Q: What causes Global Warming?
A: Carbon dioxide and other air pollution [greenhouse gases] that is collecting in the atmosphere like a thickening blanket, trapping the sun's heat and causing the planet to warm up.
Q. Is there really cause for serious concern?
A. Yes. Global warming is a complex phenomenon, and its full-scale impacts are hard to predict far in advance. But each year scientists learn more about how global warming is affecting the planet, and many agree that certain consequences are likely to occur if current trends continue. Among these:
- Melting glaciers, early snowmelt and severe droughts will cause more dramatic water shortages in the American West.
- Rising sea levels will lead to coastal flooding on the Eastern seaboard, in Florida, and in other areas, such as the Gulf of Mexico.
- Warmer sea surface temperatures will fuel more intense hurricanes in the southeastern Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
- Forests, farms and cities will face troublesome new pests and more mosquito-borne diseases like the Dengue epidemic in Luzon being spread by mosquitoes that are accustomed to the now-warmer temperatures.
- Disruption of habitats such as coral reefs, arctic ice (home to polar bears) and alpine meadows could drive many plant and animal species to extinction.
- Deadly bush fires being fanned by global warming-backed El Niño as seen in Calfornia.
(Taken from the Natural Resources Defense Council. To read the full article, please go to http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/f101.asp.
Other sources include the Signos video at http://www.youtube.com/upoucool101 and http://joshuashill.greenoptions.com/2007/10/26/california-fires-and-climate-change-a-match-made-in-hell/)
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