global warming

Page 1 Lillian Bromstein Ms. Fink Chemistry 1/1/00 Global Warming “In nature’s infinite book of secrecy a little I can read.” -William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (Christianson 210). It starts with heat. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, it starts to get hotter. The increase in average temperatures is gradual; what we notice are the scorching spikes, as heat records fall one after another. Winters are milder, but punctuated by deluges and blizzards. Spring starts early, but too-rapid snowmelt leads …

…low-lying metropolitan areas--at a cost, based on Dutch experience, of $1 billion per mile (Roan 88). Like the vision shown to Ebenezer Scrooge by the ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, this nightmare need not come to pass. Given current CO2 levels, some warming is bound to occur, but the worst can still be prevented. Humankind has demonstrated the awesome power to heat the entire globe; now we must demonstrate the wisdom to turn the thermostat down.