by Melinda Barr

Created on: January 22, 2010   Last Updated: May 29, 2012

Top scientists around the world have all confirmed that the planet is warming, and human activities play a huge part in this trend. An international group of scientists formed in 2007 and was responsible for reviewing and validating the data and concluded that the warming of the climate is unequivocal. They further stated that human-generated greenhouse gases account for the bulk of the warming over the last five decades.

The topic of global warming is not a new one. For decades, scientific reports have warned of the dangers of global warming, and how it will affect our lives over the long-term. Books, documentaries, and television stations have documented events like the dramatic shrinking of the Arctic ice cap, shifting wildlife habitats, and increased evidence of extreme weather conditions.

What potential influence does this mean to us in our daily lives? Now that the effects of global warming are practically sitting in our own backyards, perhaps it is time to take this situation more seriously. Here are just a few of the ways global warming is detrimental to our current lifestyles and employment opportunities.

~ Decreasing water supplies, floods, droughts, and fires will increase in intensity causing catastrophic damage, both to property and to lives. In our already failing economy, the magnitude of additional job losses and rebuilding costs would be staggering.

~ Warmer winters, coupled with earlier spring runoff will challenge the capacities of existing water reservoirs. This leads to reduced fresh water availability, higher transportation costs, and a strain on the system. It may also lead to an increase in air and water-born disease and illness, straining our already crippled health system.

~ Warmer weather is already depleting sources of seafood, like lobster, wild salmon, shrimp, and many others that thrive in chillier waters. Likewise, crops in other areas are being decimated by long periods of drought, and yet others are destroyed through flooding and other extreme weather conditions. Both the fishing industry and the agricultural sector would be paralyzed.

~ With the increase in population comes an increase in consumption demands. This new era of rapid growth will result in even bigger demands and associated problems. More people equal more construction, more vehicles on the road, more forests demolished to support said construction and, of course, higher energy consumption. More people also means increased CO2 (since we breathe it out), and at

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