Global Warming

There are many grave problems currently afflicting our environment, including pollution, destruction of the rainforests, and the consumption of all of our planets natural resources. None of these issues quite compare to the problem of global warming. To protect the health and economic well-being of current and future generations, we must reduce our emissions of heat-trapping gases by using the know-how, technology, and practical solutions already at our disposal.

What exactly is global warming? Global warming is a problem that emerged as a major issue in the late 1980's. There are many misconceptions about global warming. Some believe that pollution causes the problem but facts show that global warming results from burning fossil fuels, coal, and oils that release carbon dioxide.

Another misconception is that nuclear power causes climate change. Nuclear power actually reduces emissions of carbon dioxide when used in the place of coal. Global warming can also be defined as a rise in the average land temperature around the earth. Currently, the average temperature of the earth is 57 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature could be the result of several different factors. One factor that has caused the earths temperature to rise is humans; the other factor is a result of nature.

The greenhouse effect is another major cause of global warming. Energy from the sun heats the earth's surface and in turn, heat energy is radiated back into space. Greenhouse gases trap some of this outgoing energy to retain heat and heat the planet. Without this natural process, the global temperature would be much lower than it is now. The problem is that these valuable and necessary greenhouse gases build up in the atmosphere and cause more and more heat to be trapped.

Are governments doing enough to prevent the massive problem of global warming? Global warming can be controlled and sustained if we start now. There are an overwhelming number of issues that need to be addressed in order for us to help improve our environment. To know that one day the polar icecaps could melt is a terrifying thought. If global warming continues to increase and raises the earth's atmospheric temperatures, the melting of the polar icecaps could become a reality. This would cause horrific devastation to many parts of the world. There would be floods, record heat waves, and destruction of aquatic life, scorched forests and disappearing species. If global warming continues to go unattended, it will slowly destroy the earth's ecosystems and the life that depends of them.

One problem that scientists have run across in trying to improve global warming is the limited timeframe they have to work with. We only have temperature data from the last 150 years, which is a very short period in global terms. Many people are skeptical of climate change because of this limited frame of reference. However, data does show that the earth's average temperature has increased 1 degree Fahrenheit over the past century. Also, the past 15 years have been the warmest in our recorded history, with 2005 being the hottest year in more than a century.

Carbon dioxide represents just a few hundred parts per million (p.p.m.) in the overall air blanket, however, they are powerful parts because they allow sunlight to stream in but prevent much of the heat from radiating back out. During the last ice age, the atmosphere's carbon dioxide concentration was just 180 p.p.m., placing the Earth into a deep freeze. After the glaciers moved back, but prior to the modern era, the total had risen to a comfortable 280 p.p.m. In the past century and a half, the level has pushed to 381 p.p.m. and the effects are being felt.

Greenland is an example of this melting as it is doing so twice as fast as it ever has. With 53 cubic miles draining into the sea last year alone, this was compared to only 22 cubic miles in 1996. A cubic mile of water is about five times the amount Los Angeles uses in one year. Dumping that much water into the ocean can be dangerous and results in the overflow of shorelines. Scientists estimate that the entire Greenland ice sheet would be enough to raise global sea levels 23 feet which would result in swallowing up large parts of Florida's coast and most of Bangladesh.

As fast as global warming is altering the oceans and ice caps, it is having an even more direct effect on land. People, animals and plants living in the western United States rely on the summer melt offs for continuous water through the dry and hot days. However, with summer arriving earlier and much hotter, the mountainous snow areas are melting too quickly and leaving these areas in drought like conditions. Philip Mote, a Climatologist with the University of Washington, has compared decades of snow pack levels in Washington, Oregon, and California and established that they are a fraction of what they were in the 1940's. He also noted that these snow packs have completely vanished. According to other studies, the percentage of the Earth's surface suffering drought has more than doubled since the 1970's.

Hot, dry land can spell murder for vegetation and animals, and both are severely suffering. Wildfires in the western United States as well as Indonesia and Alaska have been increasing as timberlands and forest floors grow more desiccated. The fires create more carbon into the atmosphere which reduces the number of trees that inhale carbon dioxide and release oxygen.

Due to warmer winters, pine beetles are chewing their way through tens of millions of acres of forests in western Canada and the United States. The beetles may even reach the insurmountable Rocky Mountain divide, opening up a path into the rich timbering