Global Warming - Research Paper, trouble writing an intro

Hi, This is my first research paper and I am having trouble writing an intro that describes my paper without giving to much info. I was wondering if you can take a look and see if I am on the right path.

Thanks

"All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it's here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster" said President Barack Obama regarding the ongoing debate on global warming.

People all around the world are starting to realize that there is a price to pay for the deliberate disregard for mother earth. Global Warming has become a major topic of discussion recently because of the obvious effects of mans excess of pollution on earth. In the past as well in the present there are still many who still think global warming is a "hoax. Research shows that the results of green house emissions etc..., have had a direct impact on the climate. Increasingly powerful hurricanes, tsunamis as well as intense heat waves have taken millions of lives. The extremely noticeable changes are found in habitats, the erratic change in temperature has taken a toll on wild life all over the world for example polar bears in Alaska are fighting for survival because their habitat is slowly but surely disappearing. Unfortunately there have been more than enough cases in the past years that prove that man is doing harm to the environment and if nothing is done to stop or at least reduce greenhouse emissions, future generations will be the ones to pay the price.

Perhaps you should do your research and write the body first, then come up with introduction afterward. Until you know exactly what you are going to say, it will be hard to summarize your essay effectively. For instance, you apparently plan to talk about "hurricanes, tsunamis, and heatwaves" as part of the global warming phenomenon. However, once you have done some research, you will learn that tsunamis are caused by earthquakes with epicenters underneath the world's oceans, and that therefore they have absolutely nothing to do with global warming. At some point, you will probably also do a search in google for "global warming past ten years," at which point you will realize that, since 2002, the global temperature has held steady, and that since 1998 the Earth has actually cooled slightly. This will make it difficult to blame any of the natural disasters of the past decade, such as hurricanes and heatwaves, that actually could be affected by global warming, on global warming. So, do your research, write up your findings, then write your introduction once you know what you plan to introduce.

disaster," said...

You need a comma (above).

That advice from Sean is great! I always start by researching the topic, and for every article I read I write a little blurb. Sometimes I end up writing two paragraphs and including a quote. I throw an in-text citation at the end, and then move on to read another article. By the time I read 5 articles, I have a couple pages written. I put them in a logical order, draw a conclusion from what they collectively tell me, and that way, when I write the introduction, I am very confident.

By the way, your writing style is great. Also, the Obama quote is great. I am surprised he said that, though, because I think there seems to be a lot of evidence that no real harm has come from it yet. But I don't know, really.

The Obama quote is neat, mostly because Obama is a historic president who hasn't been in office long enough yet for everyone to begin to hate him (though his poll numbers have already begun their inevitable decline -- on his inauguration day, 44% of Americans strongly approved of him, while only 16% strongly disapproved. As of yesterday, the numbers were 39% and 26% respectively, which, given that he hasn't yet had time to sign a single piece of legislation into law, is a dramatic drop in under a month). However, topical as he may be, he is not a trained climatologist, nor, to the best of my knowledge, does he have any special training or education in the hard sciences that would qualify him to give a more accurate opinion on global warming, than, say, me. In other words, he is actually a horrible source to use in a research paper on global warming (just as I would be), unless your topic is the power of the issue to prompt politicians and others to offer opinions they aren't qualified to hold (which it doesn't seem to be). So, quote him by all means, but then find some hard data to either prove or discredit what he says.

Thanks so much for the feedback.. I really appreciate it