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Background

What Is Global Warming ?

Life on earth is dependent on the greenhouse effect – gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide that retain part of the sun’s heat within the atmosphere, like a car parked with its windows up on a sunny day. Without a natural greenhouse effect, the temperature of the Earth would be too cold to sustain life. But scientists say human activities – especially energy use – leading to the emission of heat-trapping gases are warming our atmosphere and could raise average world temperatures by 3 to 10 degrees by the end of the century.

Because of the wide-ranging effects of global warming, it is often called climate change. Its likely consequences include:

• Changes in agriculture and habitat: Because growing seasons and precipitation patterns will change, agriculture will be severely affected. Many plant and animal species, unable to adapt to the rapid changes, will become extinct
• Rising sea levels: See levels have already risen by a full foot in the last 100 years. Global warming melts glaciers and expands the oceans. Sea levels could continue to rise another 1 to 2 feet, submerging many low-lying coastal areas and islands.
• An increase in extreme weather events: Global warming will intensify our weather patterns, leading to more and more intense floods, droughts and hurricanes
• Infectious disease outbreaks: Warmer temperatures will meant that diseases currently confined to the world’s tropics will spread further north and south. Diseases such as malaria and dengue fever will become more common.

What Causes Global Warming?

Global warming is principally caused by the use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas (in cars, trucks, and power plants), and by other human activities such as agriculture, landfills, and industrial processes. These give off greenhouse gases that trap the sun’s heat like a blanket and cause the planet to warm up. The United States has 4% of the world’s population, but creates 22% of its greenhouse gases.

Evidence of Global Warming

There is general scientific consensus that global warming is real and is happening at an accelerated rate. Consider these statistics:
All 10 of the warmest years on record have occurred in the last 15 years.

The global average surface temperature has risen by 1 degree since the second half of the 19th century.

In 1995 scientists with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that the observed increase in global average temperature over the last century "is unlikely to be entirely natural in origin" and that ?the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human influence on global climate.? Since that time, more and more evidence of human-caused climate change has been documented.