Global Warming

Does it exist? Is it currently happening? These questions are being asked right now by scientists, politicians, and everyday people all of the world. No one really knows for certain whether or not global warming truly does exist, and I tend to gravitate towards the cautious side when considering this issue. Although they may be right, the politicians, namely the Democrats, but a sizable portion of the Republicans, including John McCain, the media, and Hollywood have all jumped on the environmentalist bandwagon and have proclaimed that global warming will destroy the earth and all its inhabitants unless we repent from its ways and reverse our patterns of behavior of the past 100 years. They also insult and deride any who disagree with their view as if the issue is closed to debate. However, I think the issue carries considerable weight. We have been cutting down tropical rain forests for many decades, and deforestation can be affect an ecosystem and the environment in profound ways. The burning of hydrocarbon fuels like coal or oil over the past 50 years has released immense amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, but no one really knows how much the atmosphere or the ocean can hold of CO2. The environmentalists would like to see the abandonment of the burning of fossil fuels as the main source of energy. Whether or not that would destroy the world economy, they don't care. My view on this issue is that it doesn't matter whether or not the CO2 is affecting the atmosphere, the U.S. needs to wean itself off of foreign oil and thus become energy independent. This process comes to fruition through the construction of nuclear power plants, increased offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and on the east coast, increased drilling in Alaska, particularly in ANWR (a position that has overwhelming popularity in Alaska), the research of new and better technologies for renewable resources such as biofuels, ethanol (not the horribly flawed corn-based ethanol currently in use), decreased car used, better conservation of energy in the home and in the workplace. A combination of all of these actions will help bring about energy independence within a decade if implemented on a nation-wide scale, and will put us in a better position to correctly determine the causes and effects of global warming.