Yahoo! recently posted a topic here ---> [link] about how freakish the weather has been in the past couple years.

Meteorologists, supposedly, say global warming is to blame for the unusual high temperatures we've had in the last year.

Problem is? I can't take those Meteorologists seriously. XP

Why? Well, here's exactly why.

Everywhere you look, politicians and meteorologists are claiming the use of fossil fuel is to blame, pollution is the cause, but they only look at what they want the problem to be and not what is the actual CAUSE of the rising temperatures.

Meteorologists study the ATMOSPHERE, in other words, WEATHER. Weather has nothing to do with the actual cause of all this heat. Weather is simply a small product of the actual cause. The people they should be looking to for answers are the Geologists. Geologists study the Earth itself, including the minerals and rock that make up the planet, the climate, the Earth's past and present, and even the other planets in our solar system. Being able to study our own planet gives us a HUGE insight into it's past and what the planet was like before our current time.

What doesn't seem to get explained anywhere - other than in Earth Science classes in colleges (I should know, I took one; my teacher was a Geologist, and I aced that class because it interested me) - is that the changing in temperature right now is NORMAL. Earth has been through several periods of extreme cold and high heat ever since the planet was created. If you look at a chart that maps all these fluctuations out, and trust me these charts exist, we just came out of an ice age.

Here's an example [link] and the site it is from [link]

This is a normal period of the Earth heating up as it has for billions of years or more. Yeah, we haven't exactly helped the issue with pollution, but this is still normal. Pollution makes up only the tiniest fraction of the world's heating problem. It's even been explained on some programs that an eruption from one volcano can put more pollution into the air in a day than the whole world can by burning fossil fuels over a period of one hundred years.

It's like someone having a very slight heart murmur (and I should know because I do). A general physician might see it as a sign of a potentially huge problem, but a cardiologist will tell you that for some people, a slight heart murmur is normal and that that person's heart is perfectly healthy.

The problem is, the media focuses on causing widespread panic, so they only look to the people who say what they want them to say and not the ones who are specialists on the matter and know exactly what's going on. So really, everyone needs to stop freaking out; doing so is just feeding the media the exact response they WANT out of you and wasting time and energy. Just be prepared for some warmer years to follow, as well as be careful in the summer heat. This isn't worth fretting over. Also, this change in heat is not going to be a drastic one that occurs within the next few years. It's a slow process, so don't worry so much.

I'm just tired of seeing everyone get so worked up over something they know nothing about. It helps to be more informed. Hence, my suggestion would be if you're in your first couple years of college, getting your generals completed, take an Earth Science class while your at it. You'll learn a lot about this planet and how it works, and you might just see what others don't or refuse to see.

Granted, no, I'm not a Geologist, nor am I studying to become one, BUT I do remember things that interest me the most. Earth Science is one of those studies that has really stuck with me, and a lot of what I have learned I will never forget.

For example, when we studied our solar system in that class, I noticed the chart in our text book showed that Pluto (now considered a dwarf planet) has an orbit that directly intersects Neptune's at least once each revolution.

Charts of Planetary orbits ---> [link] [link]

It bothered me that we didn't talk about it more, so I asked my teacher about it right after that particular class period was over. I told him I noticed the intersection and asked him that if that's accurate, doesn't that mean that sometime in the future, Pluto and Neptune could collide into each other? Some of my other classmates, once I asked that question, also became curious which I think he was just delighted to see me so interested. He said that yes, a collision of the two planets could in fact happen but probably not for millions of years yet. Knowing that now, I keep that little gem of information hidden in the back of my mind, knowing that one day it could happen. Maybe not in my life time, but sometime in the far future. So there's a random fact for you.

So if I'd never taken that class, I wouldn't have learned what I did, not only about our planet but of others as well.

Be mindful of what you hear and read, and never be afraid to do your own research before believing what you've heard of read.