what are greenhouse gasses?

Greenhouse gasses help to trap the suns energy and keep the earth at a habitable temperature. However when we burn fossil fuels like oil and gas to create energy like heat or electricity, we release a tremendous amount of carbon dioxide and other gasses into our atmosphere. As our manufacturing, travel and personal/corporate energy consumption increases more and more of these gasses are released (over 25 million metric tons of CO2 is emitted globally each year). Additionally, rampant deforestation is limiting natures ability to effectively balance these gasses. This ever increasing issue is radically shifting our climate on a global scale. The proliferation of excessive amounts of these gasses has created a shift in natures intended balance by strengthening the green house effect and so rising the average temperature on the planet.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, seven of the top 10 warmest years on record in the U.S. have occurred since 1990. Average global temperatures show a similar trend, and 2000–2009 was the warmest decade on record worldwide. This increase in temperatures is pushing sea levels higher causing coastal flooding, it can also cause large scale climate events like hurricanes and other storms, heat waves, wildfires and droughts. Thes weather events will then have a detrimental impact on agricultural yields, freshwater supplies, trade routes, glacial movement, species extinction and disease. Should this increase in greenhouse gas emissions go unmitigated the result could be the radical evolution or even extinction of the species that inhabit the earth, including us.