There are those who still do not believe that the world is getting warmer. However, records of rainfall and temperatures dating back to pre-industrial times serve as proof that cannot be ignored. In fact, 2005 and 1998 tied for the hottest year on record, and 2005 was the hottest year for the Northern hemisphere, where most of the planet's inhabitants live, since 1880. However, 1998 had stronger El Niño conditions than 2005, meaning the ladder year was not warmer because of weather patterns but because of greenhouse gases. Warm temperatures have caused mountain glaciers to melt, expanding the ocean. Some scientists predict most glaciers will have disappeared by 2100 if the climate continues in this trend. Canada, Alaska, Siberia, and Antarctica already have temperatures that exceed the global average. Considering this evidence, one cannot continue to question that the world is indeed getting warmer.

The scientific community has generally accepted all of this as an affirmation of the drastic climate change. Actually, now that the mainstream media has acknowledged it, the majority of concerned citizens have stopped refuting the argument that global warming exists and started doubting that it is caused by human beings. After all, the world does go through periods of being hotter and colder. Everyone has heard of the Ice Age. However, these extreme changes in temperature should happen very gradually, and the recent increase in temperature is much too drastic for having occurred in a little over a century. By studying the amount of carbon dioxide in fossilized plants and the ionization levels in samples from glaciers, they can see what rate of change in temperature is normal and what amount of heat in the atmosphere is normal. As a result, the current climate is viewed as abnormal, and the scientific community has accepted these changes as human-induced. The easiest way to describe how man has influenced climate change is to use the model of a greenhouse. The natural gases used for automobiles and power plants have released a surplus amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The trees that produce the oxygen we breathe and absorb the carbon dioxide we exhale are being cut down. As a result, there is more carbon dioxide than there would be if the planet was left to its own devices. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere acts as the glass walls of a greenhouse; the heat of the sun enters the atmosphere, but because of that layer of carbon dioxide, it can't escape back into outer space. Truthfully, the greenhouse effect is needed to keep the planet warm enough to sustain life, but the actions of human beings have disrupted its balance, always in the name of industry.

In the face of these arguments, many remain skeptical. They do not see global warming as a very pressing matter despite the plethora of harbingers to which no person should turn a blind eye. Once cold areas are now the locations slushy, melted permafrost that forces citizens to reconstruct roads, architecture, and airports. Landslides occur more often in these areas, and changes in snowfall negatively affect the populations of native plants and animals that provide resources for local people. Warmer climates allow mosquitoes to travel over greater areas for longer periods of time, which in turn allows them to infect more people with diseases like malaria. Heat waves increase illnesses and deaths among the elderly, very young, and the poor. In addition to sickness, warmer climates mean more precipitation and more flooding. The part of the United States affected by heavy rainfall has hit an unfortunate growth spurt since 1910, and the risk of flooding has increased in Japan, China, Australia, and Russia. While these regions suffer from copious amounts of rainstorms, scientists have predicted an increase in sustained drought in other parts of the world. Lastly, because global warming emissions can stay in the atmosphere for tens or even hundreds of years, it is our children and grandchildren who must inherit this truly lousy climate.

Critics often characterize global warming as a hoax and the environmentalists who fight it as Anti-American, Anti-economy nut jobs, but this is an issue that transcends name-calling, political parties, and the man-made boundaries that distinguish nations. Beyond the short-term fate of economies, there is the long-term fate of the planet to consider. It is not Anti-American to be mindful of the future of our planet and its future generations. Thus, this is a problem that, even with its uncertainties, is important enough and urgent enough to prompt the UN to do something for the sake of posterity. The Preamble to the Constitution states that "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union. . . and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this constitution to the United States of America." Are not these selfsame United States a part of the world, and are we not born with a freedom that allows us to mend what we break? Is not earth a blessing, and is it not our responsibility to secure its harmony? For the sake of a planet that is ours, all of ours, is it not right that we should unite in an effort to sustain its equilibrium? Because it is real, the problem cannot be ignored. Because we caused it, it is our responsibility. Because it is already harming us, we have to do what we can as soon as we can or reap the consequences.