When a person gets sick their body has certain defense mechanisms that try to rid their body of the illness. There are several of these defenses but one in particular is of use to us here. This is the idea of a fever. When a person gets sick there body raises its temperature to cleanse itself of the invaders. The body’s temperature will rise to such a degree that the viruses or bacteria will be killed and the body can then begin the healing process.

With just a little imagination the process by which the body cleanses itself can be related to the issue at hand, global warming. The earth can be viewed, as one big collective body that is constantly in a struggle to maintain homeostasis and the fever that is a defense mechanism is global warming. So what is the virus then? That would be humanity and our practices of spewing pollutants into our atmosphere. The difference is that we do not have to wait until it is too hot for our survival. Since we have a symbiotic relationship with mother earth we can take actions now to lower her temperature and aid her in her fight to maintain a livable environment for all her inhabitants.

Global warming is an increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere. This atmospheric temperature increase then causes the average temperature of the oceans and even the landmasses to increase. The primary cause of global warming is the burning of fossil fuels. When these fuels are burned they release what is affectionately known as green house gasses. The three primary green house gasses are carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide (http://encarta.msn.com). When these gasses are released into the atmosphere they act as insulators and trap in more of the suns radiant energy. Since heat energy that was once spilled back into space is now trapped in our atmosphere we have a temperature change of just a few degrees but even that has the potential to be catastrophic.

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