An Irrelevant Truth?

• Why have we stopped hearing about global warming?
  • I googled “Is global warming still a threat?”
  • I was surprised to see how many articles were not current ones at all. I was affirmed in my belief that we, as a nation, don’t seem too concerned with global warming anymore. This could be because we are faced with many other issues, such as unemployment and war.
  • Related searches seemed to be opposed to the idea that global warming is still an issue. It seems that people want terribly to believe that global warming is just a myth. This could be because of the many other issues people have to worry about.

    With all the threats posed to our society currently, it seems that global warming and other environmental issues, save the BP disaster, have taken a backseat. This confuses me slightly. I mean, wasn’t global warming the biggest problem out there a little while ago? Movies were made, television had tons of specials, and huge “green” campaigns were started. And now? Hardly anything. So, is global warming still a threat?

“You look at that river gently flowing by. You notice the leaves rustling with the wind. You hear the birds; you hear the tree frogs. In the distance you hear a cow. You feel the grass. The mud gives a little bit on the river bank. It's quiet; it's peaceful. And all of a sudden, it's a gear shift inside you. And it's like taking a deep breath and going, "Oh yeah, I forgot about this."- Al Gore An Inconvenient Truth

In 2006, film maker Davis Guggenheim released what he claimed would be “The most terrifying film you will ever see.” It seemed so during its time 4 years ago. But now, it seems like someone who has never seen this movie before and watch it now are not frightened at all. Why is this? Is it possibly because we have heard so much about it that the whole issue has become watered down? Or is it because we chose to ignore problems we don’t know how to deal with?

According to Google, number of articles containing information about global warming hit it’s peek in February of 2007. Now, in August of 2010 that number is barely 1/4th of what it was in 2007. There is almost double the amount of attention being paid to economy and nearly record numbers about unemployment. (Information from Google Timeline)

To answer the question, yes global warming is still a huge issue that we have to deal with soon. The evidence is striking. How can one ignore the melting of the icecaps of Mt. Kilimanjaro or the movement of animals, such as the polar bear, to try to find colder climates?

Logically, we shouldn’t be able to. But, based on past examples, the American government is excellent at ignoring problems that it itself has helped to cause.