Introduction

Global warming has become a highly debated subject around the world. Scientifically, global warming is the rising of the average annual temperature. This rise in temperature is due to the amounts of sunlight being trapped in the earth’s atmosphere. The earth’s atmosphere is composed of millions of tiny particles known as green house gases, and the more green house gases there are lingering in the atmosphere, the more of the earth’s sunlight is deflected back to the earth’s surface. There are quite a few types of green house gases such as nitrogen and nitrous oxide, but the one green house gas that continues to increase in the earth’s atmospheric composition is carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is release from activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and the human existence.

It is just recently that the voice of global warming has projected loud enough to be heard. Of course there are skeptics that believe that global warming is a misinterpretation of data, or global warming is just apart of earth’s natural cycle. Then, there are those who acknowledge the possible consequences climate change can produce. Government officials are now taking action towards preventing global warming, or at least slowing down it’s process. The most historical global warming meeting of countries was the United Nations Framework Convention On Climate Change held in New York on May 9, 1992. In this convention industrial countries took fire for being the biggest contributors of the increasing amount of carbon dioxide emissions.

“Developed nations committed to a voluntary goal of returning emissions to 1990 levels by 2000 and providing technical and financial assistance to developing and transitional nations.”

This action by developed nations to help decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere has become evident in the United States. The going green movement is gaining momentum and according to the journal article “Confronting Warming” found in the CQ researcher online database,

“The Obama administration promises to be far more aggressive in addressing global warming than the skeptical Bush White House. Even though the issue is coming to the fore in Washington, states and cities that have filled the policy vacuum in recent years pledge to stay vigilant in addressing the issue.”

Global warming, which has once been an overlooked idea, is now causing the world to come together and take action for a central cause, which is to protect the earth from the possible effects of climate change.