We hear about it often, but more times than not the issue of global warming is taken lightly by young people and adults alike.

Global warming is an increase of the earth's temperature by a few degrees resulting in an increase in the volume of water which contributes to sea-level rise, according to the National Wetlands Research Centre, (NWRC), an organisation that develops and disseminates scientific information to help people understand how organisms interact with each other. The term global warming is, also, a specific example of the broader term climate change.

Scientific information tells us that the planet is warming, and over the last century the average temperature has climbed about one degree Fahrenheit (0.6 of a degree Celsius) around the world. Though this may not seem disastrous, it is wreaking havoc across the globe and things will only get worse.

According to the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, global warming will cause rising sea levels, altered patterns of agriculture, increased extreme weather events, and the expansion of the range of tropical diseases. We have already started seeing the effects in the Caribbean, with an increase the frequency and number of huricanes and extreme weather variations - extreme drought versus large amounts of rainfall - and has caused many to look at the effect of global warming on the regular people.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that assesses scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change concludes most of the observed increases in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in human generation of greenhouse gases, which leads to the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is the emission of radiation that warms the earth's atmosphere.

Many may now begin to wonder who is responsible for global warming and though we all have a part to play in it, studies reveal that the harmful process is a result of increased emission of gasses, mostly carbon dioxide, from automobile industries and such other utilities. The predicted effects for the environment and for human life are numerous and varied. The main effect is an increasing global average temperature. From this, flow a variety of resulting effects, namely, rising sea levels, altered patterns of agriculture, increased extreme weather events, and the expansion of the range of tropical diseases.

1 Sunlight brings energy into the climate system; most of it is absorbed by the oceans and land.
2 Heat (infrared energy) radiates outward from the warmed surface of the Earth.
3 Some of the infrared energy is absorbed by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which re-emit the energy inall directions.
4 Some of the infrared energy further warms the Earth.
5 Some of the infrared energy is emitted into space.
6 Higher concentrations of CO 2and other "greenhouse" gases trap more infrared energy in the atmosphere than occurs naturally. The additional heat further warms the atmosphere and Earth's surface.

Image from www.koshland-science-museum.org

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