PAST

PRESENT

FUTURE

Human Action, Gas Creation (Kate)

In 2002 about 40% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions stem from the burning of fossil fuels for the purpose of electricity generation. Coal accounts for 93 percent of the emissions from the electric utility industry.

We are becoming more vulnerable to wildfires, such as that which occurred in Florida during the summer heat wave of 1998. About 2000 fires rampaged over 480,000 acres, damaging or destroying more than 367 homes and businesses, while injuring more than 100 people.

Packaging companys using to much  packaging.

Human Beings carry about 250 chemical contaminants in their bodies

  "We estimate that climate change may already be causing in the region of 154,000 deaths...a year,

Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere will increase during the next century unless greenhouse gas emissions decrease substantially from present levels. Increased greenhouse gas concentrations are very likely to raise the Earth's average temperature, influence precipitation and some storm patterns as well as raise sea levels (IPCC, 2007). The magnitude of these changes

Animal Food Chains (Naomi)

In the past the only big threat to animals  were  humans hunting them  other  animals  and natural dieses but there are more threats growing as years pass. back then people didn't think much about global warming and animal extinction or the food chain breaking so they kept killing and wasting and now some animals that lived maybe 100 years ago are extinct like the Dodo or some species of cat.

Animals dying out caused to habitat loss. Are forced to eat other animals

The bottom of the food chain is starting to dissapeir and global warming is starting to take the food from whales, seals, penguins, seabirds, squids and fish and that means that if they die the things that eat them wont have anything to eat and they go down and it keeps going down till it affects us.Thousands of seals sealions whales dolphins and sea turtles get tangled an die in plastic debris or discarded fishing nets every year
http://www.keepoceansclean.org 

While working in an aviary with Associate Professor Scott McWilliams, Martina Mller, a scientist at University of Rhode Island, got the opportunity to study the eating habits of birds.

Tests done on birds have shown that global warming affects every bit of the food chain, from plants all the way to high-level predators.

As part of Mller and McWilliams' research, thirty black-capped chickadees were caught and tested for their food preferences. The birds were fed gypsy moth caterpillars. The caterpillars were given plants grown in varying levels of CO2 to eat. The birds were then able to choose from caterpillars with three different levels of CO2.

"It was clear that the birds could tell the difference between different caterpillars," Mller said.

Ocean Levels (Amelia)

Water from melting ice sheets and glaciers is gushing into the world's oceans much faster than previously thought possible, sending scientists scrambling to explain why. 

Drainage from melting ice in Greenland.

Water from melting ice sheets and glaciers is running into the world's oceans much faster than previously thought possible, new research shows. According to two new studies, by the end of this century global sea levels may be three feet (one meter) higher than they are today.

Scientists thought ice sheets and glaciers would respond to Global Warming slowly over hundreds of years. The current acceleration could be a short-term adjustment to the warmer temperatures.

The oceans will rise nearly half a metre by the end of the century, forcing coastlines back by hundreds of metres,  Scientists believe the acceleration is caused mainly by the surge in greenhouse gas emissions produced by the development of industry and introduction of fossil fuel burning.

This is going to cause more beach erosion. Beaches are going to move back and houses will be destroyed Rising sea levels will also add to the destructive power of storm surges triggered by hurricanes such as Katrina which battered New Orleans and surrounding areas this year.

A big enough rise of global temperatures would eventually melt the world's glaciers, and indeed a retreat of mountain glaciers since the 19th century was apparent in some regions. That would release enough water to raise the sea level a bit. Worse, beginning in the 1960s, several glacier experts warned that part of the Antarctic ice sheet seemed unstable. If the huge mass slid into the ocean, the sea level rise would wreak great harm, perhaps within the next century or two. While that seemed unlikely (although not impossible), by the 1980s scientists realized that global warming would probably raise sea level enough to damage populous coastal regions.