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The issue of global warming climate change has been debated for many years by scientists and politicians. They have argued over whether climate change is indeed occurring, the severity of this change, its impacts, and what role humans have played in this change. Global warming is, in fact, occurring, and at an alarming rate. Humans have played a large role in expediting this process by the emissions of global warming greenhouse gases.

Global warming is, by definition, the accelerated warming trend of the Earth's climate. This occurs due to the emissions of greenhouse gases, which build up in the Earth's atmosphere, trapping heat. The main gases that cause this "greenhouse effect" are water vapor and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide emissions by humans have increased dramatically over the past century, largely in part due to human pollution. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the amount of carbon dioxide gas in Earth's atmosphere was approximately 280 parts per million by volume. This level has increased to 370 parts per million by volume today. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this level has not been exceeded in the last 420,000 years, and likely not in the last 20 million. On a smaller sample size, carbon dioxide levels have increased approximately 35 parts per million in the last decade. Following this trend, levels can be expected to rise to between 541 and 970 parts per million by the year 2100. Since carbon dioxide accounts for nearly 26 percent of all greenhouse gas pollution, the effects of this have the potential to be catastrophic.

The Earth has seen a global increase in average temperature of 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit in the past 100 years. This is the beginning of an exponential problem, according to the IPCC. In their published report, they project a 7.2 degree temperature increase in global surface temperature by the year 2100. This temperature increase cannot be explained by natural causes. According to their February, 2007 report, panel is "90 percent sure" that humans have caused an acceleration in global warming climate change. There has never been a larger temperature increase over a 100 year period as there was in the previous century. This may seem a trivial problem, but its possible impact on a global scale is extremely grave. According to Al Gore's recent publication An Inconvenient Truth, the problem of global warming climate change is likely to cause a host of problems that will alter the face of the planet. The

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