One of several hot topics in the last few years is global warming. Are temperatures rising? Who’s causing it? What’s causing it? Is it even real? There is a lot of speculation about global warming and I can’t say I agree with one side or the other. Sometimes it seems logical, and other times it seems absolutely ridiculous.
A howstuffworks.com article titled “Do cows pollute as much as cars?” says cows produce about 26 to 53 gallons of methane a day, “an amount comparable to the pollution produced by a car in a day.” That seems outrageous. The article also said agricultural animals are responsible for 14 percent of greenhouse gases in the world. So are cows just as much at fault as humans? Are they more at fault because there are only 1.5 billion cows compared to the nearly 7 billion humans on earth?
In any case, there are numerous factors to consider in relation to the relativity and actuality of global warming. The scientific world abounds in studies on methane, carbon dioxide, and the greenhouse effect. Obviously, these studies are important to our world if they turn out to be true, so accurate data is important. What’s not helpful is lying about it, which is just what NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies did.
An article in Britain’s Telegraph says GISS claimed that this past October was the hottest ever recorded. Many countries, however, recorded snowfalls and lowest ever temperatures. So how did the statement match the data? It didn’t. GISS’s computer programs that compile temperature data from around the world showed Russia having temperatures 10 degrees hotter than usual.
Of course, this would be a big push for advocates against global warming. However, the data was really from the month of September and had been entered incorrectly a second time into October. Two leading global warming skeptic blogs, “Watts Up With That” and “Climate Audit,” analyzed GISS data and found the discrepancy. Once it was pointed out, GISS, to their credit, corrected the mistake. However, they didn’t stop there and withdraw their statement about this being the hottest October. Instead, they claimed to have found a new hotspot in the Arctic Sea. This is despite the fact that satellite images show ice building up so quickly there that the area is already 30 percent larger than this time last year.
Another important climate group, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, ranked last month as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years. So why does GISS refuse to match these findings? GISS data is used by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and is the most widely quoted source. This is a somewhat disturbing thought when GISS doesn’t even collect their own data, but rather “they were obtained from another body” and “GISS did not have resources to exercise proper quality control over the data it was supplied with,” according to Telegraph.
My point here is not to argue whether or not global warming exists and who’s at fault, but to stress the importance of honest data in providing useful information about the world around us. If scientists, who are supposed to be objective in presenting the facts, choose to hide, lie or state things incorrectly, what hope have we for the general public?
Scientists provide crucial information to the understanding of our world, but when they provide false information, it distorts our view of reality. In the future, I hope the scientific community will stay grounded on scientific integrity and not biased toward their desired outcomes.
Hannah Kaase is a sophomore majoring in animal and dairy science. She can be contacted at [email protected].