I walked outside in the end of December, the 24th to be exact to feel raindrops landing on my head. I was pretty excited during the fall to purchase a season pass for skiing, but now I'm not so sure. I was never really that into
global warming, but
living in Utah and not having white winters is starting to worry me. I have decided to take a little deeper into the facts when it comes to global warming. Are my fun filled skiing
winters coming to an endv? This is a question that I must get to the bottom of.
When I started to research global warming, I immediately saw that there was a great deal of writing about global warming being a hoax or a myth. I decided to start looking for some facts. To understand global warming, you must understand how harmful greenhouse gases are. These greenhouse gases consist of many emissions, but mainly methane and carbon dioxide. These gases trap heat that would normally be able to escape from the earth's atmosphere. This causes rising temperatures around the planet which has quickly created a problem that has become one of the major environmental problems we are dealing with.
Pollution, fossil fuel usage, deforestation, and industrialisation are quickly becoming some of the major reasons we are experiencing such rapid temperature increases on our planet. Since 1880, the average temperature has raised almost 2 degrees Fahrenheit. The last two decades have been the hottest recorded in the past 400 years. It seems as though something is not going right. It now made sense why it was raining in December and not snowing. But what could I do about it? I then decided to start looking into alternative energy sources. People are worried about
living off the grid,
carbon footprint and now global warming. This is a lot to absorb for a 78 year old.
When young folks decide to buy a home, there are solar options that can help you be less dependent on coal-burning power plants. Also, I feel pretty good about driving my Toyota Carolla around down that gets almost 40 miles to the gallon. The EPA has now mandated that by the year 2025 all new automobiles must have at least 54.5 miles per gallon. This will be a great way to offset the carbon emissions that are taking place.
One of the most shocking facts that I ran across was the fact that
Glacier National Park in Montana only has 25 of the glaciers left from the 150 glaciers that were there in 1910. This is quite possibly the most alarming piece of evidence that I came across during my research. When Leonardo Dicaprio finally won an Oscar, he took this opportunity to speak about this horrible problem we are dealing with. It is very important that we take the necessary steps to fight back against global warming or we will be in some serious environmental trouble over the next century.