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Since the “Big Bang” over four and a half billion years ago, the earths temperature has risen and fallen both gradually and drastically from time to time. The earth has gone through minor and major ice ages, causing the surface to freeze over and many animals to die, and rising temperatures that have risen to a threatening level. From the rapidly melting glaciers of Antarctica to the warming mountains of the Himalayas, our earth's temperatures are rising at alarming rates that are beginning to effect weather patterns, sea levels and droughts, which are caused by humans' 'ecological footprint'. Ignoring climate change could very well lead to changes in the world economy equal to or worse than the 1930's depression, as well as, cause 200 million people to become refugees because of droughts or floods and the extinction of species of animals, marine life, and plants.
For the majority of history, judged by the standards of today’s humans, the earth has been too hot or too cold. The earth’s climate has changed a great deal in the past 50 million years. 50 million years ago there was no ice in the North Pole or South Pole and crocodiles lived in present day Wyoming. Ice two miles thick was found in Scotland 18,000 years ago. Changes in the earth’s climate, 10,000 years ago, ceased and settled down to a more consistent weather patterns. An unexpected cooling and drying of the earth set back the progress of the first cities in the Fertile Crescent. This was the effect of the end of a fairly warm era, and it took decades to centuries to again have the right climate for humans to survive in civilizations and societies.
Global warming, over the next one hundred years, could mean a return in temperatures last experienced in the time when dinosaurs roamed the earth and could lead up to the extinction of up to fifty percent of all species. The increase in extreme weather patterns, for example hurricanes, droughts, flooding, agriculture production, and...