 "Photo: Caity Colvard")
The Young Conservatives of Texas hosted a "global warming beach party" Wednesday in front of the Student Union Building.
Organizers spoke with Texas Tech students about current climate issues and passed out informative packets concerning global warming.
Josh Brownlow, a sophomore geology major from Boerne, said the purpose of Wednesday's event was to inform students about climate change so they could make their own decisions about the issue.
"Global warming is a natural trend," he said. "There is no evidence to suggest that people contribute to global warming or that we can curb it."
Brownlow said he believes Tech students are being presented with only one side of the global-warming debate.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines global warming as the sustained increase in the average temperature of the earth's atmosphere.
According to the EPA Web site, www.epa.gov, human activity contributes to the change through the buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. The two prevalent greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are water vapor and carbon dioxide.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Texas leads the country in greenhouse-gas emissions. The state emits more carbon dioxide than the next two biggest producers, California and Pennsylvania, combined; together the two states have twice Texas' population.
According to the EPA Web site, the increase in greenhouse-gas emissions may be sufficient enough to cause climatic change, including raising sea levels, altering precipitation patterns and changing water supplies and crop yields.
Brian Ridley, a civil engineering graduate student from Ardmore, Okla., and member of the young conservatives organization, said he believes global warming is not necessarily a bad thing.
"We believe more research needs to be done on the topic," he said. "We see benefits in global warming, longer growing seasons means more crops and food for people who do not have food."
Still, not everyone at Tech agrees with the organization's message.
Dustin Stewart, a senior advertising major from Eudora, Kan., said he believes global warming is not a myth, and the issue needs to be addressed before it is too late.
"Everything we do affects the climate," he said. "To say that people are not at fault for global warming is ludicrous."
The Young Conservatives of Texas was established in 1980 and currently has 20 active members at Tech.
"We're here to educate students and bring a conservative viewpoint that they might not get from their professors," Brownlow said.
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