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I have been complaining and remarking about this topic for YEARS. Literally.

I have won two best science projects for it, as well as one of the better Data Management projects for my analysis.

AND FINALLY, in 2005, Al Gore released "An Inconvenient Truth". Finally, people started questioning.

FINALLY, people started BELIEVING (although, there are still some out there that are skeptical.)

If you see our climate change today, I don't think you have a right to be skeptical. Science wins this round.

Global warming is the increase in the Earth's average temperature. I believe it has gone up by one degree in the past fifty years, although it seems like more since THIS year.

Blurb from Wiki:
"An increase in global temperatures can in turn cause other changes, including sea level rise, and changes in the amount and pattern of precipitation resulting in floods and drought[7]. There may also be changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, though it is difficult to connect specific events to global warming. Other effects may include changes in agricultural yields, glacier retreat, reduced summer streamflows, species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors.

Remaining scientific uncertainties include the exact degree of climate change expected in the future, and how changes will vary from region to region around the globe. There is ongoing political and public debate regarding what, if any, action should be taken to reduce or reverse future warming or to adapt to its expected consequences. Most national governments have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol aimed at combating greenhouse gas emissions."

What's happening? Ozone depletion.

Holes in our atmosphere and the thickening of the ozone in other areas, in which the UV is trapped and causes the melting that we seem to be getting a lot of lately.

What can this cause? Polar ice caps melt down completely, water levels rise, currents do something funny on us as a reaction and suddenly we freeze over. Oh yeah. An ice age.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Stop carbon gas emission. YOUR CAR...drive hybrid, etc.
Recycle.
Be green.

Is there anything drastic you can do?
NO. We are pretty screwed, I have to admit. The only way to completely stop the already started cycle, so far, is considering sending sulfur dioxide into space, above our ozone to create an extra layer to protect us (suggested by David Suzuki), however, the negative is that we'll get a lot of acid rain, lose our agriculture and potentially lose our livestock. It's also fairly expensive.

I'm all for it. Why?
Because we save our EARTH. We save ourselves. Humans are a versatile species. we can adapt. We can MAKE our own agriculture. Indoors, of course. We can protect our livestock.

We did this to ourselves, you know. So discuss, what do you think should be done?

I'm also for freezing carbon emissions, but a lot of good that'll do us, now that we've pretty much started the cycle anyway.

OMG. This thread killed a virtual tree?!

exactly were screwed. so most people arn't going to stop now.

however if we go back to prehistoric times we'll see that the areas that iced over and dried were water. my guess, this is whats happening in reverse.

So yeah we could just build out homes on higher land levels....

but i get what your saying completely.

"Global warming" is happening, but it's not a bad thing.
The earth has been going through recurrent climate changes for as long as it's been around (around 900 trillion years, I believe? Or was it billion...)
In the 1970's, people were freaking out over global "cooling". But this is really how the earth balances itself out; it's quite normal. 3nodding
I did an article for it in the school newspaper and did a lot of research... but yeah. Right now, most people who take global warming seriously are alarmed over Greenland’s melting glaciers and rising temperatures. Oddly enough, few people think to mention that the temperatures in Greenland were higher in 1941 than they are today. So basically, Greenland has COOLED since the 1940's; in fact, the warmest decade recorded in Greenland was the 1930's to 1940's while the warmest year was 1941. Not only that, but no one seems to be paying attention to the fact that melting rates for glaciers around Illulisat were faster a little less than a hundred years ago in the early 20th century. And while glaciers are melting in Illulisat, conveniently enough they are rapidly growing not too far away in Kangerlussuaq. But no one cares about that, do they?
I wish people would focus on the REAL important stuff going on right now... things we can help, instead of interfering with the earth's natural cycles. Right now, a bigger problem is poverty....

I think it's great that it's trendy. After all, our society depends so much on media. If being green is trendy, then why wouldn't people go with it? It's an excellent way to get the population caring.