The Green Planet We can Have

**What is Global Warming?

Artic ice melting. Seas rising. More flooding. 

These are the disasters of global warming. But before we get into the causes of global warming, what is it, how is it caused, and why is it endangering the planet? 

Global warming's effects are popping up in recent years, but it started a long time ago. In fact, house building started a very long time ago. In fact, we can trace it all the way back to the prehistoric era, when people started building houses out of stone.

But what does this have to do with global warming?

When you make a house, you need places to build it. A number of things could get into your way. Trees, rocks, even animals. So you need to rid the place of them. And what if you needed to build your house out of wood? You would need to fell trees. However, that doesn't come without a cost. 

Trees are the home of animals. However, we won't get into that until the later chapters of this book. But trees also have an impact to global warming. How? Well, they use Co2 to create sugar. Every tree has sugar, but some has better sugar than others. The better sugar we use in cakes. 

Let's backtrack a bit. Co2 stands for 'carbon dioxide.' It's something called a greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases aren't bad for the environment. In fact, they are needed to trees plants becuase plants make them into sugar, meaning that they are needed for all plant and tree survival. All sorts of animals live in trees and eat things from the tree, so Co2 is needed for our survival. However, it is also causing something called 'global warming.' 

But, before we get into that, we need to look into the history of cars. 

We all know the story. In 1896, Henry Ford built the first automobile. As the automobile began to get developed, our whole lives changed for the better! We were able to get to work and school quickly, and the automobile/car is well used and well needed. Hooray! 🎉

Actually, the automobile had it's give in takes. Let's look into those. There are 2 gives. The first one is that the automobile replaced a horse. Horse labor was used, and horses were commonly whipped. But even if people who used horses to pull carriages didn't whip them, the horse would most likely like to be out in a field full of grass rather than on a paved street pulling a heavy carriage. The automobile also served as a faster way to transportation. 

However, there is a takeback to all of this: cars emitted Co2. But back then, even if people did know, no one cared. Many people started driving cars. But Co2 warmed up the earth. And the lack of trees from deforestation couldn't take in all of that Co2. What was once crucial to everyone's survival is now planning to ruin the earth. 

And it wasn't until 1958 when someone found out that yes, the earth's temperatures started rising. But attention wasn't really brought to the fact until the 1980s. But still, people continued about their everyday life. Some people changed their diets and their habits, but people started changing more in the 21st century. 

However, global warming is alive as ever, and it's impacts are now coming up. There is more floodings. Oh, and don't forget that recently (I'm writing from July 2021) there has been a heat wave in the West Coast. Where I live, it would rain almost every day of the year. Now because of the drought, there is almost 0 rain. Even with the sprinklers on, the plants need more water, so you can find people outside drenching the plants roots with a hose. 

It's causes? Global warming. 

When the artic ice is melting, it's also endangering artic animals. Foxes, polar bears, penguins, wolves... They are all victims of global warming. And let's not forget the whales who feed on krill in the underwater frozen ecosystem.