Human Causes of Increased Global Warming and Its Impacts

Power Plant Emissions

More than two-thirds of our nation's supply of electricity still comes from fossil fuels. It is the burning of these fuels that releases heat-trapping gasses. And as long as the amount of heat-trapping gasses continues to rise, global warming will continue to bring about disruptive changes in the environment.

Vehicle Emissions

Vehicle emissions are second only to power plant emissions as a contributor of greenhouse gasses. According to a report released in June 2006 by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group titled The Carbon Boom: National and State Trends in Global Warming Pollution since 1960, in 2001 alone our cars, trucks and other forms of transportation emitted over 2 billion tons of CO2.

Forest Destruction

Forests absorb CO2 that naturally exists in the atmosphere, but they cannot work fast enough to counteract the tons of greenhouse gasses that we produce each day. Unfortunately, we are also losing our CO2-absorbing forests at a dangerous rate due to clear cutting, conversion to agriculture and other development. Without this natural filter we face a much harder uphill battle against global warming.

Household Products

The everyday household items that you might use in your home could be indirectly contributing to global warming. Buying products that are made in an environmentally harmful manner could result in the loss of resources and further increase the threat of global warming. For example, buying non-recycled paper products results in the need to cut even more of our CO2-absorbing forests.