Global Climate ChangeClimate change is not a new concept; in fact, there is evidence of major climate changes throughout Earth's history. However, since the industrial revolution and especially since the Second World War, the earth's atmosphere has undergone unprecedented change (Gates 4). In March 1999, scientists reported setting a millennial record for Earth's average temperature. The results of their study concluded that a nine-hundred-year-old cooling trend has decisively reversed over the past fifty years (Bell and Strieber 9-10). The effects of these rapid atmospheric changes include increased storm intensity, rising sea levels, drier croplands, loss of forests and coral reefs, increased disease, floods, droughts, fires and heat waves (Gates 2). These effects have already hit many people in the United States with the intense flooding of the southeast coast caused by Hurricane Opal in 1995 and the significant flooding of the southeast coast of Florida caused by Hurricane Hugo in 1998 (read 68). These storms cause increasing damage due to their increasing magnitude. In June 1999, a tornado struck the Midwest with record winds reaching up to three hundred and thirteen miles per hour (Bell and Strieber 126). #Also in 1999, Hurricane Floyd set a record by reaching the size of Texas at its strongest. An increasing number of wildfires are spreading across the southwestern regions of the United States each year. In June 1998, after a severe drought, giant wildfires in Texas, along with fires in Mexico and Guatemala, created a cloud of smoke several thousand miles long and thick enough to block sunlight from noon in the worst places. This was the second w...... middle of paper ...... al gas instead of coal or oil significantly reduces emissions (Verma 130). There are also emission control devices on automobiles as well as power plants. The catalytic converter helps reduce emissions from automobiles, while chemical processes help reduce emissions from power plants (Gates 250). However, these methods are neither cost-effective nor energy efficient. Burning fossil fuels will always be a source of pollution. So it’s up to us, as individuals, to help each other move away from our dependence on fossil fuels. By using public transportation and conserving energy, with the incentive of environmentally friendly legislation like gas taxes and parking fees, we can begin to address our accelerating rate of warming and of global instability (Lowe 34-35).