Global Warming And Its Effects - 1571 Words

As global issues today become increasingly controversial, many people are inclined to believe that Global Warming is an issue that can take a backseat to more significant issues that plague today’s society. The information presented throughout my research in regards to the rising sea levels and the melting of glaciers and ice shelves, highly indicates that it cannot. What many Americans fail to realize is that if sea levels continue to rise due to Global Warming, then more than half of Louisiana, Florida, parts of southern California, and the entire eastern coastline would cease to exist. Global Warming, by definition, is the â€Å"gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth s atmosphere, generally attributed to the greenhouse†¦show more content†¦[Earth’s temperature is definitely warmer than it was hundreds of years ago, but not for natural reasons]. Gradually the Earth’s surface has become warmer over the last century and most scientists believe that the burning of fossil fuels is responsible for the temperature spike. According to Holli Riebeek, the Education and outreach specialist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Global Warming is happening now, and greenhouse gases are responsible. The burning of fossil fuels causes the release of greenhouse gases, which then become trapped inside our atmosphere and cause Earth’s surface to warm. The greenhouse effect provides a habitable environment for all species on Earth, but [the Earth’s atmosphere now contains more greenhouse gases than ever before1]. The Earth is becoming a more efficient greenhouse, which will eventually cause the Earth to become inhabitable. [The natural causes of the warming of the Earth are too minute to explain how rapid the increase in temperature has been in the past 50 years. Between 1906 and 2005, the Earth’s temperature had risen .3 degrees, but in the last 50 years, the temperature increase rate has almost doubled and is predicted to continually increase] (Riebeek). Contrastingly, despite the knowledge and evidence that greenhouse gases are a large factor of Global Warming, some