A gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's atmosphere generally attributed to

the greenhouse effect:

The trapping of the sun's warmth due to transparency of the atmosphere to radiation.

This is known as the greenhouse effect, as in principle, the atmosphere behaves in a similar
manner to a garden greenhouse – it allows sunlight to penetrate, but heat is trapped within the
atmosphere in the same way that it is trapped within the glass walls of a greenhouse. This trapped
hot air is causing the earth to heat up, resulting in global warming, and ultimately climate change.

Greenhouse gases include naturally occurring gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and even
water vapor. In fact water vapor is the most abundant greenhouse gas. However human activities,
such as burning of coal, exhaust fumes from vehicles, and burning of trees during deforestation
activities, are contributing huge amounts of additional greenhouse gases into the atmosphere,
where they enhance the greenhouse effect further and contribute to global warming.

 On average, Earth will become warmer. Some regions may welcome warmer
temperatures, but others may not.

 Warmer conditions will probably lead to more evaporation and precipitation overall, but
individual regions will vary, some becoming wetter and others dryer.

 A stronger greenhouse effect will warm the oceans and partially melt glaciers and other
ice, increasing sea level. Ocean water also will expand if it warms, contributing further to
sea level rise.

 Meanwhile, some crops and other plants may respond favorably to increased atmospheric
CO2, growing more vigorously and using water more efficiently. At the same time, higher
 temperatures and shifting climate patterns may change the areas where crops grow best
and affect the makeup of natural plant communities

The Albedo Effect

Snow capped mountains and ice sheets reflect radiation away from the Earth. This helps reduce
the amount of heat absorbed by the Earth, and therefore plays a vital role in keeping the Earth
cool.
When ice sheets melt, it exposes dark rock or vegetation that doesn’t have the same reflective
properties as ice, and thus tends to absorb rather than reflect heat.

As the atmosphere heats up, so do the oceans, which leads to more water being evaporated into
the atmosphere. Consequently there is more water vapor present in the atmosphere. This not
only contributes to severe weather, but because water vapor is a greenhouse gas, it also
contributes to further warming.

As individuals, we can help by taking action to reduce our personal carbon emissions. But to
fully address the threat of global warming, we must demand action from our elected leaders to
support and implement a comprehensive set of climate solutions:

 Expand the use of renewable energy and transform our energy system to one that is cleaner
and less dependent on coal and other fossil fuels.
 Increase vehicle fuel efficiency and support other solutions that reduce oil use.
 Place limits on the amount of carbon that polluters are allowed to emit.
 Build a clean energy economy by investing in efficient energy technologies, industries, and
approaches.
 Reduce tropical deforestation and its associated global warming emissions.