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When the Senate First Learned of Global Warming
It is not difficult to argue that the term global warming became most popular after the widespread success of Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth. It was after seeing this documentary that many Americans, and people across the world, were able to see the harsh realities of global warming and the potential danger that it posed. The growing awareness of global warming prompted more public solidarity behind the banner of environmental improvement and a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. With this in mind, it would seem as if global warming is a newly discovered issue; in reality this is far from true. Though the public has only been aware of global warming in the last decade, the issue was first brought to the United States Senate more than 20 years ago.
It was discovered in 1988, that the world was hotter in the first five months of that year than it had been in 133 years. This trend led scientists to believe that the planet was experiencing global warming. The theory of global warming had existed in the scientific community for years prior to this and a series of models had been designed to attempt to understand the possible effects that global warming could have on the planet. Surprisingly, not only were scientists aware of climate change more than 20 years ago, but they were also aware of the cause. While presenting the issue of rising climate to the Senate, scientists declared that they were 99% certain that global warming was caused by a buildup of carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere. The term "greenhouse effect" was used to describe the phenomena; a term that relates to the trapping of solar radiation in the atmosphere. Strangely enough, this is also a term that was still unfamiliar to average Americans two decades later, when used in Al Gore's documentary.
The panel of scientists, led by Dr. James E. Hansen, warned of many long standing effects of global warming. They predicted that temperatures in the South and Midwest would begin to increase and become drier in the coming decade. They scientists also predicted that between the years of 2025 and 2050 temperature throughout the world will increase by an average of 3° to 9° F. Accompanying these theories about rising temperatures, came predictions about melting glaciers and polar ice caps, which would undoubtedly lead to a rise in ocean levels. In a summary of their scientific findings, Dr. Hansen explained to the panel that they were highly confident that there is an existing relationship between the greenhouse effect and rising global temperatures. He continued to explain that global warming was not a future problem, but a current threat.
Though the United States Senate was warned about the dangers of global warming in 1988, serious legislative action was not taking until decades later. The government's strategy of waiting the global warming problem out was adopted for years, until the dangers and effects of global warming were simply too much to ignore. Currently hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested into alternative fuels, alternative power sources and the reduction of carbon emissions. Though these corrective measures are abundant, one can only hope that they were not implemented too late.
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