Fish out of Water

Jennifer Bilek
MCOM 100W
November 19, 2008

Global Warming is a Reality

Global warming is a controversial topic in society today. The specific issue addressed at the Rotary Club on the top of the Fourth Street garage was if global warming was caused from human activities. This debate started at 7:00 p.m., November 18, 2008, and lasted until 8:30 p.m.

There were two people debating on the “affirmative side” stating that global warming is not caused by humans and two people on the “negative side” stating that global warming is caused by humans. The debate style was cross examination with each side receiving a chance to present their argument and then allowing the opposing side time to rebuttal. This continued for the entire hour and a half.

The debate began with the mediator introducing the debaters and their qualifications. She then told the audience to “keep an open mind” and not to think about who was winning or losing the debate but rather to listen to the points that were being made.

The debate opened with the affirmative side defining what global warming was. At this point I felt rather confident that I could stay open minded. However, as the debate continued, I felt myself slip back into my original opinion on the topic.

The affirmative’s strategy to prove that global warming was not caused by humans was to state that the data collected was “inaccurate.” Dennis Haller, the lead debater on the affirmative side, said that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a report that comes out every five years with data collected from around the world and reviewed by hundreds of scientists, was “worthless and should be thrown into the trash where it belongs.” This narrow minded mentality and disrespectful nature to this highly regarded report was very disheartening.

The points Dennis and his partner Bob Kower made throughout this presentation were equally as disappointing. They continued to state that all of the evidence proving global warming was misinterpretations or examples of poorly designed data collecting. The evidence that they did provide was quickly disproved by the negative side which made me loose faith in the affirmative side’s argument.

The negative’s side had pages upon pages of graphs and diagrams proving that humans are the main cause of global warming. They explained everything clearly and with precision. They opened their debate by stating how science cannot guarantee that humans are the cause of global warming, but how the certainty level has raised significantly over the last ten years.

The negative side finished off the debate by showing a chart of what our future could be if we were to continue down the road we are currently traveling. This left a very powerful impression on the audience and made them think critically about how they treat the planet. The negative side started strong, continued to provide relevant and impressive data and finished with a lasting thought. This is the mark of a great debater because I left the event with full confidence of the negative side’s argument.