Greenhouse Gas Emissions

CO2 production from increased industrial activity (such as fossil fuel burning) and other human activities such as cement production and tropical deforestation has increased the CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. The atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane have increased by 31% and 149% respectively above pre-industrial levels since 1750. This is considerably higher than at any time during the last 650,000 years, the period for which reliable data has been extracted from ice cores.

More greenhouse gases in the atmosphere basically means more IR absorption and recycling of that energy back down to Earth, where it raises the Earth's temperature. About three-quarters of the anthropogenic (man-made) emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere during the past 20 years are due to fossil fuel burning. For more than a century, people have relied on fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas for their energy needs. Burning these fossil fuels releases the global warming gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The rest of the anthropogenic emissions are predominantly due to land-use changes, especially deforestation and industrial agriculture.

While industry in general is often blamed directly for these emissions, sometimes the consumer forgets that he or she is indirectly responsible as well, by purchasing their products and refusing to relinquish or scale back on current lifestyles that contribute to the problem, including the continued popularity of large, gas-guzzling trucks and the high consumption of factory-farm raised animal products in the developed world.

Oceanic Impact of CO2 buildup

The buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere not only warms the planet, it also leads to ocean acidification. Increased atmospheric carbon dioxide increases the amount of CO2 dissolved in the oceans. Carbon dioxide gas dissolved in the ocean reacts with water to form carbonic acid, and the result is a drop in pH resulting in ocean acidification. Between 1751 and 2004, surface ocean pH is estimated to have decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14. Since biosystems are adapted to a narrow range of pH this is a serious concern directly driven by increased atmospheric CO2 and not global warming. Although the natural absorption of CO2 by the world's oceans helps mitigate the climatic effects of anthropogenic emissions of CO2 to some extent, increased ocean acidity threatens to corrode the shells of corals and of tiny marine organisms that provide essential food for fish, whales, and other ocean life. Disruptions of the ocean ecosystem can have effects that spark a chain reaction of other effects, and will likely ultimately impact humanity as well.