All these are a function of Energy where the present day man has mastered the art of transforming energy to fulfill his or her needs. The most common representations of energy are electricity and heat. Both these are also used in reciprocation to generate the other. Unfortunate circumstance is man was more inclined towards heat even before the advent of electricity and decided to continue with heat even to generate electricity. The finding of fossil fuels and the process of burning (combustion) to generate heat could have been the single most contributing factor to the Climate situation we are in now.

So the burning of fuels became a prime factor in making our lives comfortable. The technological advancements there in for the conversion of this heat energy to do our work, share information and entertain ourselves were very commendable and was termed the “industrial revolution”. This has now advanced to the “digital age” we are living in.

What went wrong?
As we kept on making our lives comfortable, the demand for energy and the resultant burning of fuels increased rapidly. The process of combustion in very many instances released particles and gasses into the atmosphere for which we have now applied the term “emissions”. These emissions in billions of tons were being released to the atmosphere on a yearly basis. Years of accumulation of these particles and gasses are what has expanded the now most widely known “green house effect”. The trapping of heat within the world’s atmosphere due to this expanded green house effect is what is causing Global Warming and which now is fully related to Climate Change.


Within these emissions the most predominant is the Carbon Dioxide (C02) gas and with other forms of Carbon and non-Carbon based elements, these emissions are related to a category called Greenhouse Gasses (GHGs). Based on their respective capabilities of absorbing and trapping heat these gasses are given a unit called the Global Warming Potential (GWP).  Since C02 is the most predominant, it is given the position of GWP 1 and all other gasses are represented in relation to C02. Also the quantity of other gasses are also generally represented in tons of C02 equivalents (tC02e), i.e. the actual quantity of a given gas and its global warming potential (GWP) is calculated in relation to the global warming effect of C02 and represented as an equivalent quantity of C02.

Want to Know more ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_potential

This graph, based on the comparison of atmospheric samples contained in ice cores and more recent direct measurements, provides evidence that atmospheric CO2 has increased since the Industrial Revolution. (Source: NOAA and http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/)

A layer of greenhouse gases – primarily water vapor, and including much smaller amounts of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide – act as a thermal blanket for the Earth, absorbing heat and warming the surface to a life-supporting average of 59 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius).
Source:http://climate.nasa.gov/causes/

Most scientists agree the main cause of the current global warming trend is human expansion of the "greenhouse effect" -- warming that result when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space.