The 20th Century's ten hottest years, according to the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, have occurred since 1985. And, the EPA
continues (in the World Almanac 2002), "This global warming could speed the
melting of the polar ice caps, inundate coastal lowlands, and bring about
major changes in crop production and in natural habitat." The U.S. is the
leading producer of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the world.
The greenhouse effect, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (World Almanac, 2002), occurs because the Earth "naturally absorbs
incoming solar radiation and emits thermal radiation back into space." But,
some of that thermal radiation doesn't get back into space, because it is
trapped by so-called "greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," and that act of
being trapped within our atmosphere heats up the air. The biggest culprit
in terms of those gases is carbon dioxide, some of which occurs naturally
in the air, and much of which is spewed into the air through the burning of
rainforests, and the burning of fossil fuels (mostly in power plants and
Most tropical rainforests fall into one of three categories (Gay, 1):
a tropical dry forest, a tropical moist forest, and a "true tropical
rainforest," according to Kathlyn Gay's book, Rainforests of the World. Gay
writes that rainforests "play a major role in generating rain by returning
moisture to the atmosphere [through] evapotranspiration." How does
evapotranspiration work' Water from plants and trees growing in the forest
evaporates and joins with the water cycle; this way, about one half of the
rain that falls over the Amazon rainforest, for example, goes back into the
atmosphere to become future rain. The true value of rainforests (Gay, 3) is
that "â€they generate precipitation, conserve soil, supply oxygen, store
carbon, regulate climate, and provide ecosystems for a multitude of diverse
T...