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NEGAUNEE -- Global warming.  It seems everyone's got an opinion on the climate change controversy.  I sat down with two very respected science minds of the U.P. to find out if global warming is real and exactly what it means to you and me.

Dr. David Lucas, Head of the Northern Michigan University Physics Department:  global warming, fact or fiction?

"Probably fact."

WLUC Meteorologist, Karl Bohnak:  global warming, fact or fiction?

"I'd have to say fiction, but that's being very simplistic."

Ah, the butting heads of the science world.  According to a December Rasmussen Report, just 34 percent of Americans now believe that global warming is caused by human activity.  Fifty percent think it's the earth just doing it's thing.

"Four-hundred-million years ago, maybe 75 million years ago, this area around here was probably tropical and a lot different climate than we have now," offered Dr. Lucas.

So was the multi-million year change human-induced or just a natural occurrence?  The big worry is that global warming stems from our actions, the greenhouse effect, too much carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere.

"Carbon dioxide is not something to be worried about.  Carbon dioxide helps to green the earth.  Let's focus on things we can take care of and use our money wisely.  For instance, we can clean up the rivers, clean up some of the toxic waste that we have right now.  The empirical evidence that is supposed to show that global warming is real just isn't there.  We just don't have it," said Bohnak.

Dr. Lucas refutes that by saying that the oceans are having trouble absorbing carbon dioxide, and the evidence is there.

"The people that do the work in this field use very complicated models and try to include as many possible effects in their models, and they all seem to indicate that there is a change in global temperature and global climate," said Lucas.

They indicate that there's a change, but is it warmer or colder?  Frozen oranges in Florida this winter could cause a 10 percent drop in that state's citrus crop.

"Some places certainly would be hurt by warming temperatures, and other places might not be hurt so bad; it might help other places.  And that's also an issue.  Most of our populations live on coastlines, so I suppose that it could be a pretty big issue if it really comes about," Lucas said.

Now the million dollar question:  if it really comes about, what's the worst that could happen?

"Worst that could happen, or worst case scenario, is we can't inhabit the planet anymore after, let's say, 10,000 years.  We've got to take care of what we've got," Lucas stated.

Bohnak doesn't seem to be too worried.  "The worst case scenario, which is the extreme end, which is the least likely to happen, says seven or eight degrees.  Yeah, then we'd have problems.  But that is probably about the chance that I'm going to step outside right now on a February day and get struck by lightning."