Global warming is one of the most urgent problems facing mankind today. It is also one of the toughest to address. Not only are there difficult technological and scientific issues surrounding a solution to global warming, there are political ones as well. Especially in the United States, global warming is as much a political problem as an environmental one. The United States government is under tremendous pressure from citizens to find a solution to global warming (a phenomenon the government still officially says is under debate) while at the same time protecting the jobs located in the very factories whose pollution has contributed to the very problem of global warming in the first place. Addressing global warming is a delicate business, and one that will likely dominate much of global discourse in the coming decades as mankind works together to find a solution to this absolutely real threat to our very existence on this planet.

             Global warming is also referred to as climate change, and is being brought about by the burning of fossil fuels and chemical air pollution from the forces of production. Global warming threatens to raise the average surface temperature of the earth by one or more degrees in the next few decades unless something is done to stop it and soon (Ausubel, 2005). While this may not seem like much of a rise in temperature, the effects of even a slight rise in surface temperature on the earth can be devastating to life on the surface (Wysham, 2005). And global warming is not some far distant thing that will affect our children and grandchildren but not us. Global warming is happening right now, before our very eyes. The melting polar ice caps, the hole in the ozone layer, and the monster hurricanes of the last few years are all indicative of global warming already in progress (Merta, 2005). If we do not do something right now to stop the escalation of global warming, it may soon be too late to do anything about it.