ive floods. Coastal regions, where half the human population lives, will feel the effects of rising sea levels as the ice caps melt under rising ocean temperatures. Much of the land along the coasts would disappear, as would shallow barrier islands and coral reefs. The sea would reclaim the wetlands, where many species of marine life hatch their young. Forests and other wildlife might not have enough time to adjust to the rapidly changing climate. The warming will rearrange the entire biological community and cause many species to become extinct. What is the probable cause of global warming? One reason global warming is occurring is because the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gases. We use these fuels to run factories, power plants, cars, trucks, buses, air conditioning and much more. Humans are putting 5.5 billion tons of carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide in the air every year. Seventy five percent of this is fossil fuels. Natural occurrences are not the only causes and influences of our atmosphere changing. Human activities also cause the atmosphere to change. Fossil fuels burning are producing a worldwide increase in the atmosphere concentration of carbon dioxide. This will be a climate change greater than any other ever experienced in history. It is the recent sudden increase of the human population that has caused an exponential increase in their atmospheric presence. One natural factor believed to affect climate is sunspot cycles. The output of the sun's energy fluctuates on a cycle. This cycle averages 11 years in length. Over the past 100 years, while the average temperature has slowly been rising the average sunspot cycle has gone from 11.7 years to 9.7 years. Sunspots also account for the slight drop in temperatures from 1940-1970. During this period, the sunspot cycles lengthened from 10.2 years to 10.7 years. Another change that possibly is linked to global warming is a rise in temperature over the An...
