A Soon to Be Heat Ball

As you know we've been seeing the Earth change in the most dramatic ways. Our most recent event, and heart compelling, is Japan's earthquake and tsunami. It may seem to be Global Warming, the increase in the average temperature of Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation (Global Warming). The political say they'll do something, but so far they haven't. We almost had a president in 1999 that would have taken it upon him to do something for it, which was Al Gore, but remained only vice president under Clinton. Scientist wants action now, this is a problem we cannot overlook any longer, and if we do, it could be too late. Earth has been drastically changing throughout the decade, ranging from polar caps melting to a rise of 1 degree, temperature wise. The world revolves, as the life does too, it shapes and maintains itself, just as life does too, but it lives longer. The whole world holds as witness to Mother Earth's changes, it's our home and it would seem as if we are being selfish.

The Earth has had several glacial periods before our present day, so scientist claim. The last glacial period occurred during the last years of the Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years ago (Last Glacial Period Wiki). This type of climate change would not just be there for a couple of months, it would be there for thousands of years. What we're seeing today is something similar to that in the aspects that the Earth is changing in temperature, environmentally and atmospherically. But our type of situation is that it's getting warmer. Could it be that it's just the first stage of a glacial period? It is said that when the earth did have its ice age that most of the northern hemisphere would have been covered in ice sheets, some saying that the ice sheets would expand in this case. So far this has not been the case, what seems to be expanding, would be our waters. What's causing this is the person right next to you, the person driving that V8 Chevy Tahoe, all the petroleum plants here in our own city of Houston, and even you. It's been documented that the number one cause for our destruction is the carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels burning power plants. Our ever increasing addiction to electricity from coal burning power plants releases enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. 40% of U.S. CO2 emissions come from electricity production, and burning coal accounts for 93% of emissions from the electric utility industry [EPA, pg. 10] (Global Warming Cause and Effect). Second on the list is your beloved V8 Chevy Tahoe, carbon dioxide emissions from burning gasoline for transportation. Our modern car culture and appetite for globally sourced goods is responsible for about 33% of emissions in the U.S. [EPA pg. 8]. With our population growing at an alarming rate, the demand for more cars and consumer goods means that we are increasing the use of fossil fuels for transportation and manufacturing (Global Warming Cause and Effect). Third is methane emissions from animals, agriculture such as rice paddies, and from Arctic sea beds, but that's nothing we've created. Fourth is Deforestation, especially tropical forests for wood, pulp, and farmland. Forests remove and store carbon dioxide from the