Global Warming Paper Topic

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Global Warming Paper Topic

Robert Harris
Version Date: December 22, 2011

There seems to be enough heat around the topic of global warming to cause global warming. Positions are frequently fixed and held with fervor. Opponents are greeted with anger or scorn. So if you have chosen or been assigned global warming or climate change as a paper topic, it's especially important to write in a calm, focused, reasonable way, using research support. In other words, write in the same way you should for any research paper topic.

Research

If you are writing a research paper, search the usual places (online scholarly research sources such as ProQuest, JSTOR, InfoTrac, EBSCO Host, etc.), including a plain old Google search. If you want to find a list of available databases, just google "list of online databases" and you'll find lots.

Search terms should include global warming, climate change, and perhaps global cooling because it's always good to get contrarian ideas. In fact, when you search, in addition to the plain phrases, add the word controversy to your search string and see what you get.

Questions

Here are some questions that will help guide you. Depending on the length of your paper, any one of these questions could be the focus of the entire paper. With research papers, it's better to be thorough on a limited topic that attempt to cover ten aspects of a topic in a paragraph each.

1. Is global warming taking place?
This is an obvious starting point. But before we can begin to address the issue, we need to know whether it is real or not. Considerations here include:

Is global warming real or is it the result of a measurement anomaly?
Are the historical records accurate?
What is the greenhouse effect?
What is the relationship between carbon dioxide and global warming?
Are current measurements correct or are they distorted by the place and circumstances of measurement? For example, was a parking lot recently built around the temperature recording apparatus, causing a rise in recorded temperatures? What are the thermometers measuring?

2. If global warming is indeed taking place, does it reflect a permanent, ongoing increase, or is it a temporary upsweep in a rising and falling cycle?
There is quite a bit of controversy here, with some pointing to the past when temperatures were different--higher or lower than normal. Research points here include:

the Medieval warming period
the "year without a summer"
the predictions in the 1970s of a coming ice age
the effect of sun spots on global temperatures

3. If global warming is permanent, is that bad?
Earth temperatures and carbon dioxide levels in the past (think about all that lush plant growth that we now pump out of the ground as oil). Earth was once a greenhouse, so what if that state returned? Research points:

How much is the rise and where is it predicted to go? (You'll find lots of enormously different projections here, so look up several, not just one.)
Rising sea levels and coastal flooding. (Again, find several predictions because lots of variation.)
Climate change might mean drought, flooding, storms, more ice in some regions, etc. Look for climate implications.
Benefits of a warmer global climate.

4. If global warming is bad, is human activity contributing to it?
This question gets closer to the heart of the issue, because if global warming is taking place as a result of, say, sun spots, then there is no reason to get exercised about it since we can't do anything about it. But if mankind has contributed to it--and it's bad--then that opens the door for doing something. Research concepts:

fossil fuels and global carbon dioxide levels
natural versus manmade carbon dioxide production
the carbon cycle

5. If human activity is contributing to global warming, how significant is the contribution?
In addition to the tailpipes of automobiles, the back ends of cattle produce a lot of carbon dioxide, as do decaying plants and forest fires. So, what degree of the overall problem can be assigned to human activity? Research ideas:

manmade sources of carbon dioxide
natural sources of carbon dioxide
total carbon dioxide production by source per year (look into an almanac for something like this)

6. If human activity contributes significantly to global warming, and if global warming is bad, should interventions be attempted?
Here we get to the stage of "let's solve this problem." And that's the time to paraphrase economist Thomas Sowell, who reminds us that there are no solutions to problems, only tradeoffs. So in your research and analysis of "solutions" to the global warming problem, remember that every solution is likely to have tradeoffs--negative consequences--whether or not the solution has a large, small, or nonexistent effect. Research ideas:

For a given proposed solution, what will it cost in money? And since that money will have to be taken out of the economy of whatever city, state, or nation spends it, what will be the consequences in lost jobs, health, etc.
Are the consequences (tradeoffs) of a given proposal worth it?
Who gets to say whether the tradeoffs are worth it?
What is the likelihood that the solution will have its proposed effect? In other words, what if it doesn't work?

7. Global warming implies a global solution. How can this be accomplished?
It's not going to do much good if, say, the United States cuts its carbon dioxide output by 50% while China increases its output by 300%. So how does one get global cooperation for a global problem? Issues:

Since we don't live on planet Utopia, should individual nations take steps while others take advantage of those other countries' constraints? For example, if we stop making steel to save carbon dioxide generated by gas-fired electrical plants, will another nation simply take over the task and sell us the sooty steel?

Philosophical Considerations

Think about these general questions as you research:

How can we know? Since much of this argument focuses on predictions and assumptions, how can we know with any degree of confidence that the problem is as described or that any proposed solution is likely to have a net beneficial result?
Is it a bit arrogant and even foolish--if not downright dangerous--to think we can control the Earth's climate?
Is this really about global warming or is it about power and control? This might seem to be an odd question, but some have noted that the issue has become dogma now, where the "openness and reasonableness of science to let truth find its way" is no longer operative here. Opponents are suppressed and ridiculed, while proponents sometimes seem to be more interested in industrial collapse (or the collapse of capitalism) than in solving gobal warming.

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Robert Harris is a writer and educator with more than 25 years of teaching experience at the college and university level. RHarris at virtualsalt.com