Astrid Avalos
English 101
May 20, 2008
Essay 2
The Melting of the Poles Ice Cap
In the book An Inconvenient Truth,Al Gore claims that global warming is causing the melting of the glaciers, and of the Poles ice cap. I believe this claim is accurate because he is well-informed about global warming, and he firmly supports his claim through information collected from scientist, and throughstatistics of the different effects of global warming on the Earth.
Al Gore has more than three decades involved in the study of global warming and in the ways to stop it.He got to know about the increase in carbon dioxide emissions when he was in college. Since then, he made global warming one of his principal concerns.Through his career, first as member of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate, and then as vice-president during the Bill Clinton’s administration, he helped to develop different proposals to reduce the impact of the carbon dioxide emissions in this country.
He also, dealt with the strong opposition of other politicians, especially the Republican Party, who do not support his proposals. In 2000, Al Gore ran for the presidency of the United States of America. After the decision of the Supreme Court, who declared George W. Bush the winner of the election, hegot the chance of made a change in his life. He started to travel around the world, givinghis slide show of global warming, and sharing all the information that through the years he compiled because, as he says “More and more, I have began to feel that I am changing minds, but it is a slow process.”(9)
To make this change of minds possible, Al Gore appealed to our emotions creating, successfully, a bond with us. He presents himself as a common person, like us, who suffered struggles, and to whom his family is the first of his priorities. He tells us how his son’s accident and his sister’s death made a big impact in his life. He uses these events to show us how he changed his view of life and how he committed himself to stop global warming, and to persuade us to do the same. He makes us feel concerned of the future of our planet and of ourselves, but also a little bit scared of the consequences of do nothing to stop it.
To persuade us, Al Gore gives a lot of information, statistics and examplesto support his claims. He, together with scientists collected data to prove, for example that global warming is causing the melting of the poles ice cap.Hesays that “the ice reflects most of the incoming solar radiation, like a giant mirror, whereas the open sea water absorbs most of that heat” (144). In other words, when the solar radiation goes to the ice cap it is reflected by the ice, sending back this radiation into the atmosphere, but when the solar radiation goes into the sea, the water gets warmer and warmer accelerating the process of melting of the ice cap.
Al Gore collected information and data from respectable scientist such us Roger Revelle, who was his former science professor at Harvard University. For decades, Revelle together with Charles Keeling measured CO2 emissions at Mauna Loa, collecting data of how these emissions were changing the composition of the atmosphere and of the oceans.
Another respectable scientist is John Mercer. In 1978 Mercer said that “One of the warning signs that a dangerous warming trend is underway in Antarctic will be the breakup of ice shelves on both coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, starting with the northernmost and extending gradually southward” (Gore,180).After the warning of John Mercer, we witnessed the “breakup of at least 7 ice shelves of the size of Rhode Island or bigger” (Gore, 180), the last one occurred just less thanthree months ago in the Wilkins Ice Shelf.As the lead scientist Ted Scambos said“We believe the Wilkins (Ice Shelf) has been in place for at least a few hundred years. But warm air and exposure to ocean waves are causing a break-up.”(NSIDC, 1)
Gore got the support of many scientists but, he got some detractors as well. For instance Steve Forbes, a former US presidency candidate, said that“ The Academy awards ceremony may hailed Al Gore as a prophetic hero, but history will treat him as the personification of an incredible delusion: the idea that carbon dioxide emissions fundamentally affect the Earth’s weather patterns.”(1) Forbes agrees that carbon dioxideemissions increase after 1940, but he remarks that between 1940 and the mid-1970’s there were a decline in Earth’s temperature. He mentioned that in the past century the total increase of the temperature was one degree, and half of that increase happened before 1940. Forbes also agrees that weather respond to changes in the solar radiation activity of the sun and that this “appears to be affected by slight changes in the tilt of the Earth”(2), but he insists that carbon dioxide emissions have a small impact on global warming saying that pollutant particles reflect sunlight back into the space, and that instead of glaciers melting away, there are actually many of them which are expanding.
To sum, I believe that Al Gore’s claim that global warming is causing the melting of the glaciers and of the Poles ice cap is faithful because he gives us a lot of information about global warming, but also tell us who his sources are, respectable scientist that have been working in this topic for decades. Even his detractors agree in parts of the information that he helped to collect, but the most important of all, is that Al Gore show us the importance of take global warming as a personal issue, as he did, and how a little contribution of our part can contribute to make a big change on Earth.
Works Cited
Forbes, Steve. “An Astounding Fantasy.” Forbes 179.6 (26 Mar.2007): 26-26. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. [Library Name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 21 May 2008.<http//rpa.laguardia.edu:2048/login?url+ ost-live>.
Gore, Albert. An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global
Warmingand What We Can Do about It.New York: Rodale, 2006
National Snow and Ice Data Center. Press Release: Antarctic Ice Shelf DisintegrationUnderscores a Warming World. 25 March 2008. <
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