Global warming is big right now, pulling more name drops in international media than Britney Spears and Ron Paul put together. With the recent Nobel Prize awarded to Al Gore for his film foray and leadership in raising awareness of increasing climate change issues, the world is going greener by the day. For the sake of our sanity and piece of mind, this multi-part blog will help you understand more about the global warming phenomena, so that you can make informed decisions about your impact on the environment.

Fossil fuels contribute the largest percentage of greenhouse gas emissions, more so than any natural process such as photosynthesis. The human footprint on the environment is showing up more and more in scientific evidence. Statistics provided by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) are a bit eye opening.

• Power Plants produced 2,459,800 metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2006
• 1,035,346 metric tons of coal was consumed in 2006 for electricity production. As of 2006, coal was the second largest producer of carbon emissions with more than two million metric tons annually.
• In 2006 the United States consumed 20.8 million barrels of oil per day. Petroleum is the king of carbon producers, with more than 2.5 million metric tons emitted into the Earth's atmosphere per year.
• 98 percent of energy in the United States is produced from non-renewable sources. Only two percent comes from wind, solar, biomass and other green energy sources.

There are many factors that are contributing to the increased awareness surrounding climate change and how we can make a lasting impact on its prevention. Please stay tuned in the following weeks for more information to help us understand the cause and effect of the global warming phenomenon, as well as possible solutions that we can implement in our daily lives.