Global Warming : Fact or Fiction

Mother Nature is grabbing our attention. Its signals becoming increasingly loud and clear. According to NASA, the average global temperature on Earth has increased by 0.9° Celsius since 1880 . 2016 was warmest year in the recorded history. Weather pattern is becoming inconsistent. Heat waves, tornadoes and cyclones are getting more frequent and devastating. Human beings have made progress by compromising on nature; clearing the green pastures for building housing societies ; reducing forest covers to develop new cities ; polluting air to run vehicles and factories. 43 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide  (CO₂) is emitted every year in atmosphere due to industrial chimneys, vehicles, kilns, forest fires and other such carbon producing sources. There is greater consensus amongst scientists that major cause of rise in global temperature is attributed to huge built of carbon dioxide  (CO₂). Still, there are few deniers who question the reality of global warming. There is still rare scepticism about global warming, some of which results from few climate scientists. Unfortunately, however, there are good amount of  biased “scientific studies” financed by corporations and other parties, which benefit from current patterns of energy production and consumption and fight any reforms bound to affect their interests. Fact is that there is consensus of scientists that global warming is real phenomenon and it can be devastating for the life on Earth. Findings of all reliable scientific studies and visible manifestations of climate change leave no room to question the reality of global warming.
There is global consensus among scientists on issue of global warming. According to NASA, 97% of scientists agree that global warming is real phenonmenon and it is largely human-induced. Such consensus, especially in the age of scientific enquiry , is unprecedented. Agreement of scientists has not been achieved by blindly following each other and toeing the lines of inter-governmental agencies. After experiments, empirical evidences and data analytics, scientists have concluded that green house gases (GHGs) are major cause of global warming. According to Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), carbon dioxide  (CO₂) makes up 65 per cent of green house gases. Therefore, rise in Earth surface temperature is largely attributed to carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels. First, it was Swedish Scientist Arrhenius, who suspected that rise in temperature of  Earth surface is due to carbon dioxide  (CO₂). Since Arrhenius Times, hundreds of experiments and empirical evidences have proven the Arrhenius’ hypothesis.
Scientists have found that concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂) have increased over the time.According to NASA studies, concentration of carbon dioxide  in 1950 was 315 ppm. Over the course of 70 years,  CO₂ concentrations have crossed 400 ppm. Such rapid increase in CO_{2  in} atmosphere is due to excessive use of fossil fuels during 20^th century.
Scientific revelations forced United Nations to form Inter-governmental Commission on Climate Change (IPCC) to study the global warming and its impact on climate. IPCC consists of 300 prominent scientists representing different countries. IPCC’s findings are very clear on global warming that green house gases have caused global warming. These findings forced the member countries to form joint action plan to fight against climate change. Paris agreement, 2015 was milestone achievement in this regard. Moreover, it was unanimous declaration of states that global warming is undeniable reality and there is no room for confusion.
In addition, there are visible signs of global warming. Whether it is 2019, being hottest year in history of Australia and more violent hurricanes in United States since 1980s, there are ample manifestations that weather is getting out of control. There are 72000 glaciers in Pakistan. Out of which, 120 have shown the signs the melting according to Pakistan Meteorological Department. Recent report published by leading United Kingdom(UK)’s newspaper, Guardian, says according to declassified United States’ satellite imagery, Himalaya’s rate of melting has increased two times as compared to previous century.  8bn tonnes of ice are being lost every year and not replaced by snow and lower level glaciers shrinking in height by 5 meters annually. Only in Pakistan, heat waves killed approximately 2000 people in Karachi during 2015. Indian Ocean has seen frequent storms and it has affected the coastal cities of India and Bangladesh. Recent cyclone, Amphan, was one of the destructive cyclones experienced by Indian coastal cities which claimed 118 lives. Sea level along Karachi’s coast has risen 10 cm in the last century. Sea-levels are projected to rise by one metre by 2100, severely affecting low-lying coastal cities.
Despite wide-ranging consensus on global warming, there are very few deniers of global warming. They claim that global warming is just fiction written by climate scientists to receive funds, protect their jobs and make United Nations (UN) more relevant. They question the data analysis. Many media reports have proven that oil companies are lobbying to make global warming irrelevant, insignificant and doubtful subject.  ExxonMobile , Shell and other oil companies doled million dollar funds  in media to avoid any consensus among opinion makers, confuse policy makers and create doubts amongst public. According to Washington post, in the 1990s, oil companies, fossil fuel industry trade groups and their respective public relations (PR) firms promoted such scientists as experts whose opinions on climate change should be considered equal and opposite to that of climate scientists. Moreover, media has its vested interests. It receives huge sums of advertising revenue from these companies. Moreover, creating confusion on the subject of global warming suits some states’ policies. Matter of the fact is that states are not ready to compromise on the immediate gains of fossil fuel energy over long-term sustainable development.
Former US president, Al- Gore has created “Climate Reality Project” to counter deniers and skeptics. They regularly publish articles to unmask hypocrisy of so called scientists. In an article , “three ways climate-deniers cherry-pick data about climate change” analyses the data manipulation techniques of climate change deniers. 1998 was warmest year till 2016 in United States’ history. Deniers and skeptics simply compare temperature of two years ,1998 and 2010, and deduce that global warming has not actually happened, opposite to claims of IPCC, NASA and other climate scientists. Moreover, they cherry-pick data that decade long average temperature of Earth’s surface has shown no increase. In their reports, they have taken data from 1998 to 2010 and proved average Earth Temperature has remained stable. Since 1998 was hottest recorded year, so any graph that starts from highest point can not show increasing trend. If one takes average of years from 1999 to 2010, there is gradual increase in temperature of Earth’s surface temperature. Due to intellectual dishonesty and manipulation of data, they averaged out 12 years from 1998 to 2010. A layman does not understand the complexities of data analytics, so he gets confused and non-science  policy maker are carried away by such dishonest calculations.
Moreover, they confuse the public by questioning the scientific proven facts. For instance, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Richard Lindzen,key denier of  Global warming, says that CO₂ concentration have never been threat to life. When life started on Earth, CO₂ concentrations were quite large. Recent CO₂ concentrations are no way nearer to earlier CO₂ concentrations. According to Guardian, Lindzen was wrong about nearly every major climate argument he has made over the past two decades. His baseless claims have been rejected by his fellow MIT professors. Such skeptic approach by few scientists favours reluctant states, oil mafias and vested media interests.
To conclude, global warming is visible spectre in the form of inconsistent rains, hurricanes and tornadoes, heat waves, average temperature rise, acidification of arctic icecaps, signs of melting of glaciers and changing seasonal durations.  All these signs show that Mother Nature is on course of self-correction and may cause irreparable dangers in times to come. Climate denial machines fueled by Fossil fuel companies cannot hide the dragon, knocking at the door. There is deep realization among international community about dangers of global warming. It is energy competition and greed for power that has stopped the way of agreed framework to fight global warming. It is global issue which transcends boundaries, territories, nationalities and ethnicities. It is capable of overcoming all barriers and uniting humanity.