Global Warming
...a new age in the ongoing development of the human species. The days of empires and the struggles for power are, for the most part over and we have finally settled into independent, governed states populating most of the world. This only could have come from the industrialization of the world which has created a global community of people capable of traveling farther than ever imagined and communicating more than ever.
It is conceivable that the human has created a single, global empire that has conquered the Earth and has set its sights on other planets. Unfortunately, like every empire, an end may be in sight. The industrialization of mankind has offset the balance of the Earth's natural life cycle and accelerated its routine course. Two certainties should be understood before we ask what or why "present CO2 concentrations are higher than any time in at least the last four hundred and twenty thousand years" (IPCC). CO2 in the atmosphere, a product of burning fossil fuels for energy, is at an all time high and may have negative affects on the Earth's atmosphere. Also the Earth is noticeably changing. "A global average increase of 1.3 F (plus or minus 0.3 F) occurred over the 20th century" (Security and Climate). The temperature is increasing; storms seem to be getting more severe and the see level is rising. Only after we understand that change is occurring and what we have done to the atmosphere can we realize what has caused this change and our relationship with the changes. A massive shift in life as we know it lies before us but doubt casts a shadow over warnings and evidence we have seen thus far. Sadly, it may be too late when we connect the dots.
Global warming, an "increase in the global average surface temperature
"(Bitannica.com), is a term becoming more and more familiar every day. This year, the intergovernmental panel on climate...
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