Welcome to Gaia! ::

You've all heard of it. But how much of it do you really know?

One thing that helps prevent the emissions of harmful gases into the atmosphere is the rain forest. The vast rain forests in South America not only contribute 20% of the world's oxygen, but at the same time it clears up the carbon we're putting into the air.

Rain forest destruction is caused by burning and logging. South America is home to mostly the poor. Their only job might be to cut down lots of trees. Many people in rain forest regions are farmers, and they sustain their families by making farmland. They burn down the trees and in the empty place they raise cows. And what do the cows do? Fart. And when the land is completely barren, void of nutrients and unusable, and move on to the next area of trees to burn down. Since they're desperate and uneducated, they don't realize the loss they've brought about.

As for the carbon emissions that cause it in the first place, that's the fault of the richer countries. There are two terms I have leanred in relation to carbon emissions: carbon footprint and carbon credit. A carbon footprint is the amount of carbon an individual emits into the atmosphere. And carbon credits are like carbon footprints for whole countries, but they are used as limits to keep a whole country from emitting too much carbon overall. Both concepts are useful on the small scale, the one we as individuals have control over, and the large scale, the one in which we can see the effects reflected.

And finally, some scientific input. The reason carbon destroys ozone is because of chemical composition. Carbon (C) reacts with Ozone (O3) to form Carbon Dioxide and Oxygen.

Ozone is made of 3 Oxygen atoms (O3)
Carbon is one Carbon atom (C)
Oxygen (the breathable kind) is two Oxygen atoms (O2)
Carbon Dioxide is one Carbon atom and two Oxygen (CO2)

(2 of) Ozone + Carbon = (2 of) Oxygen + Carbon Dioxide
in other words
OOO + OOO + C = OO + OO + COO

So just one Carbon atom can destroy two Ozone molecules. That's a lot of damage alone. But not only that, but there are other molecules that can get up in the atmosphere and break apart multiple Ozone molecules before they leave the atmosphere. I don't know how much one can destroy in its lifetime, but it sure does have an effect.

Oh yeah, and the purpose of Ozone is to block harmful rays from the sun. If we keep abusing our carbon credits, we're going to be seeing more skin cancer going around...

Yeah, so that's pretty much it. If you want to correct me on any points, go right ahead. Input would be excellent!

The threats in the 70s are the same threats as they are today. they were mostly theories though that were finally proven in the 80's. Why have we taken so long to respond to these problems 20-30 years later?

I'm sure that humans are playing a big roll through proven increase in green house emissions and rain forest destruction. I'm also aware that we have only been recording weather for the past couple thousand years. A blink of the eye for the life of the planet. So it's very possible that what's happening is natural. but i think it's a mix of both.. The climate is very precariously balanced. So this is a natural change that is happening our human actions.

Lets just hope that Humans as a species can adapt quick enough to meet these oncoming threats

Well i do not really believe in global warming. I believe this is a cycle that the Earth goes through every 13000 or 15000 of years and it will eventually lead to another ice age. But i do agree humans have contributed to speed up this process.

Global warming my a**! I do believe the sun as it's cycle and there
are natural changes. I also believe if it was global warming we wouldn't be cooling down because there's no sunspots. In the Northeast of the US it's normally around 90 degrees with humidity at this time of the year. It hasn't been close.

Sunspots come and disappear all the time. In 1960 there was almost 300.
In 1930 there was around 100, a little above. 1780 it was once again over 300. So yeah it varies over the years. People believe that sunspots cause global warming, but it actually looks like it varies every 20 or so years. I serious believes it's a hype, for more people to buy green products. Which buying green products is good for sure. but telling people a lie or whatever it is, isn't the way to go about it.

I don't think it's legit in the sense that a lot of politicians are trying to potray. I also don't agree with the EPAs publication that CO2 is harming human's health. If it was oh so harmful then we wouldn't exhale it. CO2 is needed for sustaining life just like Oxygen is. If CO2 was so harmful to our health why aren't people dying or getting sick due to CO2 today and in the past. And water vapor cannot be controled in the environment. It's there, big deal. It's not harming any one. I am not denying that there are tempature fluctations and that the earth heats and cools, but studies are beginning to show that the earth is starting to cool down. Also I don't agree with Al Gore saying that Global warming makes things colder. No it doesn't! Also I don't agree that humans are speeding up global warming. We simply do not have that much power to do so.

Being as Al Gore made it, I don't agree with it. Because the scale that that movie shows is unrealistic. The climate changes, but you cannot produce mass panic because of that. The tempature isn't rising, infact it has been consistantly the same for ten years.