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Global warming usually refers to a long term increase in global average temperatures, a process we see now. The main cause of global warming is an increase in carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere, with an increase in methane levels making a small contribution.

In the absence of anthropogenic activities, carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere would be fairly static. Animals exhale carbon dioxide, but vegetation converts this back into edible products that are then consumed by those animals. Similarly, rotting vegetation gives off carbon dioxide, but the vegetation is soon replaced by new vegetation that requires the same amount of carbon. The natural cycle contributes no net increase in carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. Even burning wood or paper has no net effect on atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, although cutting down trees for wood or paper could do so if new trees are not allowed to grown and absorb as much carbon as the trees cut down. So, CO2 concentrations had remained around 260-280 parts per million (ppm) until the time of the Industrial revolution, when the level of CO2 began to rise in line with increasing use of fossil fuels.

The increase from 260-280 ppm to the present 390 ppm of atmospheric carbon dioxide is the result of human activity. The main cause is by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. Other factors are deforestation, mainly as land-clearing for farming, and the manufacture of cement.

Although atmospheric concentrations of methane are very much lower than those of carbon dioxide, it is a much mor potent greenhouse gas. Methane mainly comes from the stomachs of sheep and cattle when they belch.

A:There are many things. Greenhouse gases being the first. They act just like a green house trapping in warmer air. These are the result of industrialization and cattle. Cattle gives of an abundance of methane gas. All that is needed to shift the balance is a slight change of temperature, which results in the destruction of the ecology of the ocean, the destruction of ice, which is our refirgerator, and basically the whole system shifts.
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