Global Warming: Fill The Blanks

By Scott Hyland, Auburn Air youth journalist

Global Warming is still one of the most pressing issues facing the environment today, the World Wildlife Fund told the World Conservation Congress on Wednesday.

Global Warming is the heat of the sun reflecting off the earth's surface, unable to escape into space due to CFC's and carbon monoxide gases. Dr. Claude Martin, WWFDirector, and Adam Markham, Director of WWF's Climate Campaign, said some 2,500 scientists involved with the Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change have discovered that Co2 concentrations and global temparatures have been rising since 1860.

Some of the most obvious results of global warming are: changes in butterfly migration; warm water sea species moving north as waters warm up; heat-dependent plants moving north; and disease-carrying pests, such as musquitos, being found in areas where they weren't found before. Markham addressed these problems by asking, "How many ecosystems must be threatened before we listen to this wake-up call?"

Global warming is a serious threat to both the present and the future of our planet. However with all of these problems, no immediate solutions have been found.

So why is this? With all of the information in front of our faces, why does it keep on growing worse? Because, I believe, the general public is too used to modern conviences and is too blind to realize just how crucial our environment is to the survival of our species.

Scientists have been showing us for years the effects of air pollution on our health. Canada creates the most greenhouse gases per capita in the world and the United States is the largest contributor to the depletion of our ozone; these two countries alone create 1/4 of all greenhouse gases.

Beyond the clear evidence of our planet's destruction, there exists really only one solution... to use less. Isn't the threat of one ecosystem enough?