the cause or rate at which the earth is warming, scientific research leads us to believe that the temperature rise is real (Verma 125-127). The global average temperature is predicted to rise somewhere between 1 and 3.5 Celsius degrees by 2100, according to the rate of carbon emissions and other greenhouse gasses that continue to be emitted (Flavin and Dunn 6). In 1998 the global average temperature exceeded even the most radical global warming models whose predictions were as recent as 1995. 1998 ended up as the warmest year recorded in history until 1999, when it became clear that temperatures were rising much faster than ever expected (Bell and Streiber).Contrary to popular belief the greenhouse effect is not a bad thing. It is completely natural and it is in fact vital to our survival on earth. Without the greenhouse effect, the world would actually be about 33 degrees Celsius colder (Read 28). In recent years however, we have been experiencing too much of a good thing. Greenhouse gasses prevent the suns heat from escaping the earth’s atmosphere after it enters, making the temperature rise. We base our global warming models on the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses humankind is releasing into the air (Bell and Strieber 197). The acceleration of global warming can be linked to an increase in industry, forest destruction, and agriculture, which are major producers of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide and methane (Gates 1). In the last 160,000 years before the industrial revolution the concentration of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent of the greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, never exceeded about 280 parts per million. Since then, carbon dioxide has risen to about 360 parts per million and continues to rise (Read 39-40). The major cause of the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the burning of fossil fuels like, coal and petroleum (Budyko 185-186). Methane, another greenhou...
