Earth's climate has always been in a state of constant change. It is part of a normal cycle of planetary events. Yet, most scientists agree that drastic changes are occurring which are due to unnatural global warming.

The climate of the United States has already become warmer. In some locations, the average rise in temperature is four degrees Fahrenheit. Every single state shows some degree of warming.

The first and second warmest years on record were 1998 and 2006, respectively. The years 1999 through 2005 ranked within the warmest 25 years in US history. In 2006, the annual average temperature was 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Recent warm years point to a climate change being brought on by global warming.

Global warming has increased the level of drought. This is caused by the heat that is building up around the earth's surface. Excessive evaporation intensifies drought during the spring and fall. A major drought in the US lasted from 1999-2002. There were only two other droughts in the last forty years that were so widespread and devastating. Crops were damaged or would not grow at all, thus decreasing the food supply. There have been more and more frequent droughts in the West in recent years. The last 30 years in particular have seen numerous droughts. These droughts have spawned wildfires that set new records in 2006 for the number of fires and acres burned.

While the overall effect of global warming is heat followed by drought, there are also storms. Since global warming energizes the atmosphere, these storms have the potential to be very destructive. Ordinary thunderstorms morph into raging tempests. Hurricanes have also been rated higher in recent years. During a normal rainstorm, water gradually soaks into the earth, causing no more than a minor inconvenience to people and providing plants with a supply of needed moisture. Because of global warming, storms are becoming more intense. Droughts notwithstanding, rainfall totals have risen in the past century. The number of times it rains in a year has also increased. These surprising facts are due to the recent phenomena of increasingly rapid downpours. These downpours are often followed by long, dry periods.

Global warming is responsible for the rapid climactic change of the past half-century. In large part, people have caused the warming that has caused these changes. The earth would be a much more stable environment if we could make it a common goal to cut down on activities that promote global warming.