Though I don't plan to go into an extensive discussion with this, I think it is important for people to know our Carbon Dioxide emmisions are higher in the past 50 years than the past 1,000,000 years!

Alex,
  I think that the reason why is because our technology and our use of technology has progressed since 50 years ago. Today we use technology for everything. A lot of people back then walked or rode the buses because cars were to expensive, cellphones weren't created, and technology was rather basic. Not only that but African Americans and many other minorities were very poor and didn't have many resources which cut them out of the consumer pool. In this day, almost everyone has a car, a cellphone, or some type of technology or machinery in their homes or businesses. Everything we use has some kind of carbon footprint. Also, over time the carbon emissions have slowly gone up because we use factories and machines more. Manual labor isn't as common as it was back then. Overall, we have become a more technologically advanced society but because of that we have destroyed our environment.

I agree With Alex, Its hard to avoid technology in this day and age. Its almost required to have a cell phone, in order to communicate with people. There aren't even any phone booths anymore, so what is one to do when they must get in contact with someone? We are destined to use technology in every day life.