Global warming is a growing problem that is more serious than people realize. The most alarming effect of global warming is the impact that it has on our environment. Rising oceans are a result of melting polar caps. Scientists are concerned because in Antarctica an estimated 100 to 200 metric tons of ice is melting away every year. Because of this ocean levels are rising at alarming rates.

Global warming is causing the disappearance of numerous islands in our oceans every year. One group of islands just north of New Zealand is a good example of this. The island nation of Tuvalu is in such danger of disappearing that in 2001, Tuvalu which has a population of 11,000 people has resorted to petitioning New Zealand to allow them to become citizens because the island, which is only 6 feet above sea level, will soon be gone.

In Bangladesh, rising ocean levels have flooded their rice paddies with saltwater. Although these farmers have adapted by converting them to shrimp farms, it still does not solve the problem. Saltwater is now creeping into their fresh water resources. Since rice provides nearly all the food source of its huge population, and their water supplies are endangered the population of Bangladesh will soon be faced with having to move away.

Where will these people go? Global warming will force these people to move to another nation and may cause a vast amount of socio-economic problems not only for themselves but for the population of the nations that will be flooded with millions of people escaping the rising ocean.

With global warming eating away at coast lines, the emigration issue is also causing what we will see to be the major cause of security issues of the 21st century. Although we are learning to be at peace with one another, global warming and immigration may cause civil war, famine and economic ruin for nations that do not have the ability to provide disaster relief.

The main contributing factor of global warming is the production of green house gases. When the perma-ice of these polar caps melt, a huge amount of methane gas is released into the atmosphere causing additional warming. This gas in addition to carbon dioxide is responsible for insulating our atmosphere and causing Earth to retain more heat. This of course, contributes to further melting of our polar caps and glaciers.

Drastic measures must be adopted immediately to reverse the emission of these greenhouse gases. One measure that is proving to be hopeful is the development to bio-fuels mad of corn ethanol to replace traditional gasoline. By using these types of fuel, we have effectively reduced the production of tail pipe carbon dioxide an astonishing 65% per car.

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