What is Global Warming?

The issue of global warming can seem overwhelming and complex, but the scientific explanation for the phenomenon is relatively simple.

Earth has a built-in system for temperature control made up of gasses in the planet's atmosphere. When the sun's rays strike and warm the Earth, these gasses operate like a blanket, trapping some of the sun's warmth inside and allowing some of the heat to be released into space. This process warms the Earth enough to make it hospitable for living organisms.

Human destruction of forests and other natural areas and our use of fossil fuels such as oil and coal have caused an unnatural accumulation of gasses like carbon dioxide (CO2) and other heat-trapping gasses in the atmosphere.

This accumulation of excess gasses has caused rapid warming the likes of which the Earth has never seen before. It is as if we have added a second blanket under which the Earth and its inhabitants are now being stifled. It is the impacts of this human-caused global warming that Defenders is concerned with.