The global warming debate

There are some who regard it as a pressing issue and others who simply shrug it off as overreaction. But true or not, the rate at which the world's glaciers are melting makes the argument for global warming that much more convincing. Especially when it hits close to home.

British Columbia's Bridge Glacier north of Pemberton is latest glacier to be studied by environmental photographer James Balog.

Balog will be monitoring the glacier in a project called "Extreme Ice Survey," which already has cameras set up in several other locations including Alaska, Bolivia and Switzerland.

In April, Balog will be installing two cameras on the Bridge Glacier to document it's movement due to a rising global temperature. The cameras are secured to a cliffside that overlooks the glacier and are powered by a solar panel. They are set to take one picture every 30 minutes that are later stitched together like a movie to show the glacier's rate of melting. And the results make it hard to refute the encroaching presence of global warming.

But global warming has long been a debate that people are divided over. Some denying its reality and instead saying that climate change is just an attribute of a dynamic earth. And though the earth's temperature is rising (the last decade was the warmest in 130 years on modern temperature records) those who are deniers of global warming say that the global temperature rises cyclically not annually. Ultimately meaning that human influence (namely greenhouse gasses) is not the cause of the rising temperature.

And Stephen Harper's former foreign affairs minister, Maxime Bernier is one of the latest to deny global warming as a reality, calling it a crock that Canada should have no part of. The Quebec MP says that we're focused too much on our own actions and are ignoring the influence that natural factors have on the climate.

Bernier further argued that spending billions of dollars on an event we are still not entirely sure about would be simply irresponsible. But he did praise Harper's moderate policies on global warming. Though Harper has since at least recognized global warming he has failed to take a decided stance on it. And in 2002 as leader of the Canadian Alliance Party, Harper even called the Kyoto Accord a "socialist scheme designed to suck money out of wealth-producing nations."

But, despite Harper's moderate stance on global warming, unfortunately he does have a firmer stance on the issues than some other parties.

And though people continue to dither, the debate rages on. The world's glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising and we are witnessing environmental disaster more frequently now than ever before. And as Balog argues, this is all happening because of a buildup of greenhouse gasses produced by humans. And the argument of global warming is one which humans can't afford to refute anymore.

Hopefully Balog's work in British Columbia and other places around the world will help to make the reality of global warming a bigger issue in the mind's of more people.