Scientists say that unless global warming emissions are reduced, average U.S. temperatures could rise another 3 to 9 degrees by the end of the century, with far reaching effects. Sea levels will rise, flooding coastal areas. Heat waves will be more frequent and more intense. Droughts and wildfires will occur more often. Disease-carrying mosquitoes will expand their range and species will be pushed to extinction. Disease-carrying mosquitoes are spreading as climate shifts allow them to survive in formerly inhospitable areas. Mosquitoes that can carry dengue fever viruses were previously limited to elevations of 3,300 feet but recently appeared at 7,200 feet in the Andes Mountains of Colombia. Malaria has been detected in new higher-elevation areas in Indonesia.

If carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to spill into the atmosphere, global temperatures could rise five to 10 degrees by the middle of the next century. The warning will be the greatest at the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, with the largest temperature rises occurring in winter. Most areas will experience summertime highs well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. New temperature records will be set each year. Warmer temperatures, average temperatures will rise, as will the frequency of heat waves. Most of the United States has already warmed, in some areas by as much as 4 degrees Fahrenheit. The last three five-year periods are the three warmest on record. Many places in North America had their hottest seasons or days on record in the late 1990s. Since 1980, the earth has experienced 19 of its 20 hottest years on record, with 2002 the second hottest ever recorded, and 1998 the hottest.

Humans have also emitted sulfur dioxide, which has a cooling effect and has tended to mask the warming effect of rising carbon dioxide for much of the last 100 years until the mid-1970's, when clean air acts became operative. This planet is losing its forests, 34 million acres each year through burning and cutting. The destruction of tropical forests alone is throwing hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. We are also losing te

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