Global warming is an increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere and ocean’s. The theory of global warming is called anthropogenic global warming, it states that human induced increases in greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide due to burning fossil fuels is the primary source of global warming. When people burn fossil fuels, unnatural levels of CO2 and other heat trapping gasses are released into the atmosphere, this build up keeps heat from escaping the earth (the greenhouse effect). Greenhouse gases are what maintain the earth’s temperature. Some of the most important greenhouse gases are influenced by human activities. Greenhouse gases let in light that heats the surface and then keep some, but not all, of the heat in. The average temperature of the earth is about 59 degrees F. The natural greenhouse effect keeps the earth about 30◦C warmer than it would normally be, without that the earth would be uninhabitable. Based on recent temperature change climate models have predicted that 30 degrees could rise from 1.5 degrees to 6 degrees Celsius by 2100 and temperature has already increased .6 degrees Celsius in the past 100 years. Such temperature changes could increase severity of extreme weather like floods, droughts, heat waves and hurricanes. There could be change in agricultural yields, glacial retreat, reduced summer stream flow, increased ocean levels and some biological extinction. Other things have increased as well in the past years, the combustion of fossil fuels like coal burning, power plants, car exhausts, factory pollution, exc. contribute about 22 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year; the amount of carbon dioxide on the atmosphere has increased 31% in the past 200 years; animal agricultural, manure, natural gas, rice paddies, land fills, coal and other human caused sources contribute about 450 million tons of methane each year, the amount of methane in the atmosphere has increased 149% since 1780. Deforestation also adds to the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere because the less plant there the less CO2 is absorbed. (In case you didn’t know plants absorb CO2.) Many countries have tried to decrease the amount of fossil fuel combustion to follow the Kyoto Protocol. There are many things happening in the natural world that show the severity of global warming. The number of glaciers in Glacier National park has gone from 150 in 1910 to less than 30 in 2004, and the remaining 30 are much smaller than they once were. The mass of snow on Mt. Kilimanjaro has shrunk 80% since 1912. Some scientists predict that the Himalayan Glaciers will be gone by 2035. Arctic sea ice has decreased in extent by 10% in the past 30 years. When so much ice melts oceans rise, causing problems, more than 100,000,000 live on coast lines that are vulnerable to sea level rise, which is happening at a rate of about 1/10 of an inch per year, a departure from what it has been like for the past thousand years. Spring ice breakup in the northern hemisphere happens an average of 9 days earlier than it did 150 years ago and fall freezing happens 10 days later. The hottest years ever recorded were 2005, 2002, 2003, 2001 and 1997. Coincidence? I think not. However, there are other theories as to why the earth is warming and how much it will warm in the future. Some people think that the warming is within the range of natural variation, others think that the warming is just us coming out of a natural cooling period and others think that the trend hasn’t been clearly established and there’s no reason to get so upset about it.

But seriously, this is a big problem!!!! How long are we going to realize our folly? I know that everyone knows we are wrong, but just don't want to admit it! It is just too easy to not care!!! How obvious does it have to get that we are killing the earth ?! She is crying, all she can do is sit and watch while we kill her children, and destroy her bountiful surface. When will we stop this madness, admit our mistakes and go back to living in hormony withthe earth? i fear the answer is never, unless by some miracle, but I fear there may not be one big enough to make billions of people realize their mistakes. I fear that by the time we understand we are in danger, it will be more than too late.