Global warming has been the subject of much debate since the concept of the greenhouse effect was first introduced by Nobel prize winning scientist Svante Arrhenius in 1896. Inspired by the onset of the industrial revolution, Arrhenius theorized that the earth's temperature would rise as a result of the mass consumption of fossil fuels. However, he postulated that humanity would flourish in a warmer climate, whereas there is a growing consensus in the scientific community today that just the opposite is the case.
Global warming is also referred to as the greenhouse effect and is put in terms of climate change. Scientists, meteorologists, climatologists, astronomers, and other interested parties have been measuring and recording temperature readings for decades upon decades. Furthermore, they have developed the technology necessary to determine temperature changes from hundreds centuries ago.
These scientists have found "no evidence of a cycle of warming in the fossil record, or in the core samples taken from the ocean depths, or in the growth rings of trees, or in the ice cores drawn from the spinning axis of the world, that matches the pattern of the past century, which saw the rise of modern industry and the widespread release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere" (Christianson, 1999, online). While some aspects of global warming are subject to debate, numbers don't often lie, and this fact has never been successfully disputed. And while the pattern of rising greenhouse gases does not always coincide simultaneously with increasing temperatures, the link has been clearly established.
Global warming is sometimes referred to as the greenhouse effect because it is these "greenhouse gases" that are most commonly cited as being responsible for this phenomenon. The process is a little complicated, but goes something as follows.
Carbon dioxide, water vapor, and methane (heat trapping or greenhouse gases) are responsi...