Opinions clash in global warming debate

By: Jason Le Miere

Posted: 11/20/08

In the only country still debating whether global warming is man-made, according to SJSU professor Alex Gershenson, another contest to discuss it was held Tuesday night at San Jose's Rotary Club.

The event, put on by The Conservative Forum of Silicon Valley, saw two speakers on each side of the issue go head-to-head for 90 minutes on the validity of global warming and its attribution to the activities of humans.

"No other civilized, developed country is having these kinds of debates, period," said Gershenson, an environmental studies professor at SJSU. "It is very frustrating. The overall understanding of how science works is very low in this country."

Four individuals presented a large array of graphs and data to the 500-plus attendees in an attempt to demonstrate the validity of their arguments.

The team representing the opinion that global warming is man-made, consisting of SJSU professors Eugene Cordero and Alex Gershenson, weighed their arguments on the consensus of opinion within the scientific community.

The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, commissioned by the United Nations, included 2,500 scientific experts from around the globe.

"The IPCC report that just came out states that most of the warming is very likely due to human cause greenhouse gases," Gershenson said.

Despite the scientific prowess of the panel's reports, the team arguing that global warming is not man-made disregarded its validity.

"What I'd do with the IPCC report is to put it in the trash can because that's all it's worth," said Dennis Hollars, who holds a doctorate in astrophysics from New Mexico State University.

His brazen pronouncement produced an eruption of laughter among the packed audience. Hollars produced a similar reaction from the crowd when, challenged by Gershenson about the inconsistencies of the data in the graphs he was presenting, he claimed to "not care" which one was accurate.

It was hard to tell whether the audience was laughing out of the humor of Hollars' delivery, or because they disagreed with him.

One of the central arguments of the side arguing that global warming is a natural occurrence was that temperatures were driving the increase in carbon dioxide, rather than the commonly accepted reverse.

"CO2 has never led to an increase in temperature, based on historical record," said Robert Cohen, a certified consulting meteorologist.

This point was countered by Cordero, who cited hundreds of scientific studies that showed that the temperature increase that has occurred over the last 50 years would not be possible without human-produced chemicals.

Hollars, meanwhile, claimed that carbon dioxide was an insignificant component of the earth's atmosphere and that, rather than being the purveyor of doom it is currently viewed as today, it is needed in order for plants to grow.

"Mars' atmosphere is about 95 percent CO2 and has no global warming," Hollars said.

Gershenson pointed out that while carbon dioxide may be a very small component of the earth's atmosphere, it is one of only two components that absorbs and traps heat.

At the culmination of the debate, moderator and SJSU professor Genelle Austin-Lett conducted an informal poll of the audience to gauge its reactions to what they had witnessed. Although few people declared to have had their mind changed by the debate, more people who were unsure about the causes of global warming beforehand said that they believed the causes were man-made.

"I thought that the negative side did a good job in giving us evidence, whereas the other side had a little bit of evidence, but then didn't really have a lot to follow up on when they were questioned," said Candice Howsden, a senior communication studies major.

Gershenson said the debate came down to whether you trust the scientists who say that there is a nine out of 10 chance that global warming is man-made.

"If I have a child and I have 10 doctors see that child," Gershenson said, borrowing from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's rationale for supporting California's California climate change legislation, "and nine of the doctors that see my child say that the child is sick and one says well, maybe not, I'm going to go with the nine."