What is the Global Warming Debate?
The global warming debate or global warming controversy is an ongoing argument about the increase in the global average air temperature that has occurred since the middle of the twentieth century. People on various sides of the global warming debate dispute the cause and meaning of this observation. For one thing, they disagree about whether the warming trend is part of a cycle of climatic variations that have existed for millennia on the one hand, or a product of intensified greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity. They also argue about what the effects of global warming are likely to be, as well as which, if any, steps should be taken in response to global warming, with suggestions ranging from a dramatic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to doing nothing.