Published January 22, 2007 08:56 pm - As few as five years ago many corporation leaders and politicians resisted the idea that global warming existed. Since then, there’s been a change in many people’s attitudes, said John Vann, Green Initiatives coordinator and associate professor of marketing at Ball State University. Now corporations such as Wal-Mart, Dupont, Duke Energy and GE recognize its existence and are promoting ways to help curb its effects.


Arguments debunked
Global warming is real and a growing number take notice

Avon Waters
 

As few as five years ago many corporation leaders and politicians resisted the idea that global warming existed. Since then, there’s been a change in many people’s attitudes, said John Vann, Green Initiatives coordinator and associate professor of marketing at Ball State University. Now corporations such as Wal-Mart, Dupont, Duke Energy and GE recognize its existence and are promoting ways to help curb its effects.

“In a 10-year period there were 928 scientific articles published on global warming,” Vann said. “Of those, zero had any doubt that global warming existed. Where you see the resistance is in the public arena and media.”

Vann went on to summarize for about 25 people gathered at a White River Watchers meeting Monday what many of the scientific studies had shown. Since about 1800 the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have dramatically increased. Ice core samples dating back nearly 900,000 years contain the history of the chemical makeup of the atmosphere. From these samples even the temperature can be determined for each year.

“The carbon dioxide (content) cycles up and down throughout time. When it peaks it’s at about 290 parts per million,” he said. “Then in 1958 it hit 315 parts per million and is about 385 parts per million now.”

By 2010 it will be 400 parts per million and if nothing changes it will hit 600 parts per million in 50 years, he said. It’s been consistently rising since about 1800 when the industrial revolution began and people started burning coal in England after they ran out of wood, Vann said.

For things to change, people must make changes in their lifestyle, said Meaghan Lanane, 17, a Highland High School student who attended the presentation.

“It’s very frightening,” she said. “I’ve done some research before this and it’s always shocking to me to see how much carbon dioxide we are putting into the atmosphere.”

Vann said the problem comes from releasing carbon dioxide that nature long ago trapped underground. Anytime coal, oil or natural gas is released or burned it adds to the problem. Burning wood, or turning things like corn or switch grass into fuels releases carbon dioxide, but it is carbon dioxide that already is in the atmosphere. The solutions to global warming are not simple.

Sheryl Myers, publicist for the White River Watchers, said she is concerned because so many other countries haven’t had an industrial revolution yet.

“China is on the verge of their own industrial revolutions, as are others. How do we say to them they can’t?” she questioned.

Vann said he hoped they wouldn’t repeat the mistakes the United States has made. What people can do is use compact florescent bulbs to reduce energy consumption. They can use recyclables and renewable fuels too.

“If everyone in the U.S. replaced just five of their incandescent bulbs with compact florescent bulbs, we’d need 20 less power plants,” he said.

Energy conservation is what individuals can do, Vann said. Capturing the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and putting them back in the ground, no one knows if that can be done on a large enough scale.

“We’re already committed to more global warming because of the carbon dioxide we’ve already put in the atmosphere,” he said. The reversal isn’t something that will happen rapidly. “If we were to stop today, we still are going to see temperatures increase because of what is already in the atmosphere.”

This is all about liberal activist seeking to have taxpayers fund their programs. They must get out and push their claims or lose funding. As you see they put out a little information to confuse you and make you think they know what they are talking about. For every claim they make you can find another scientist who disagree with them. These activist (Al Gore clones) have no real proof of anything. It is all about money....YOUR MONEY. Always follow the money.
Gene

Many of the corporations mentioned above are simply just caving into these environmental whackos in fear of what will happen to them if they choose not to. I myself choose to call it blackmail. You either play ball with these people or pay the consequences, they have no real proof of anything. China is the biggest polluter at this time. Let's see them try shaking down the Chinese govt. There is nothing man can do about global warming...nothing that will matter a "twit" to the universe.
Tom H

Volcanoes, forest fires, lightning, floods and many other natural phenomena pollute the planet more than man could ever think of. Let's see you play god and stop them from occurring. Perhaps Meaghan can do a little study on that. At only 17 years of age she has a lot more to learn yet. People are told to change their lifestyles constantly. But do they? nope, better think of something that makes sense instead of a cliché's.
Don G

Thank you, Avon, for your excellent coverage of John Vann's presentation. I believe that, once human beings take this problem seriously, we will begin to turn curb our use of fossil fuels in creative new ways.
Sheryl Myers

..."speek about global warming"? Come on now, are you purposely trying to be illiterate? The word is "speak"!!!

President Bush has addressed this several times already. This is a democrat-driven issue mostly. Did you notice Lanane sitting there? Odd isn't it? LOL Why, when global warming is discussed, is not both sides there to give balance?
Observer

Global warming is real and to deny it is lunacy. But so did the world experience warming in other 10 year periods. While I do beleive that we should do all we can to help this, to say we have much to do with it is caused by another issue. The issue is humanism. Most, again I say most of the most ardent callers for the fact that we as humans control this are the same ones that say we control our own destiny and that God either doesn't exist or doesn't have a daily hand in our lives. They feel we are the only ones that can cause and then by that conclude we are the only ones to fix them. I like George Carlins take on it(ok, he's a comedian, but usually a left on issues comedian) "who are we to think that we can destroy the earth. It was around for years before we were here and it will be here after we are gone." I wonder how many factories and SUV's were around during the dinosaurs extinction? I wonder how God planned on dealing with volcanoes and other carbon delivery systems, which I may add have been around for years. Who knows, maybe this is how God plans for our extinction and if so you know what, we can't do a darn thing about it.
ko

“In a 10-year period there were 928 scientific articles published on global warming,” Vann said. “Of those, zero had any doubt that global warming existed." How dishonest! How many articles did you have to review to find 928 without a doubt. An ad link that popped-up on this HB article gave a VERY different prospective-one of doubt! Oh My! See www.co2science.org. There are many sites with this type of data, many by real scientific organizations. It is very easy to find that the proof of global change is natural, continuing, and expected by those who wish to know.
M

There are just over six billion humans on this planet, and there is no way in heaven or earth that human activities can materially affect a biosphere of several billion cubic miles of atmosphere.
Dave

At least John was right about one thing, 'global warming is real...". And the fact that there is some sort of anthropogenic (extra man-made) greenhouse effect is also fairly uncontroversial. It is unfortunate that the article ignored contrary data and alternative explanations....and both exist. As John said, "The solutions to global warming are not simple.", but then he went on to imply that the problem of global warming was due to "mistakes the United States has made". To believe that X causes Y, and Z can fix it, is a major oversimplification which is causing us to spend our resources on phantom problems while ignoring real and pressing ones. Climate scientists already have questionable credibility. Articles like this one would be best served by always documenting data they use so that we can review it and reach our own conclusions.
Phasesius

Way to go, Meaghan, for showing some concern for our health and lifestyles, even at the age of 17. Shame on the rest of you for blaming "liberals" for trying to make the world healthier for our children and grandchildren.
Michelle

What is a State Senator doing wasting taxpayers money listening to bunch of junk science?
Sparky

Between 1980 and 2005: Fine particulate matter dropped 40 percent. Nitrogen dioxide levels decreased by 37 percent, sulfur dioxide decreased by 63 percent, and CO concentrations by 74 percent. Lead levels dropped 96 percent. Peak eight-hour ozone levels declined 20 percent, and days-per-year exceeding the eight-hour ozone standard fell 79 percent. When you stack improvements against the data on major liberal emitters, the air quality improvements made over the last 25 years are nothing short of extraordinary: Thise are facts also. Do you want to refute them?
Wendy

The environmental movement as a whole has developed a credibility problem since the first Earth Day 36 years ago. In the 1970s, prominent greens were issuing dire predictions about mass starvation, overpopulation and--of all things--global cooling. Since then, population-growth estimates have come way down, biotechnology advances have found ways to feed more people than the doomsayers believed possible, and the global-cooling crisis has become the global-warming crisis without missing a beat. Environmentalists need another looming catastrophe to stay relevant, not to mention to keep raising money. How much is in your wallet? LOL
Donations Please

We are now declaring ourselves protectors of this rock we live on, as though Grandmother Nature is on her death bed. But I cannot bow to the earth, our greatest killer. Tsunamis, floods, volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, wild fires, disease— nature kills more of us than we kill of each other. This planet is 4.5 billion years old and can take care of itself. It has shrugged off such giants as the dinosaurs. It doesn’t give a rat’s rump for us. Nature plays no favorites; it is the survival of the fittest.
Dave

At the center of the debate is the Kyoto Protocol, which if approved by the Senate, would mandate reductions in greenhouse gases. Gore and Boxer claims that there is consensus among reputable climatologist that global warming is occurring. But that isn’t true. Contrary to the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) report in 1995 that claimed a ''discernible'' human influence on climate change, approximately 17,000 scientists and climatologists have signed a statement disputing the IPCC report. Professor Frederick Seitz, a past president of the National Academy of Sciences wrote, “None of the studies... has shown clear evidence that we can attribute the observed changes to... increases in greenhouse gases.” There was also “...a disturbing corruption of the peer review process

Michelle- Liberals don't have a "lock" on health concerns for humanity. Just because a liberal makes you "feel good" about something doesn't make it real
Jim

Carbon emissions are “a pop gun compared to” larger natural influences like “volcanic dust in the stratosphere, the position of the sun, the temperature of the sun, the structure of the Earth’s magnetic poles, and ocean currents." It might be nice to reduce carbon emmisions for the sake of "air quality" but it is doubtful that carbon emmisions from manmade sources are a significant factor in global climate change. In fact, today's warming trend is not unprecedented and may be recurring in nature.
BH

The call for global warming spending has been heard before. In 1997, the U.S. Senate spoke out 95-0 against the Kyoto treaty, which was designed to limit greenhouse gas emissions of the world’s nations. If the United States had joined that agreement, it was estimated to cost up to $440 billion per year. Kyoto has been a widespread failure, with most countries’ gas emissions continuing to rise in spite of the treaty. China, which will surpass America as the world’s largest source of emissions by 2009, wasn’t even included in the Kyoto treaty. Neither was high-population, energy-hungry India.
Sunny Day

What is conveniently left out of this article is the fact that John Vann gives a series of presentations around Al Gore's book and movie..“An Inconvenient Truth.” Vann was trained by Gore and the scientist, teachers and professors who go along with Gore's ilk. In my opinion- only to be sure they keep funding flowing from the liberal Congress. Vann and his friends were all trained right there on Al Gore's farm down in Tennessee. (where Gore's mine run-offs are polluting the Caney Fork river).
Tennesee Jed

Congratulations Mr. Vann, you saw Al Gore's movie and are now dispersing his propaganda to young minds. What better way to get tenured? Your quotation marks for Vann's statement about the 928 articles is a direct quote from Spotted Owl Gore. Global warming is the greatest scam the Dumbocrats have conceived of to this day. Well, that and the misnomer that they are the party that has helped people of color. There is great money to be made by selling the right to pollute. Not to mention the fact that putting the fear of God in us will make us slaves to the saviour. Al Gore and the Donkey Party in this case, as they have all the answers to save us from global warming and ourselves.
Dr. Ralph