will have on our planet.
Lindzen discusses the idea of global warming not being as big of a deal as it should be. He talks about those who go against the idea of global warming receive less money and also are ridiculed for there ideas. While Lindzen does agree that the planet has warmed over the last 100 years he says this is not that important. He refutes the idea that is brought up in the first piece about the increasing temperatures causing more violent storms. He says “less differences in temperature, you have less excitation of extratropical storms, not more”. He goes on to explain an experiment that was done which he believes helps refute the idea of global warming but the scientific community “discredited” it.
In my opinion the article by Kluger was much more effective than that of Lindzen in that it provided much more evidence to the point it is trying to defend. While Lindzen does site some information there is much less than that of Kluger. Kluger provides many examples of the causes of global warming and also the effects that it has on our planet which is much better than that of Lindzen in that he provides little explanation to global warming and also the effects.