Global warming has suddenly become a serious matter. It seemed sudden, at least, to those of us who were going along not paying too much attention to the environment. It was interesting that winters were getting warmer, and it was something of a puzzle that glaciers were melting. Greenhouse gasses and the ozone layer were familiar terms, but they didn't really spur me to any action. I guess I thought that those "big companies" were the only ones at fault for all this, and they really should be doing something about it. And maybe those people who drive eighteen wheelers and Hummers?

Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth served as a wake-up call. Global warming is not some vague event that may happen sometime, but there's still plenty of time to do something about it. Apparently global warming has already happened to such a degree that, even if we all start now, we may not be able to "fix" it. This was frightening news to someone who hadn't been paying attention. So what can the average person do about global warming?

Newscasters began talking about everyone's carbon footprint. This carbon footprint stands for each person's impact on the environment. Using energy creates carbon dioxide and the more energy a person uses, the more carbon dioxide a person creates. This can contribute to a big carbon footprint. So how do you measure your carbon footprint? ABC News has the directions for calculating the size of your footprint on their webpage. There are also suggestions for reducing the size of your footprint. Everyone's goal should be to reduce their impact on the environment as much as possible.

A good understanding of global warming and the immediacy of its effects on the climate can be found on the website for the Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change or IPCC. This is the large international group of scientists sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme who recently established, beyond a doubt, that climate change has happened and will continue to happen. Working papers produced by this group are available in pdf format on their website, as well as audios and videos of press conferences and presentations . Two other websites to visit for more information on global warming and climate change are the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Global Warming International Center.

The library has some new books about global warming and climate change which might shed more light on the issues.

Climate change: human effects on the nitrogen cycle by Jeri Freedman
Field notes from a catastrophe by Elizabeth Kolbert and, just in case you choose to consider both sides of the story,
Global warming : opposing viewpoints edited by Cynthia A. Bily

Check out this information and keep working on making your carbon footprint smaller!