The greenhouse effect actually comes from a combination of two problems: air pollution and massive tree-cutting. The earth really does need the greenhouse effect to regulate its temperature. The greenhouse effect can best be explained by describing what happens in a greenhouse

In a greenhouse, heat from the sun enters the glass. The heat in the form of infra-red light bounces and heads back up towards the glass. The glass then allows only some of this heat to escape, but reflects back another portion. This heat remains bouncing within the greenhouse. In the case of planet Earth, there is no glass, but there is an atmosphere which retains heat or releases heat. In the prehistoric times, the Earth had no problems, since the composition of the atmosphere remained RELATIVELY constant, so heat was released or retained in a regular manner. However, with humans came technology, technology to build big polluting machines. These machines, in the burning of fossil fuels quickly added carbon monoxide and dioxide to the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide readily retains heat. With more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, more heat is kept in the Earth, and a warming trend begins. If the Earth's temperature just rises a few degrees, the polar ice caps could melt, causing flooding of coastal cities, many of which are currently major economic and political centers of the world. To fix this, we need to reduce the emissions of pollution. Here is a graph showing the air pollutants we release into the air, and their changing levels:

Now this wouldn't be quite so bad because of trees. However, the trees are rapidly disappearing. Plants, including trees, as part of the process of photosynthesis, take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. Taking in the carbon dioxide would help solve the excess CO₂ problem. The trees which would help us with this problem lie in forests, because of the sheer number that are located there. However, these forests are rapidly being cut down. They are cut down for many reasons, such as for wood for building and furniture, or for paper products, or even just to clear space for housing or for livestock grazing. Nevertheless, our chance at fixing our greenhouse effect problem is being cut down. This is why we must use recycled goods; to keep trees available for fixing the carbon dioxide problem we have already made. At the same time we must reduce our emissions of carbon dioxide, to ensure that planetary temperatures remain stable.

Images used on this page are Copyright © 1995 TIME Multimedia Almanac.