[jheldatksuedu]

When you take all (not all, but lots, we still have a lot left) the carbon that has been stored in the ground for eons and release it into the atmosphere in the last hundred years surely you can expect it might have some effect. When you cut down half of the green plants on earth and pave over much of the grass again you might assume it might have an effect. Both of these have increased the carbon dioxide in the air. The burning of fossil fuels combines the carbon with the oxygen, the process of burning and energy release. This carbon dioxide in small doses would be absorbed by the plant life and returned to the earth as decaying plants. In eons it would once again be turned into fossil fuels. Modern lifestyles huge demands for power has many times overwhelmed the green plants ability to absorb this C02. Cutting down the forrest and paving the grassland has also reduced this process. The result too much C02 in the air. It traps the suns heat and causes global warming.

China is now the largest producer of C02, USA is not far behind, India is catching up quickly. The snow caps have reduced 40% in the last 80 years, the process is accelerating. The North pole ice cap is melting. The northwest passage now regularly stays open for 3 months (that's not a good thing for the earth, but I now plan to use that route to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific in my circumnavigation.) Snow melt from glaciers will stop producing water supplies for many countries when the snow is gone.

World war 3 will most likely happen between these superpowers when life is threatened due to this problem. When people can no longer survive as they are accustomed too, they will fight for what they need. Rising sea levels are predicted to swamp much of Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. That is just in the US many other countries also have low lying heavily populated areas like this. What do you think those residents are going to feel like doing when they loose their property? It is expected to happen in 30 years instead of 80, but whose counting. Luckily we recently found moisture on Mars, maybe some of the human race can survive.

The excess C02 is also combining with the sea water to create carbonic acid, this is creating areas of the ocean that plankton can't survive, that is the food source for many of the higher forms of life. This process helps creates the dead zones in the ocean that we hear about. When we kill the oceans ability to produce fish people go hungry.

We hear about more fires in California, the slight increase in temperature, dries the normally very dry tinder box even more so that fires burn longer, bigger and more fiercely, rains are fewer and farther between.

It makes me wonder if I really do want to have children and bring them into this mess we as a society are creating. Much of these facts can be found in a program on the "frontline" public TV website called "Heat"

Jon