Tag: global warming

The Greenest Invader in the History

By Anupum Pant

Background

The impact of human activities on climate change is by no means new. It is not an 1800s or 1900s thing. It did not start happening when we started burning huge amounts of coal or oil. In fact, human impact on the climate has been here for a long long time now. It started happening about thousands of years ago when our ancestors started clearing forests to make land for cultivation. The impact was less back then, but it had started.

So, basically an overly simplified equation has been like this – more humans, more cleared forests (for cultivation), more carbon emissions.

All these years humans have also been hit by some very unfortunate historical events which have resulted in the death of a great number of people.  Of course these events like the fall of Ming dynasty,  Black death and Conquest of America were sad events. They resulted in a massive wipe-out of human population which we would not wish to see ever again.

However, the huge number of deaths that happened due to these unfortunate events did have a common salubrious effect on our planet. Huge tracts of cultivated lands turned back into forests. As a result, great amounts of carbon dioxide got absorbed and there was effectively a global cooling happening.

The Mongol Invasion

Among all these historical events, one stands out – The Mongol invasion which lasted for about 150 years and covered more than 20% of Earth’s surface.

After founding the Mongol empire, Genghis Khan has been believed to have started these Mongol invasions. Time and again he was involved in the decimation of huge settlements. It is estimated that these invasions led by Genghis Khan resulted in the death of a whopping 40 Million people!

Death of so many people meant that the cultivated lands of settlements started turning back into forests and these forests ended up absorbing huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the air. Result – Global cooling (kinda).

It is estimated that the Genghis Khan invasions helped remove about 700 Million tons of carbon from the atmosphere. That about the same as a whole year of carbon that is being put back into the air due to burning of petrol today, in this industrialised world!

Genghis Khan has been branded the greenest invader in history.

Random Genghis Khan fact:
1 in 200 men are direct descendants of Genghis Khan – [Source]

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Is Global Warming Real? You’ll Find Your Own Answer

By Anupum Pant

In the year 1964, the surgeon general of U.S. Public Health Service released a comprehensive scientific report that linked cigarette smoking to several deadly diseases. Of these diseases, the worst were lung and laryngeal cancer.

Even after 10 years from when this report was released, the real dangers linked with cigarette smoking could not reach the public. And even today, after having killed 100 Million people in the last century, not everybody believes that this deadly habit, really is a deadly one. There was a reason for that…

In the face of all the scientific evidence and reports, people were still being convinced to smoke, by elaborate campaigns. Before 1964, the ads promoting smoking were too absurd. But, even after 1964, when the report was released, this propaganda did not stop. In fact it blew up, as if to cover up the scientific evidence, as if to nullify the findings of the report, to seed a doubt, and to keep the public from recognizing the truth. People were being coaxed to smoke.

Fake science

Fake science was being conjured up to disprove the findings of the 1964 report. A doubt was being created in the minds of the public. The tobacco industry, a flourishing one, was funding various institutions to create fake studies that create a doubt in people’s minds. These were real scientists who were being paid to speak.

And now people started thinking that there was an actual debate going on between scientists. They thought, since scientists weren’t too sure about the harmful effects, they need not be careful with cigarettes.

Dr. Fredrick Seitz was one big player in this. He was a founding chairman of the George C. Marshall Institute. The job of people at this institute was to popularize cigarettes (or tobacco) by creating a doubtful atmosphere, saying with phony scientific studies, that the scientists who said cigarettes caused cancer, were not really sure about what they said.

The same institute ran several campaigns against the dangers of other actually dangerous things like acid rain, ozone depletion and DDT. They said acid rain, ozone depletion and DDT weren’t really harmful. In return, they were being funded big bucks from major businesses.

Their campaign against the dangers of cigarettes delayed the response of general public by a decade. Roughly, you could even say that this very campaign was one reason that caused 10 Million deaths. They probably weren’t happy that their fake science was killing masses. But they were getting paid well. Wasn’t it a massacre?

The Next Big Thing

Pro-cigarette and others were relatively smaller campaigns. Now, they were on to something big. This time, it was the largest conglomerates – Petroleum industry – in the world who wanted to fund the institute to create phony science that would create a doubt about global warming. The petroleum industries did not want their industry to collapse after the real science came out with results that could hurt them. They wanted to create a delay in the response from the public. Just like the decade’s delay which happened after the 1964 report.

This time the lives of millions are not at stake, it’s Billions.

Now do you really think  that global warming is a delusion? Are scientists really doubtful if the world is getting hotter? Or a fake doubt is being created by the likes of George C. Marshall Institute.

Here is the video which educated me about it:

You probably have your answer.

There is no doubt. Global warming is real. The doubt that is being created is a phony one.

Hit like if you learnt something.