Of the many environmental challenges facing us today, perhaps none loom as large as global climate change. In just the last few years the reality of human-caused climate change has gone from a "maybe someday" scenario to a right-now issue. We are at a critical juncture.

Man-made carbon emissions, in the form of carbon dioxide, are the primary culprit behind global climate change. At its most basic level, this “greenhouse gas” is driving dramatic shifts in weather, including record world temperatures, rising ocean temperatures, melting ice caps, and intense hurricane activity. Changing weather is not a trivial matter:  fluctuating rainfall patterns alone may cause massive crop failures, famine, and economic collapse in parts of the world.

Man-made carbon enters the atmosphere from many sources. Transportation (burning fossil fuels) and electricity

generation (from coal-burning plants) are primary contributors. The dramatic loss of the world’s forests also plays a significant role in climate change. The good news is that the basic technologies already exist to cut carbon emissions and move from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.