Hot topic: global warming
Global warming a major threat to our future

The movie “An Inconvenient Truth,” an eye-opening look at global warming, offers tips on how you can reduce your environmental impact.

By Caitlyn Nelson
Scott High School

If someone were to ask you what teenagers’ top concerns are, it’s highly unlikely that you’d mention global warming. School and social activities, yes, but saving the environment - not so much.

However, as teenagers, we really should be paying attention to this “hot topic.” After all, we are the ones who will be alive in 10, 20 or even 60 years; we are the ones who will be dealing with the effects of global warming. Because let’s face it, global warming isn’t going away, and if we don’t do anything about it, it’s only going to get worse.

But what exactly is global warming? How can we fight against it if we don’t know what it is?

Well, carbon dioxide and other gases warm the surface of the planet by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. This is both good and natural; it’s something that the Earth needs.

But by burning fossil fuels like coal and oil and engaging in things like mountaintop removal mining and the mass clearing of forests, we are causing carbon dioxide production to increase drastically, which is what creates global warming.

A great way to get educated about global warming is with Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” It will take you all over the world and slap a huge reality check on you in regards to global warming.

When I first saw the trailer for the movie, I was astonished. It grabbed my attention and didn’t let go. It was only three minutes long, but after those three minutes, I was begging for more. I wanted to learn all that I could about global warming.

The trailer boldly states, “Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world’s scientists are right, we have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.” It kind of puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?

In 2005, we had the worst storm season ever because of global warming. The number of category four and five hurricanes (the most powerful kind) has nearly doubled in the past 30 years.

Also, Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania has lost approximately 82 percent of its ice cap over the last 95 years, and one-third of that has been in just the past decade or so. At this rate, all of the ice on the mountain is expected to be gone by about 2015.

Because of the change in climate, malaria transmission has increased in areas of Africa. In Antarctica, ice shelves are collapsing, which will lead to rising sea levels.

But global warming isn’t just affecting these far-away regions. Within the past decade, there have been heat waves in the U.S. that have claimed hundreds of lives and stretched as far north as South Dakota and Maine.

Plus, beautiful Hawaii has lost miles of beach in the past 50 years because of the radical ocean rise. Who knows? Maybe in 70 years, West Virginia will be oceanfront property!

If global warming continues at its current rate, things could get very bad. As ice sheets melt in the ocean, sea levels will rise, spelling trouble for low-lying coastal areas like Florida. Also, heat waves will become more frequent and intense.

And it’s not just bad for us humans. Because of global warming, more than one million species could be extinct by 2050.

So teens, what can you do to help? Well, for starters, you can cut down on carbon dioxide use. The average American produces a whopping 15,000 pounds of it every year through things like driving, using home electronics and purchasing a large number of consumer goods.

Here are some tips to reduce that number:

• Swap regular light bulbs for compact fluorescent ones. It could save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

• Carpool. Every mile that you don’t drive saves one pound of carbon dioxide.

• Turn off electrical devices when not in use. This saves thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year. (It also saves money on your family’s electric bill.)

• Recycle. This can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

• Plant a tree. Trees absorb one ton of carbon dioxide in their lifetime, but they can’t help the carbon dioxide problem if we’re chopping them down and not replacing them with new ones.

For more tips on things you can do - and to calculate your carbon dioxide production — visit the “Inconvenient Truth” website at www.climatecrisis.net. Or get educated about global warming by checking out the movie, which is out on DVD now.