Global Warming is a very real and very large problem and as we just heard it has come to affect us all. However, the atmosphere is a huge place and if these greenhouse gases are everywhere in the world’s atmosphere they can’t really be that bad for us in the United States, right? Well, you’re somewhat correct, greenhouse gases do not discriminate where they occur in the atmosphere, and do not just affect us in the United States, and they are a worldwide problem. As we now know, the greenhouse gases that cause global warming are created when we burn fossil fuels to create energy for ourselves. While there are a number of fossil fuels we use, we have become most dependent upon oil. In fact Americans burn so much that it accounts for 40% of the total energy used, it makes up 97% of the total transportation fuels, and the United States is the world’s largest user of oil. However, this doesn’t mean that the United States is the sole beneficiary of the blame for using oil. Oil, in addition to other fossil fuels, is used to meet 90% of the world’s commercial energy demand, and the results of global warming are being seen around the world. The following are global occurrences that show problems being created from extensive fossil fuel use.

• In the Andes Mountains of Columbia, South America, Disease-carrying mosquitoes that can carry dengue and yellow fever viruses are spreading. They were previously limited to 3,300 feet but recently appeared at 7,200 feet. The warmer temperatures towards the higher elevations have permitted these insects to do so.

• The sea level has been rising and has caused the loss of coastal land at Rufisque on the south coast of Senegal, Africa

• Also in Africa, Mt. Kenya's (Kenya) largest glacier has been drastically disappearing. In the last 100yrs. 92 percent of the Lewis Glacier has melted.

• In the Mediterranean, intense drought and fires have destroyed massive amounts of land. Spain has lost more than 1.2 million acres of forest to wildfires in 1994, and 370,000 acres burned in each of Greece and Italy in 1998.

• Half of all Glaciers in the Caucus Mountains in Russia have melted.

• In Korea, heavy rains causing severe flooding struck during July and August 1998, with daily rainfall totals exceeding 10 inches.

• In 1998 fires in the rainforests of Indonesia claimed up to 2 million acres of land, including almost 250,000 acres of primary forest and parts of the already severely reduced habitat of the Kalimantan orangutan.

Although these instances only scratch the surface of a few of the problems caused by global warming, they should stand as distinct examples of what else could happen in the future.
 

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