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Global Warming By Renata Kecskes “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change” -Charles Darwin One of the most vigorously debated topics on Earth is the issue of climate change. A wide range of intellectuals and environmentalists are speculating on the future of mankind. Scientists report that this phenomenon will increasingly lead to catastrophic natural disasters, such as more frequent and intense droughts, floods, and hurricanes, rising sea levels, and more disease outbreaks. But what is global warming? How is global warming affecting our lives on Earth? What can we do here in the Cayman Islands far away from the busy city life to keep our home as healthy and green as it was 50 years ago? Perhaps the Island is not as over populated as New York or Tokyo but let’s face the truth: Cayman is getting more and more developed, bringing up the need for some urgent changes in our everyday and in our household. What is the greenhouse effect? The greenhouse effect helps to regulate the temperature of our planet. It is essential for life on Earth and is one of Earth’s natural processes. Without a natural greenhouse effect, the temperature of the Earth would be around zero degrees F (-18C) instead of its present 57 degrees F (14C). So the concern is not with the fact that we have a greenhouse effect, but whether human activities are leading to an enhancement of the greenhouse effect by the emission of greenhouse gases through fossil fuel combustion and deforestation. Gases that trap heat in the atmosphere are called greenhouse gases. Some greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide occur naturally and are emitted to the atmosphere through natural processes and human activities. Other greenhouse gases (e.g. fluorinated gases) are created and emitted solely through human activities. Nearly 50% of the carbon dioxide that humans have pumped into the atmosphere over the last 200 years has been absorbed by the sea. Is the climate warming? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that the temperature rise over the 100-year period from 1906-2005 was 0.74 C. For the last 50 years, the linear warming trend has been 0.13 C per decade. The global temperature changes are not uniform over the globe because of the force of nature and human activity. (e.g. in certain places the Antarctic peninsula has warmed by 2.5 C in the past 5 decades, meanwhile East Antarctic has not significantly warmed). 7 of the 8 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001 and the 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1995.