To most people, global warming is a relatively recent phenomenon brought on by the wastefulness of humans as they tare up the environment. While it may be a top concern now for many, global warming has a long history of being ignored. One can go back as far as the industrial revolution to find signs of high carbon outputs and high levels of pollution.

 To better understand what exactly global warming is and how it is perceived today, one should examine the numerous definitions. Depending on your political stance and ideology about the subject, one definition might stand out more than the others to you. There are three fundamentals to a reputable definition, which are1) There is a global rise in temperatures, 2) greenhouse gases being caught in our atmosphere 3) the cause. Some of the causes to global warming include natural weather patterns, human involvement, deforestation, the ozone and many other ones.

 Global warming can be traced back thousands of years to the last ice age. Over a period of time, temperatures raised enough to melt the northern hemisphere and make a more live able world for humans. Over thousands of years earth has maintain equilibrium with its temperatures. There have always been spikes and dips with temperature throughout the time period. We even had a mini-ice age. The earth’s temperature has always been subjective to many factors and because of this it is sensitive. Therefore, the burning of fossil fuels and high emission rates pushed the equilibrium over the edge causing global warming.

 The best way that I can define global warming is “An increase temperature of the earth’s surface and water brought on by excess usage of resources, natural weather patterns, improper waste removal and high emission rates”  In my definitions, I try cover to cover the widely accepted reasons for global warming. For excess usage of resource we can look deforestation and high fuel imports. If one was wondering the causes brought on by the natural weather patterns look at the warming of the waters every fifty years weather cycle of El Nino. Improper waste removal can be seen by looking at land fills and polluted rivers.

 High emission rates have been considered the number one attribution to global warming. The earth surface naturally reflects sunlight. Our atmosphere acts as a clear window allowing sunlight in and out. When we burn greenhouse gases like carbon we pollute the environment and block the reflect sun in. This raises the earth temperature causing places like the artic to melt and heating up ocean water. Global warming is also a downward spiral of causes and effects. The North Atlantic conveyor belt will shut down causing the southern hemisphere to warm up and the northern hemisphere to cool down causing another ice age.  

 The thing that needs to change the most is not our emission rates or waste removal policies but rather the attitudes of millions of people. As stated before, the earth’s weather patterns are sensitive to the littlest change. It is important for us to do what we can to ease the problems the human society has caused.