Global warming is not just a climate problem, but a human problem.

According to NASA, “Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities”

When the winters get colder, we heat our houses emitting more pollution into the atmosphere.

According to NASA, most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, 16 to 17 of those were the warmest years on record occurring since 2001.

Also, in 2016 when you were basking in the sun enjoying the heat, it was the warmest year on record with eight of the 12 months being the warmest on record.

Even though climate change is a natural occurrence for our planet, the human impact is causing the earth to warm up roughly ten times faster than the average rate of ice-age-recovery warming.

The ice sheets are shrinking, the oceans are warming and snow is decreasing in coverage but yet we don’t pay attention to it.

This all goes back to a “trend” called the greenhouse effect – a warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space, according to NASA.

Human activities are changing the natural greenhouse.

In its Fifth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said: “the industrial activities that our modern civilization depends upon have raised atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from 280 parts per million to 400 parts per million in the last 150 years.”

They also concluded there is a 95 percent chance that human-produced greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane have caused a majority of the increase in temperature over the past 50 years.

So what are the causes of global warming? Nothing that we haven’t already seen.

NASA describes the effects to include rising temperatures, more droughts, and heat waves (take a look at California’s drought issue this past year), hurricanes will be stronger (Hurricane Maria) and sea levels will rise, covering the entire Outer Banks of North Carolina.

If man-made climate change is not real then how do explain video footage of polar bears struggling to find food, suddenly starving away. Only a drastic change to their environment would explain this.

When the Arctic is likely to become ice-free, the polar bears who are already struggling to find food and homes face an even bigger problem.

With the rise in man-made pollution there is a correlating rise in global temperatures, sea level rise, acid rain and damage to our coral reefs. Until these problems have solutions to them we have to consider our involvement in these crises.

Humans just need to be more aware of the gases that we put into our atmosphere on a daily basis.

Try to use renewable energy, or even turn the lights off in your house when you’re not there. Try not to use heating and air-conditioning as often by weatherizing your home.

Reduce your water waste – take shorter showers, turn off tap water when brushing your teeth.

We only get one earth, so respect it.

Because how do you want to leave this earth for future generations?