Global Warming

Global warming is sometimes refereed to as the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is the absorption of energy radiated from the Earth’s surface by carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere, causing the atmosphere to become warmer. The greenhouse effect is what is causing the temperature on the Earth to rise, and it is creating many problems that will begin to occur in the near future. For the last 10,000 years, the Earth’s climate has been extraordinarily beneficial to mankind. “Humans have prospered tremendously well under a benign atmosphere,” (Bates 28).

Today, however, many changes are taking place. People are conducting an inadvertent global experiment by changing the face of the entire planet. The human race is destroying the ozone layer, which allows life to exist on the Earth’s surface. All of these activities are unfavorably altering the composition of the biosphere and the Earth’s heat balance. If the population does not slow down the use of fossil fuels and stop destroying the forests, the world could become hotter than it has been in the past million years. Average global temperatures have risen one degree Fahrenheit over the last century. If carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to spill into the atmosphere, global temperatures could rise five to ten degrees by the middle of the next century.

The warning will be the greatest at the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, with the largest temperature rises occurring in winter. Most areas will experience summertime highs well above one hundred degrees Fahrenheit. New temperature record will be set each year.