Greenhouse gases keep our planet warm but the amount of Carbon Dioxide that is being released into the atmosphere, has tripled since the 1990s! That is a lot of greenhouse gas that we are adding to our planet's atmosphere. Carbon dioxide or CO2 is released when we do things like drive our cars, flip on the lights, cool/heat our houses. Major amounts of CO2 are released by coal burning plants. CO2 does get sucked up by parts of our planet, these devices are called 'sinks'. For instance, a major sink would be the rain forest in South America. The oceans are also a major sink, but in some studies, the southern ocean's ability to absorb carbon dioxide has decreased by 30% since the early 80s. In forests, it is found that large trees hold more CO2 than small trees, so the logging of old growth trees also reduces the amount of carbon dioxide that can be absorbed. Thankfully we have the ability to make some easy choices to reduce the amount of CO2; at Christmas buy LED lights, switch to incandescent bulbs, find a car that burns less fuel. As we cut back, developing nations are trying to live the same life we do, so they are building power plants. In China, right now, every 10 days a new coal burning power plant goes on line. The Chinese power plants are using very old technology and are therefore pumping huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. With all of this additional CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere and our sinks declining in absorption, global warming is a fear. In a warming planet scenario, that means a rising sea level, some estimates put a rise of a half a meter by 2100, already the sea level has risen by 7 inches this century. It was brought up at one of our sessions, that many of our power plants in Florida, will be directly affected by rising water, because many of our power plants sit near the water. Also a higher sea level means more damage by hurricanes and other storms. Reducing Carbon Dioxide in the US doesn't have to be hard, we can bring bags to the grocery store, adjust the thermostat, make the most of your car trips (knock all your errands out in one trip).