Global Warming - Climate Change

Global warming is a matter of great concern that is unfortunately quite overlooked in light of other problems that seem to be more important. Climate change, another name for global warming, is an imperative issue that should be dealt with in the upmost concern.

Global warming is sometimes referred to as the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is the absorption of energy radiated from the Earth's surface by carbon dioxide and other gasses in the atmosphere, causing the atmosphere to become warmer. This effect is what is causing the temperature on the Earth to rise, and creating the many problems that will begin to occur in the coming decades. For the past 10,000 years, the Earth's climate has been astonishingly beneficial to mankind by providing the necessary ailments to sustain life. Nowadays, major changes are taking place. Numerous people are conducting inadvertent global experiments by changing the face of our earth. We are slowly, yet surely, destroying the ozone layer, which is the key element that allows life to exist on Earth's surface. Through pollution, carbon dioxide emitted from cars, airplanes, and other vehicles, as well as deforestation, we as a society are destroying our home. All of these actions are inauspiciously shifting the composition of the biosphere and the Earth's heat balance (Global Warming: The Causes).

If we do not slow down our dependence of fossil fuels and stop destroying the forests, the world as we know it will 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 gasses continue to leak into the atmosphere, global temperatures may rise from five to ten degrees by the middle of the next century (Global Warming: The Causes). Even now, massive sheets of ice are melting in the Arctic's which is the cause of rising seawater. Scientists predict that in the next one hundred years oceans will rise six feet. Also in the wake of catastrophic weather such as the devastating Hurricane Katrina, and the typhoon of Indonesia may be linked to the current temperature rise. The United States of America alone produces twenty-two percent of all greenhouse gasses in the world (Global Warming: The Causes).

Some beneficial ways of conserving our environment and ultimately our planet, are by cutting down the CO2 emissions, driving less, using energy- efficient vehicles, using energy safe light bulbs, and even taking shorter showers (Global Warming: What can you do). Another way of lessening global warming is by implementing alternative energy. Alternative energy such as hydro power, wind power, solar