Global warming has been an ongoing discussion among scientists and has gained significant public attention during the past decade. A suspected major contributor to global warming is air pollution.

To pollute means to make unfit for living things; especially by adding waste matter such as car emissions to the air or chemicals to the water.

The emissions being put into our air from cars and other sources like electrical and manufacturing plants can combine to create a layer of bad air. As more and more emissions enter the air, the layers close to the earth may get very thick causing a layer of air that we can see or causing a situation that does not allow us to breathe well. We call these thick layers smog.

At the same time, the emissions rise into our atmosphere and move all around the world, creating layers of “dirty air” high up in our atmosphere. This “dirty air” creates what is called a thermal blanket. The thermal blanket keeps our earth warm (just like blankets keep us warm on a cold day). That might seem like a good thing, but our earth has a natural process for keeping its temperature perfect for nature and natural process. The thermal blanket created by emissions is not natural. This blanket may make the earth too warm. If the earth is too warm, plants and animals may die. It can also change the natural processes which determine the places and times that rain falls, the amount of rain that falls, where it is going to be too hot or too cold, and all of our other weather patterns. Over time, if the earth’s temperature rises even one or two degrees, trees, plants and animals (including us) will have to change the way they live and grow. The global temperature will be too high and the rain and temperature patterns change. The rise in global temperature is called global warming.