"Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased nearly 30%, methane concentrations have more than doubled, and nitrous oxide concentrations have risen by about 15%...In 1997, the United States emitted about one-fifth of total global greenhouse gases." (EPA)

Last century, the earth's temperature raised by 1oF. The nine hottest years of the last century were all in the last two decades. This value could have been even larger if it had not been for Mt. Pinatubo. This volcano erupted in 1991. The eruption put a large number of particles into the upper atmosphere, which

Mr. Gribbin was ahead of his time. Today the oil crisis is simply horrible. Perhaps not as bad as during the 70s, but still bad. The prices of fuel are skyrocketing and people are still using them, and still emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This is obviously not going to stop; there has even been a decrease in funding for research of alternative energy sources. These are bad signs for people who do not want global warming; however, there are some people who eagerly anticipate the warming of the earth.

I believe we will see more legislation regarding global warming on the national and international levels. Personally, I don't believe the changes will be as horrible as most believe, and that no one knows for sure what will happen, because all warming before was gradual, and this is quite quick. It will remain a hot topic throughout the next century and we will understand it better through research and new developments on the atmosphere. It will be interesting to see what happens to our earth in the decades to come. I'd like to leave you with a graph that will put things into perspective.

Overall, legislation and politics concerning global warming are moving very slowly. Besides committees and meetings here and there, there have not been any significant actions to curb or deal with global warming. Some small actions regarding carbon dioxide emissions include:

The solution many people give to curb global warming is to stop the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but as John Gribbin describes in 1990, it is not easy to predict:

reflected a great deal of energy from the sun. This eruption held down the earth's temperatures for about three years. There has been a measurable decrease in the snow cover of the northern hemisphere and Arctic sea ice. Precipitation in the lower 48 states has increased by 5%. These are all effects of global warming; however, scientists have not said whether or not these can be called good or bad. The greenhouse effect is always depicted as something bad. This is not the case. We depend on the greenhouse effect to withstand life on earth. The moon, which has no atmosphere (hence, no greenhouse effect) heats up to about 100oC during the day, when lit by the sun, and about -150oC at night. (Gribbin 25) Since glob

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Approximate Word count = 1551
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)