Scientists have concluded that human activities are contributing to global warming by adding large amounts of heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere. Our fossil fuel use is the main source of these gases. Every time we drive a car, use electricity from coal-fired power plants, or heat our homes with oil or natural gas, we release carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the air. The second most important source of greenhouse gases is deforestation, mainly in the tropics, and other land-use changes. Since pre-industrial times, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased by 31 percent. Over the same period, atmospheric methane has risen by 151 percent, mostly from agricultural activities like growing rice and raising cattle. As the concentration of these gases grows, more heat is trapped by the atmosphere and less escapes back into space.
Former President Bill Clinton asserted in a press conference Aug. 1 that there is incontrovertible proof of humanity’s influence on the environment, which will soon cause a series of catastrophic changes to the global climate. Because of carbon dioxide emissions caused by power plants, cars and other fossil fuel-burning machinery, Clinton said, the globe is heating up, and we are already seeing the results of our industrialism. “There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that the biggest single threat that faces human civilization is climate change,” London Mayor Ken Livingstone said in a press conference Aug. 1. “It’s a problem that has been building slowly, slowly at first, unnoticeably at the beginning of the industrial revolution 200 years ago.” But others say slow warming over a 100-year period is not enough to prove there is a severe warming of the globe, nor that human industrialization is responsible.
We are. Scientists have concluded that human activities are contributing to global warming by adding large amounts of heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere. Our fossil fuel use is the main source of these gases. Every time we drive a car, use electricity from coal-fired power plants, or heat our homes with oil or natural gas, we release carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the air. he second most important source of greenhouse gases is deforestation, mainly in the tropics, and other land-use changes. Since pre-industrial times, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased by 31 percent. Over the same period, atmospheric methane has risen by 151 percent, mostly from agricultural activities like growing rice and raising cattle. As the concentration of these gases grows, more heat is trapped by the atmosphere and less escapes back into space. Its this increase in trapped heat changes the climate, causing altered weather patterns that can bring unusually inten
Scientists have concluded that human activities are contributing to global warming by adding large amounts of heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere. Our fossil fuel use is the main source of these gases. Every time we drive a car, use electricity from coal-fired power plants, or heat our homes with oil or natural gas, we release carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the air. The second most important source of greenhouse gases is deforestation, mainly in the tropics, and other land-use changes. Since pre-industrial times, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased by 31 percent. Over the same period, atmospheric methane has risen by 151 percent, mostly from agricultural activities like growing rice and raising cattle. As the concentration of these gases grows, more heat is trapped by the atmosphere and less escapes back into space. This increase in trapped heat changes the climate, causing altered weather patterns that can bring unusually intense precipit