today prevailed at the end of the last Ice Age, in which the Northeast United States was covered by more than 3,000 feet of ice. Leading scientists assert that a rise of 3 degrees would cause famine and drought and threaten millions of lives. It would also cause a worldwide drop in crops of between 20 and 400 million tons, threatening 400 million more people with famine, and put up to 3 billion people at risk of flooding and without access to fresh water supplies. Few ecosystems could adapt to such a dramatic temperature change, resulting in the destruction of half the world's nature reserves and a fifth of coastal wetlands. Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet if the ice shelves in Greenland and Antarctica collapsed, which is a distinct possibility if temperatures continue to climb. Droughts and wildfires will occur more often. More than a million species worldwide could be driven to extinction by 2050.

3. Does the rise in the earth's temperature cause more intense storms /hurricanes/ tornados here in the US? If so, how?

Answer: While it is impossible to blame any single event on global warming, there are several reasons to believe that global warming will create more intense storms. Hurricanes are powered by warm water on the surface of the ocean. As global warming heats the surface of the water, hurricanes will increase in speed, power, and frequency. Tornadoes are caused by rapidly rising amounts of heat from the lower areas of the atmosphere to higher portions of the sky. While scientists are again reluctant to pin individual storms on global warming, global warming does create greater amounts of heat in the lower portions of the atmosphere, creating more tornado-causing energy to be released into the upper atmosphere.

4. What are the largest sources of global warming pollution in the world and in the United States?

Answer: The US produces far more carbon dioxide than any other country in the world. According to the latest figures by the Department of Energy, the US produces 22% of all CO2 emitted into the atmosphere, at 5,912.21 million metric tons in 2004. That is more than China, and India together (17% and 4.1% respectively), more than Russia (6%), Japan (4.7%), Australia (1.4%) and the whole of Europe put together