Global Warming

Global Warming

I had a co-worker who asked me about global warming, and since I just completed a course on the subject I shared what I had learned. I explained to my co-worker that global warming is one of the most serious challenges that our world is facing. I tell him if global warming goes unchecked it will increase the severity of hurricanes, cause mayor flooding, and intensify desertification. I continue to explain to him global warming is the direct result of adding too much carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. I give him an example that here in the United States, Americans release 20 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year through our daily activities like turning on lights, heating and cooling our homes, and especially driving which is the second highest release of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere here in the United States.

I tell him that global warming is being caused by us humans. I explain this is not just recently happening, but it has been happening since the Industrial Revolution, the burning of coal. Oil and natural gases has emitted about 500 billion tons of carbon dioxide, which about half of that still remains in the atmosphere. For example: A single gallon of gasoline when burned puts 19 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. So as the atmosphere grows thicker with more greenhouse gases, more heat is held. Since 1900, the earth’s atmosphere has so far warmed by 1.5 degrees. So I tell him that these are the most likely causes of when global warming began. Since we both live in Chicago, I ask him if he has noticed how our summers have changed and become much hotter and humid over the last couple of years. Also I mention also if he has noticed how much more rainfall and much more snow and colder winters we have been having lately. He answered me yes and asked me if this has to do with global warming? I said yes it does. It makes it harder for our news casters to predict our weather because global warming is pushing these...