Global warming is a term used to describe the increase in average climate and temperature in recent decades and the estimated continuation of this phenomenon due to humans and the greenhouse effect. Although our hot sun and volcanoes on earth do have an effect, the main cause is attributed to elevated levels of greenhouse gasses due to the involvement of humans. Over the past fifty years the burning of fossil fuels has released an unprecedented amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) into our atmosphere, levels at which the earth hasn’t experienced in over 20 million years. With deforestation on the rise there are less and less trees and plants available to process, filter, and remove a substantial amount of this CO2. The warmer our planet becomes the more the ice caps and glaciers melt into the oceans, slowly raising sea level. Other effects of global warming are threats to farming and agriculture and danger of extinction for some animals and wildlife. While scientists are uncertain of the percent of temperature change in the future and exactly how it will affect different regions around the globe, they do agree that measures should be taken to reduce and even reverse this effect.
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December 1997, representatives from over 160 developed nations met in Kyoto, Japan to discuss global warming and greenhouse gasses. They agreed on limitations of emitting greenhouse gases, mostly concentrating on CO2, relative to levels discharged into our atmosphere in 1990. Each country must implement a plan specific to their industries, to be able to meet the restriction goal over a five year time span, from 2008 through 2012. To achieve the goals set in Kyoto we must reduce the use and burning of fossil fuels like petroleum and coal, and utilize more clean burning fuels like natural gas. Also steps have to be taken to introduce more renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and geo-thermal. These measures will lead to the reduction of greenhouse gasses and are seen as a step in the direction of controlling global warming. President Bush and the USA have not signed and ratified the Kyoto Agreement.