Global Warming 101
Q: What is global warming?
A: Here’s a simple definition of global warming. (And yes, it’s really happening.) Over the past 50 years, the average global temperature has increased at the fastest rate in recorded history. And experts start to see the trend is accelerating: All but one of the 16 hottest years in NASA’s 134-year record have occurred since 2000.
Climate change deniers have argued that there has been a ‘pause’ or a ‘slowdown’ in rising global temperatures, but several recent studies, including a 2015 paper published into the journal Science, have disproved this claim. And researchers say that unless we curb global-warming emissions, average U.S. temperatures could increase by up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit within the next century.
Q: What causes global warming?
A: Global warming occurs when carbon dioxide (CO2) and other air pollutants and greenhouse gases collect into the atmosphere and absorb sunlight and solar radiation that have bounced off the earth’s surface. Typically, this radiation would escape into space—but these pollutants, which could last for years to centuries into the atmosphere, trap the heat and cause the planet to get hotter. That’s what’s known as the greenhouse effect.
In america, the burning of fossil fuels to make electricity is the largest source of heat-trapping pollution, producing about two billion tons of CO2 every year. Coal-burning power plants are by far the biggest polluters. The country’s second-largest source of carbon pollution is the transportation sector, which creates about 1.7 billion tons of CO2 emissions a year.
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