Over the years, people have become more and more destructive of the environment and natural resources. In past history, people relied heavily on the land for day to day living, and much of what was used was natural in context. For example, the earliest homes were built by hand using natural lumber that was allowed a period of growth and replenishment. However, as time went on, more and more time saving devices and inventions were introduced, with many of them having harmful side effects on the environment.

Though there is absolutely nothing wrong with progress, there can be detrimental environmental effects when people are not careful with natural resources and become inconsiderate of the environment. One of the side effects of such carelessness that is cause for much concern lately is global warming. As temperatures rise and shorelines recede, this problem can no longer be ignored.

Over the past century, the neglect of the environment has resulted in the buildup of excessive carbon dioxide gases in the atmosphere resulting in a rise in average temperature by a full degree. If the issue of global warming is continually ignored, temperatures are apt to rise much more quickly in this century having a debilitating impact on the Earth’s delicate ecosystem.

However, there are steps that you can take to help curb the effects of global warming on the environment. One of the simplest things that you can do to reduce the impact of global warming is to make better lifestyle choices each day concerning the environment. Here are three methods that you can implement daily to help reduce the effects of global warming:

(1)Since the excessive use and consumption of fossil fuels is one of the main culprits in global warming, you can choose to rely less on them. This means that you should better choices when it comes to transportation. Walk or cycle if possible for nearby tasks. If you commute, then form a carpool with your co-workers. And finally, choose the most fuel efficient car possible – you may even consider a hybrid.

(2)Another smart method of reducing the effects of global warming on the environment is to make a conscious effort to conserve energy in and around your home and office. Use “Energy Star” appliances when possible and turn off electrical items and electronics that are not in use.

(3)A third method of helping to reduce the effects of global warming is to buy and use recycled products whenever you can. You can also recycle and re-purpose items around your home. For example, if you poker gratuitonoble pokertilt poker7 card stud gratisbackgammon free casino money free craps game play free black jack craps video poker strategy play black jack online how to win video poker casino game online uk best casino online casino secure online gambling jackpot casino online casino black jack learn to play craps how to win at video poker craps online blackjack casino game online casino betting free on line video poker casino games no download casino online gambling casino play free casino slots video poker machine bonus video poker free on line slots double bonus video poker free video poker games free casinos roulette online craps rules free on line casino rules of craps online casino free money blackjack 21 internet casino how to play craps free casino game download fortunelounge online casino free casino download free casino card game free roulette game free casino play no deposit free money casino internet casino online stri pokerdownload giochi poker gratistavoli da gioco pokerкомпютриpoker texano on linepoker on line in italiano7 card stud inlineapoker il giocodownload live pokereuropean poker tourper giocare a pokertornei di pokerpoker online bonusscommesse internetpoker online italiatorneo poker on linepoker on line gratis,poker gratis,download video poker gratisgioco video poker gratisgiochi internetholdem poker,poker texas holdem on line,holdem poker downloadgiochi di poker on linescaricare gratis pokerstrip poker flashpoker comstrategia pokeronline casino gamescasino’ onlineregole crapswww giochi casinoslots machine gratisvip casinogioco di roulettebaccarat onlinemobile casino gamesgiochi jack blackonline casinoplay free baccarat onlinepc game casinoall slotsgiochi on line casinosistemi rouletteroulette europeacasino bonus no depositi casino onlineonline kenoblack jackcasino per pccasino da scaricare gratis have plants or a garden, you can clean and re-purpose plastic soda bottles as drip irrigation systems.

These are only a few of the methods that you can implement to help reduce the effects of global warming. If everyone becomes an advocate for the environment, then the impact that global warming has on our lives and future generations can be greatly diminished. Be sure to do your part by actively searching for ways to protect the environment – every little bit helps.

The success of the documentary cinema The Inconvenient Truth, starring former Vice President Al Gore, coupled with major weather related disasters the world over in the last few years has once again brought climate change and global warming to the fore front.

While United States has long remained the world’s largest contributor of green house gases that lead to global warming, the Bush administration has yet to sign the internationally heralded Kyoto Protocol. In fact, it has been caught in some blatant controversies trying to disprove a body of scientific evidence regarding the matter.

Many politicians and journalist have concluded that this has happened not because they don’t believe climate change is taking place, but rather because of the powerful lobbying groups mainly from the auto and oil industry that supports them. Cars and fossil fuel use, along with coal based electricity, remains some
of the biggest source of carbon emission the world over.

With recent hubbub about global warming, and polls showing immense public concern over the issue, President Bush has spoken publicly many times about slowing down the effects of global warming, mainly by using technology to cut carbon emissions.

In his State of the Union address last year, he explicitly endorsed the Hybrid car technology, one that would run not just on gas but also electricity. After the Democratic Party won control of the House and the Senate, the U.S Government has also steadily endorsed many pro-environment causes such as the development of alternative energy such as bio fuels for automobiles, and is actively drafting bills that will require Detroit to produce cars that give better mileage. This April, the Supreme Court voted 5-4, giving the federal government the authority to regulate vehicle’ carbon emissions under the country’s Clean Air Act.

While the environment has already become a major Presidential campaign agenda for elections ‘08, true leadership on global warming has so far come most effectively form local authorities across the United States. Almost two hundred cities have taken to the cause, designing and implementing their own campaigns to slow down the effects of global warming as much as possible. California’s governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York City’s mayor Michael Bloomberg have both take the lead and made fighting global warming a primary objective during their time in office.

While California plans to plant over 11 million trees in its urban space within the next two decades, New York recently hosted one of the world’s largest summits of the mayors with a focus on cities and local authorities taking the lead for this cause. Trees are natural air purifiers, and today there is a serious public effort across towns and cities to build greener space.

There has also been a massive grassroots campaign to fight global warming from religious groups as well as celebrities. And saving the world itself has become a financially sound decision for investors the world over. Wall Street, too, has taken to the cause, and Goldman Sachs has already invested billions in clean energy.

The people of America seem to be increasingly geared up to take responsibility for their part in causing global warming, which will affect countries that were not major contributors of the greenhouse gases the most. And it’s forcing leaders in the Republican and Democratic Party, as well as the business and scientific community and religious groups to do what it takes to neutralize the global warming effect.

Global warming is one of the most dangerous challenges that all of humanity has ever faced. Its multiple effects will cause disruptions in everything from natural habitat to drinking water and food supply. And even more dangerously, it will give birth to some of the most powerful natural disasters ever known to mankind.

In 2004, the Tsunami in Asia displayed an unforgiving act of nature. Less than a year later, across continents in the United States, Hurricane Katrina delivered a blow of equal magnitude. Both the disasters caused massive humanitarian crisis, effecting hundreds of thousands of lives. These might not have been directly caused by global warming, but it certainly paints a picture of thing to come.

In India, the speed of cyclones in the Andra Pradesh region has jumped from an average of 150 kilometres per hours to 250 kph within just six years! And while some cities are at a risk of being washed out, other are at the risk of drying up.

Global warming will cause parts of the world to be very fertile for a period of time but simultaneously, it will also cause droughts in other parts. Scientists have estimated that as much as half a million people in Asia could face starvation within the next 30-40 years at this rate.

But it’s not just these devastating disasters that hint towards what’s happening with our weather. Summers are becoming hotter by the year, and this winter Ski resorts in Central America, Europe and the United States all lost business because it just hadn’t snowed like it used to even last year! For the first time in over a hundred years, Central Park in New York saw no snow in December 2006.

With global warming, “extreme weather” or “freak weather” is becoming a part of daily life. June and July alone has witnessed massive floods in the UK and parts of the United States, while in other parts of the United States heat has caused dangerous forest fires. And this week, the west coast is expected to hit temperatures in triple digits!

There is little argument that global warming is real and it causes changes in our weather pattern. Every week, scientists find more startling and disturbing evidence to support this fact. And the scientific community is trying everything from simple steps to cut carbon emission en masse, to designing colossal artificial air purifiers for earth. This time, it’s for the sake of our planet.

In 2008, the effects of the rising sea level will be more obvious than ever, as global warming moves to the forefront of international concern. Especially, to the United States who has seen disaster.

When Hurricane Katrina hit the coastal city of New Orleans in 2005, the world watched with horror the devastation it created in an American city. As global warming continues, unforeseen levels of natural disaster will become increasingly common, while erratic weather patterns will plague our natural seasons. It is not a coincidence that one of the warmest years ever recorded all occurred between 1995 and 2006.

And scientists predict the rest of 2007 and 2008 will be even hotter. The extreme levels of carbon emissions released by human activities have reached all time high, a shocking 379 parts per million in 2005- the highest amount ever in the last 650,000 years! No wonder heat is getting trapped at incredible rates in our atmosphere.

So what does all this mean? As the earth’s temperature continues to rise, our natural reserves of ice caps and glaciers continue to melt. Scientists are already alarmed at the unprecedented rate at which the world’s frozen bodies are melting, from Greenland and the Antarctic to the glaciers of the Himalayas.

As more ice sheets and glaciers melt, more water gets added to the seas and oceans around the world, increasing their level in general. But it is also natural for water to expand upon warming. So not only will the sea levels rise, its waters will in fact take up more space as it heats. The large ice sheets have also traditionally worked as reflectors of the sun’s heat. But as the size of these sheets gets smaller, instead of reflecting the heat, it begins to observe it and melts ever faster.

Of course, this a disaster for the world’s ecology, it has already forced Polar bears to become an endangered species, but just as devastating for humans too. In India, scientists have already recorded an annual rise in sea levels at a rate of 3.14mm in Bay of Bengal, and as much as 10mm in the Khulna region of Bangladesh. It’s the same case in coastal towns and cities across the world. Its evidences have become clear in the US too. While the edges of Mangroove forests are already dotted with submerged forests in the Bermuda, as much as one third of the marsh at Chesapeake Bay’s Blackwater Natural National Wildlife Refuge is gone!

Major cities like San Francisco, Manhattan, to Mumbai are all at risk. Increasing sea levels will not just mean loss and erosion of land, but also more frequent occurrences of super hurricanes such as the one that drowned New Orleans or cause the Tsunamis of 2004.

Another humanitarian crisis that could be caused by the rising sea level is that they will also create an acute shortage of fresh water reserves on land. Scientists have confirmed that at this rate the Himalayan ecology in South Asia will now almost certainly face extreme floods followed by extreme droughts. And hundreds of millions of people in the region will experience water and food shortage.

When global warming was first discussed, it seemed like the consequences would be in many life times later. But today, within our own life time, the possibility of witnessing the havoc cause by global warming and the rising sea level has become distinctly clear.

Science is based on facts and evidence compiled by an overwhelming body of research and experiments. To argue against science, there fore, one would need just as powerful a fact baked by just as in depth research and experiments. However, arguments against global warming thus far have seen only unfounded opinions motivated by self indulged intentions.

In the United States, for the longest time right wing politicians tried to convince the people that global warming was nothing more than a liberal propaganda. In the face of mounting ridicule, many of them have changed their position since. However, the force undermining global warming is a dangerous one. As the International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), the most authoritative body on the subject partly established by the Untied Nations, prepared to release their report in February this year, oil companies such as Exxon Mobil began to offer academics and intellectuals hard cash to publish articles to counter the IPCC findings. Philip Cooney, a long time lobbyist for the oil industry was hired as a key official in the Bush administration and was given a free pass to edit a report on climate change before the government released it to the public. The idea was to undermine the threat of global warming. After uproar from the scientific community, and after copies of Cooney’s original hand edited reports were leaked in the press, he lost his job.

It seems that the most common recurring factor about the argument against the evidence of global warming is that these arguments are concocted and disseminated by industries that depend on the production and sale of elements that cause global warming. It is also a recurring theme that many of these industrialists have established long and intimate relationships with politicians who help their cause and receive huge financial campaign contributions in returns. In the case of American politics, environment has traditionally been a liberal cause that the Democratic Party fights for. So instead of being treated as a bipartisan issue of much importance, the right-wing media has relentlessly worked to try and disprove the existence of global warming, a movement led by radio personalities such as Rush Limbaugh, who has also long battled prescription drug addiction.

But perhaps the leading public voice to undermine global warming has been that of Myron Ebell. While the media often hounds him for his ludicrous sound byte for the sake of presenting the opposing view, everyone admits he is the master of spin doctors when it comes to global warming. His D.C based think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute has received regular funding from oil industry giants to perform research and suggest policies that portray global warming as a hoax or worst yet, a good thing for everyone.

It doesn’t take long to realize that there is no serious argument against global warming, and most of the ones that do float around are designed by groups with vested interests. In fact, the general consensus amongst the world’s population, leaders and the scientific community that it is one of the greatest threats that mankind has ever faced has never been stronger.

(This is just a funny cartoon. It does not reflect the ideas of the author of this article)

Climate is an important factor that not only helps in regeneration of plant life and growth of crops but is also important to mankind. Humans can’t tolerate too much cold or too much heat.

South Africa is no different from the rest of the world and has witnessed severe climatic changes in the last 30 years. According to study by scientists, it is predicted that Africa will suffer the direct impact of extreme climatic changes. South Africa, which has a stable economy as compared to most of the African countries, will suddenly become the shelter for people from other parts of Africa. This will happen due to the rise in temperature, which will destroy the crops. There will be droughts and the animal populations will decline.

As of today, Africa is one of the few continents with a high rate of malnutrition deaths, which is 4 million annually. If the temperature rose by even  then there will be more people dying of hunger. This  rise in temperature will affect South Africa’s water supply, which will drop by 20%.

One of the governing factors of climate in South Africa is the westerly storm, which brings winter rainfall in the Cape region. Due to global warming, this storm will move further south and lose its water in the sea. This will impact the wheat production and also lead to drought. Agriculture will suffer the most as more and more water will used for drinking purposes.

The greenhouse effect is the most important cause behind global warming. In fact global warming is known as the greenhouse effect. This phenomenon leads to an increase in the Earth temperature due to certain gases like CO2, nitrous oxide, and methane. These gases trap the energy from the sun and without them the heat would go back into space and Earth would be one massive iceberg. Since these gases warm the Earth, they are known as greenhouse gases.

In the last couple of decades, people have started using glass houses to grow plants in winter and these are called greenhouses. Typically, these houses will trap the heat from the sun. The glasses in the greenhouse let the light through and at the same time prevent the heat from escaping.

As a result, the greenhouse heats up to keep the plants alive in the winter. Similarly, the greenhouse gases in the Earths atmosphere work like the glass and prevent the heat from escaping. The sunlight enters piercing through the cloud of greenhouse gases and when it reaches the Earths surface, it is absorbed by land, water, and air.

After absorption the same energy is sent back into the atmosphere. Some of it remains trapped in the atmosphere due to the greenhouse gases and this energy makes the Earth warmer. Since there has been an increase in CO2 emissions in the last couple of decades, more and more heat is being absorbed in the atmosphere. This is increasing the temperature of the Earth gradually and causing global warming.

Global warming is the next big impact that will bring about a change in the weather patterns. By definition, Global Warming is the increase in average temperature that gradually warms the Earth’s atmosphere. It is a phenomenon, which has been on the rise but in the last century, the increase in the levels have been alarming.

The average temperature of the atmosphere has risen by 0.74 - 0.18 degrees during the last century. According to the study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it is observed that the increase in global average temperature has been caused due to an increase in greenhouse gas concentrations. This has led to an unprecedented warming of the Earth’s surface.

The other phenomenas responsible for global warming include volcanoes and solar variations. Base on some of the models by the IPCC, the prediction is that the global temperature is likely to rise by 1.1 to 6.4 degrees between 1990 and 2100. This increase in temperature will cause climatic changes and extreme weather conditions like rising sea level, change in the amount of precipitation, above average rainfall, melting of polar ice caps and glaciers, storms and hurricanes.

On the worse side, it will also affect yield of crops as well as plants and animals leading to extinction of different species. Global warming will increase the spread of diseases and there will be droughts and flooding, coral reef bleaching, forest fires etc. Global warming is no more a myth but a fast approaching reality, which in the long term will bring the much feared ice age that will wipe out all living organism on Earth.

Global warming has become the rising issue as it will effect climatic changes on a global scale and make planet Earth so warm that even humans will not be able to survive the heat. It is like a race against time where some organizations are trying to prolong the effect and fight it in their own way. Some of these organizations are:

Environmental Defense: A leading national nonprofit organization, it was founded in 1967. Known as EDF, they have 500,000 members. Their mission is to protect the environmental rights of people, which includes the future generations. The rights are aimed at providing healthy food, clean air & water, and thriving ecosystems. There mission is backed by their scientific research and orientation. They promote and apply scientific evaluation of environmental problems to find solutions.

World Wildlife Fund: One of the most popular non-profit organizations that has been associated with protecting the plant, eco-systems, and wildlife. They have been protecting the future of nature for more than 45 years now. WWF has branches in 100 countries and is supported by more than 1.2 million members in the US itself, while global count has crossed the 5 million mark. The WWF working process combines reaching out to the global audience with a foundation in science that requires action at every level from rural to cosmopolitan and from local to global.

Some of the other organizations involved in saving the planet, nature, wildlife and mankind include:
1. Natural Resources Defense Council
2. Sierra Club
3. Union of Concerned Scientists
4. U.S. Public Interest Research Group
5. World Resources Institute

The causes of global warming are many and effects are far more profound. What we have really witnessed in the last couple of decades is just the tip of the iceberg.

CAUSES
The main underlying cause of Global Warming is greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2). Every tree takes CO2 from the air during its growing process. When a tree dies or the wood decays then CO2 is again returned to the atmosphere. In the last couple of decades tropical forest have borne the brunt of major felling of trees and burning of wood, which has added more CO2 into the atmosphere.

Today deforestation has reached a stage where it cannot be turned back. In 1987, a major chunk of the Amazon forest was burnt and it was of the size of Britain. This released 500 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. The lesser the number of trees, the less CO2 will be absorbed.

EFFECTS
The effect of global warming will be catastrophic and if you look around you, then you will see some of the signs. If no action is taken now, then it will be too late as the greenhouse effect will slowly increase the average global temperature by 1.5 to 4.50C. This rise in temperature will affect the polar ice caps more than the tropical belt.

Winters will become warmer and the world will be hotter than what it was 100,000 years back. By the end of the next century, the temperatures would have soared very high and it will be tough for humans to survive. The last 15 years have been the ten hottest years since the 1860’s.