GLOBAL WARMING

            Have you ever wondered what happens when too much carbon dioxide gets omitted into the Earth's atmosphere? Well, if you"re anything at all like me you probably haven't nor have you yet realized how serious that is. The condition is called global warming. This might sound familiar to most of you, but to those of you who share my cluelessness of environmental issues global warming is the rising of the Earth's surface temperature due to chemicals in the atmosphere. Yes, this issue is as serious as it sounds and in order for you to fully grasp the importance of this issue I will discuss why the Earth is getting hotter and what will happen if the warming continues. .
             The Earth is kept warm enough to support life through a process known as the "greenhouse effect." Our only source of heat is the Sun, whose rays warm the surface of the Earth. The Earth reflects this heat back into the atmosphere. If all of the heat escaped into space, our planet would be too cold for us to survive. Fortunately heat is trapped in the atmosphere by so-called "greenhouse gases", and some of the warmth finds its way back to the surface of the globe via the troposphere, the lower part of the atmosphere.
             Unfortunately, many modern human activities produce greenhouse gases as waste. Carbon dioxide, which is one of the most common, is produced in vast quantities by industrialized nations like ours, and as more and more countries are becoming industrialized, the volume of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing. Another important contributor to the problem is methane, which is released by farm animals and rotting trash. All these gases in the air have started to increase the global temperature and will ultimately lead to a change in the Earth's climate.
             Another cause of the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is deforestation. If we all stayed awake in Biology class we learned that trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen during photosynthesis.