Global warming. For the last few years it has become a very much talked about and hotly debated topic. Is it real or is it just so much hogwash generated by uninformed scare tacticians trying to suppress free enterprise? Changing weather patterns around the globe seem to indicate that the earth may in fact be in the midst of a global warming cycle. Scientific data shows that the earth’s temperature is gradually rising and climate changes are being seen in areas all around the world as a result. We are already seeing moderate rising of sea levels. Storms are becoming more severe. Areas which don’t normally receive much precipitation are documenting higher than normal rainfall. Areas which would normally experience good rainfall levels are receiving less and less.

The ozone layer over the south pole is being depleted allowing more radiation from the sun to enter earth’s atmosphere helping to raise global temperatures, causing the arctic and antarctic ice caps to melt to levels not known of in thousands and thousands of years. Glaciers in various locations around the world once thought to be semi permanent are melting off and receding at alarming rates. The implications to mankind are enormous and potentially devastating. One half to two thirds of the worlds population live in coastal or low lying areas which could be totally eliminated by rising sea levels brought about by the melting of earth’s polar ice caps. Society as we know it could be totally devastated. Major coastal cities totally wiped out or at the very least made partly or completely uninhabitable. Agriculture severely crippled. World commerce severely disrupted. And the more the earth’s temperature rises the faster the effect is amplified. Some scientists are predicting that global temperatures could rise by ten to twenty degrees and sea levels rise as much as twenty feet or more by the middle of this century due to accelerated global warming.

Quite a scary scenario for our future and our coming generations future. But what is causing this phenomena? Is it all part of some sort of natural cycle of the earth or is it somehow being caused or at least intensified by the way we live and use and abuse the resources of our planet? It is very possible that it is part of a normal cycle of climate changes that the earth has experienced since it was created. The earth has gone through numerous climate changes including ice ages and periods of tropic and Sub-tropic forestation since it was created and started to evolve. But it is also quite possible that this warming cycle is being amplified by human interaction with the atmosphere which protects the earth. Interaction in the form of fossil fuels which emit carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the air which help trap greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Industrial air pollution and pollution from the cars we drive are very possibly the main culprits in the effects we are seeing and experiencing with our atmosphere. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century and the birth of the industrial age, pollution levels in our atmosphere have been steadily rising and as more of the world becomes industrialized the problem only gets worse as long as that industrialization relies on fossil fuels.

What can we as individuals do to help stem this rise in the pollution of our atmosphere and the possible contribution to global warming caused by the use of fossil fuels as our principal means of running our societies? First we can demand that our governments work on developing more earth friendly forms of energy. Wind, solar, geothermal, and other forms of energy which don’t emit harmful toxins into the atmosphere. Second, we can make changes in our personal lives which will help reduce the amount of pollution we as individuals create. The largest culprit among us is the cars we drive. Cars which use fuels which are improperly formulated to burn properly because oil companies formulate their fuels to only burn efficiently enough to actually allow our cars to operate, so that they can make as much money as they can off of their products without regard to the consequences to our planet.

Slowly, alternative fuels and fuel alternatives are being developed. Ethanol, Natural gas, hydrogen, biodeisel along with electric and solar powered vehicles. Hybrid cars which combine part time electric drives with conventional gas powered engines. These are all potential solutions to the pollution problems caused by our automobiles. Yet their full potential remains years away from full commercial development. However there are ways to actually make our present cars run better by improving the fuel mixture so it burns more completely thus eliminating the vast majority of pollution caused by the unburned fuel emitted as unburned hydrocarbon pollution. This can, thanks to committed independent inventors be easily and economically accomplished by incorporating hydroxy gas systems into our present cars. Hydroxy gas systems break down H2O into a burnable gas which when combined with the gasoline/air mixture creates a much better and cleaner burning fuel mixture which will eliminate almost all of the pollution emitted by our cars, but also increase the car’s gas milage substantially because these systems cause the gasoline to be almost completely burned up in the engine the way it should be if it was properly formulated to begin with by the oil companies.

These systems can be purchased pre built for a few hundred dollars or with proper plans can be easily constructed from readily obtainable materials for under a hundred dollars. There are numerous people and commercial entities who try to dispel and suppress this information either because they are too disbelieving that these systems can actually work or more importantly are the commercial entities who realize that these systems do in fact work and if people implemented this technology into their cars that these entities profits would be drastically affected.

It is ultimately up to each one of us to change the way we do things and do what we can to help reverse the damage which we as a race of people have done to the health of the planet which sustains us and all living things on this planet. Whether though real shortage of oil supplies are due to market speculation, if something like the cost of gas rising to five or ten dollars a gallon forces us to make those changes, then ultimately that is a good thing regardless of how much it forces us to change our lifestyles or the short term hardships it might impose on us compared to the effect of killing the only atmosphere we have.

Placed here by Janet Schlarbaum

In fact, the past nine years have all been among the 25 warmest years on record, a streak which is unprecedented in the historical record. For that to happen, it’s likely there has to be an underlying factor, and that factor seems to be global warming.

U.S. and global annual temperatures are now around 1.0 F degrees warmer than they were in 1900. The rate of warming has accelerated over the past 30 years, increasing at a rate of three times faster than the century-scale trend. It’s likely the increase in CO2 emissions has something to do with that rate increase.

According to an MIT study, there’s been a 100% increase in the intensity and duration of hurricanes and tropical storms since the 1970s, most likely due to the increased amount of CO2 emissions to our atmosphere, which has increased the Earth’s surface temperature, and warmer weather is believed to increase the intensity of tropical storms and hurricanes.

In fact, the levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased by 31% between 1800 and 2000, going from 280 parts per million to 367 parts per million. Scientists predict that carbon dioxide levels could be as high as 970 parts per million by the year 2100.

According to the National Climactic Data Centre estimates, $100 billion of damage was caused by hurricanes hitting the U.S. coast in 2005 alone. The increase in severity of the hurricanes and tropical storms is most likely due to the increase of CO2 emissions, which heats up the Earth’s near-surface temperatures. In fact, the average surface temperature has increased by about 0.6 C (1.0 F) over the last 100 years. This is likely why snow cover and ice extent have decreased over the past few decades.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey predictions, Glacier National Park will have no glaciers left by the year 2030, further showing the rapidity of global warming and the impact it can have on our planet in the very near future.

According to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, 400,000 square miles of Arctic sea ice have melted, which is threatening polar bear habitats and further accelerating global warming worldwide. That amount of Arctic sea ice is approximately the size of the state of Texas, and we’ve lost that in just the last 30 years, further emphasizing that we need to take action now before the damage becomes too severe for our efforts to really matter.

The sea level has risen by 4?-8? (10-20 cm) over the past 100 years, which is likely due to the melting of the polar glaciers, which is likely due to the increase in the Earth’s near-surface temperature, and that’s being increased by the increase in CO2 emissions into Earth’s atmosphere. This can lead to devastating effects for coastal communities because the sea level is rising, which means that when the sea comes in-tide, more erosion can occur, and if coastal communities are present, more damage done to them. In addition, losing the glaciers reduces the amount of usable fresh water on our planet.

It is also projected that 15-37% of all plant and animal species could be wiped out by global warming by the year 2050, which could further cause considerable damage to our planet’s ecosystem.

The United States is ranked nr.1 among large nations of being a global warming polluter, contributing 25% of emissions, even though the U.S. only makes up 5% of the world’s population. This provides more evidence that the U.S. Government must do more to combat global warming. In fact, six former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) leaders say that the U.S. is not doing enough to fight global warming. The fact that there have been NO bills passed by the U.S. Congress to cut global warming pollution further confirms what many EPA leaders are saying.

As you can see, there is statistical evidence that proves that global warming is causing changes to our planet, and changes that will do more harm than good. Governments and individuals need to pay close attention to these statistics in order to figure out ways to reverse the disturbing trends that are now occurring. The sooner we take heed of these statistics and implement changes that address global warming, the quicker we can reverse the disturbing trends and the less damage will occur to our planet and way of life.

Posted by Janet Schlarbaum

However, new studies show that the atmosphere has actually been cooling since 1988 and indeed in the year 2008 it will be one of the coldest in several decades. Further, many of the top scientists a climatologist are now saying the global warming simply is not real, some going so far to say it is a bunch of hot air.

This is debate is further compounded with the fact that Al Gore was given a Nobel Prize for his docudrama; “Inconvenient Truth.” If global warming is really false and Al Gore received the Nobel Prize for his works then that is a blotch on the scientific community.

A few years back a survey was sent around to the public and over 80% of the people believed that global warming was real, now a more recent survey shows that 60% of the population in the United States does not believe the global warming is a reality. Much of this is no doubt because of the heavy handed headlines in the mass media in prior years and less since then, due to the election year headlines.

Does this mean global warming is no longer “Official” and if it is no longer official, does that mean we have all been snowed? Does this mean that the ice will not melt and the oceans will not rise and general havoc on all human civilizations is no longer to be of concern? Is global warming becoming very similar toY2K? How does anyone know what is real anymore?

Placed by Janet Schlarbaum