Global warming is very prominent in the world.
The main cause is human activities. Human activities have increased the amount of heat-trapping gasses that are in the atmosphere. Most of this is caused by burning fossil fuels, this includes oil, natural gas, and coal.
The rapid warming that occurs today is not natural as some would say. Scientists can measure the natural changes that occur, some are variations in Earth’s orbit around the sun, solar activity cycles, volcanic eruptions, and water vapor in the atmosphere. The rapid warming that is being experienced today is only explained by the increasing amounts of carbon dioxide and additional heat-trapping gasses in the atmosphere. Measurements have shown that there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today than any other time since the dawn of humankind.
There are many effects from this phenomenon. The first is that the Arctic sea ice extent is diminishing. The area covered by sea ice has been decreasing the past 30 years on an average of 3.2% per decade. The heat of the ocean content is also increasing. The top half mile of major oceans are getting warmer, because the amount of heat absorbed by the oceans has increased significantly over the last two decades. This damages coral reefs, threatens marine ecosystems, and disrupts global fisheries. Following this it causes the air temperature over oceans to increase. This causes for more evaporation and that produces an increase in water vapor contributing to extra warming along with feeding heavy precipitation events. The increase of water vapor also acts as fuel for potential hurricanes. Of course there are also many additional effects to this phenomenon.
The way to help fix this global problem is to lower the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, save energy at home, and to use renewable energy.
Global Environmental Change 