Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. why? Well, Al Gore answers in a very intelligent way in his movie called 'An Inconvenient Truth.' To start with, if the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.
Carbon dioxide and other gases warm the surface of the planet naturally by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. This is a good thing because it keeps our planet habitable. However, by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas, and oil, and clearing forests we have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere and temperatures are rising. The vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is real, it's already happening, and that it is the result of our activities and not a natural occurrence.
President Bush has rejected Kyoto, the United States Senate rejected Kyoto 95 to 0, the United States Senate rejected the McCain-Lieberman bill 55 to 43, and there is little hope that Congress will pass mandatory greenhouse gas reductions, at least not in the near future. Paula Dobriansky, under secretary of state for global affairs, and the leader of the U.S. delegation, made the following statement during the 10th round of international climate change negotiations held in Buenos Aires:
"Science tells us that we cannot say with any certainty what constitutes a dangerous level of warming, and therefore what level must be avoided." Those are very shocking statements, especially considering who made them. But as Upton Sinclair, author of "The Jungle", puts it- "You can't make somebody understand something if their salary depends upon them not understanding it."
That's why petrol companies will spend millions of dollars to keep the masses in the dark about global warming. At the same time, the evidence is overwhelming and undeniable. We're already seeing changes. Glaciers are melting, plants and animals are being forced from their habitats, and the number of severe storms and droughts is increasing. The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.
The most effective way to prevent global warming is to use alternative, clean sources of energy, more efficient use of the existing resources and by regulating the population growth.
You can find plenty of information on Global Warming and Global Warming Effects at http://www.globalwarming-effects.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tony_Scott
I don't usually like to sulk in the doom and gloom of impending or imagined global catastrophe, but this landmark 
Number of registered vehicles in the U.S. That's almost one per person!
Average amount of gasoline consumed by one U.S. car each year.
Amount of carbon dioxide emitted from one U.S. car each year.
Number of trees needed to absorb the 12,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emitted from one U.S. car each year.
Number of miles U.S. cars and light trucks traveled in 2004. That's the equivalent of taking 10 million trips to the moon.
Percent U.S. population is of the world population.
Percent of world's automobiles in the United States.
Percent that the United States contributes to the world's automotive carbon dioxide emissions. 
Number of car companies that support a national cap on global warming pollution. They are Ford, General Motors, DaimlerChrysler and Toyota.
Number of bills passed by Congress to cut global warming pollution.
