Imagine yourself standing directly where you are right now in thirty years. Now imagine yourself immersed in three, maybe four feet of water.

Despite how outlandish this sounds, it is possible.

Because of global warming, sea levels are predicted to rise fifty to two hundred centimeters in the next eighty years.

People might think, “How could this ever affect me?” The reality is it may not, but to their children, and their children’s’ children, the minimal rise in temperature – global warming – is a real threat.

The predicted rise in sea level is due to a rise in global temperatures. Rising temperatures are a direct result of increasing greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that from 1990 to 2100, the Earth’s global temperatures may increase by 2.5 to 10.5 degrees Fahrenheit if carbon dioxide levels double.

The rate at which carbon dioxide is being put into the atmosphere by humans is six billion tons annually. Chinese emissions are expected to rise by two billion tons annually.

The effects of global warming could be devastating.

Over the next one hundred years, if global warming continues, over seven thousand square miles of land (about the size of Massachusetts) will be inundated.

We have already missed some major chances to help in this battle. The Kyoto Protocol, which would have reduced the U.S.’s emissions by four hundred million tons a year, was derailed by President Bush.

When asked if he believed people are aware of the Earth’s situation, Tim Cook, a Poland resident, said, “I think the general population is aware, yes.” And when asked why he didn’t think the majority of individuals were doing their part to fight the threat Cook responded, “They don’t think they have the ability to make a difference.”

Tyrus Steinman, a sophomore at Poland Regional High School feels, “We need global participation to stop global warming.”

There are people, groups, and corporations doing their part to fight global warming.

For example, advances in renewable fuels are being made.

Sarah Tupy, a chemical engineer, has “created a compact reactor that reforms liquid ethanol into gaseous hydrogen without added heat.” Innovations like these, that derail one’s dependence on fossil fuels, are a major way we can save the Earth from global warming.

Global warming is happening now and is a threat to future generations. Without a global effort we will never stop it, but what one person does can make a difference.