I feel that humans play a big role in the world’s climate change. We are primarily changing our atmosphere by burning fossil fuels and cutting down trees. When we burn fossil fuels, we are releasing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the air; these gases trap heat. Carbon dioxide levels today are around 400 parts per million, when natural amounts have ranged from 180-300 parts per million. Cutting down trees and clearing forests release carbon dioxide into the air. Also, these trees use carbon dioxide in order to live and grow. When we cut these down, we don’t have as many trees to use. http://www.edf.org/climate/climate-chan … difference. This article describes how you can make a difference. We should bring more awareness to this situation because not only does it harm our environment, it can also harm ourselves. http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/impact … ealth.html. In this article, it describes in detail how our actions are harming ourselves.

Interesting post, Claire. Humans are the primary contributor to climate change, and we must take action in order to fix this problem. I thought your article from http://www.edf.org/climate/climate-chan … difference has a really important concept which is that there are many things ordinary people can do to cut back on carbon dioxide production like carpooling, or conserving energy, but that in order to really make a difference in this world-wide crisis, change is needed on a national and global level. This was a really interesting argument, however, I don't think the article was specific enough on how exactly national/world leaders would be able to "create laws that improve our energy policy" or be "pushing companies to practice sustainable business practices on a global level."
   http://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/climate-change is an article from a website of an organization which helps to solve this problem. It gives some useful ideas of how organizations like itself can make a national difference. It states, "WWF works in partnership with compani es as part of WWF’s Climate Savers Program to set and meet goals to reduce carbon emissions, advance projects to protect their resources from climate impacts, and ensure the sustainability of their core business."

I agree with you, Claire, that humans play a large role in climate change occurrences. But the world has undergone periods of time that had nothing to do with the carbon dioxide that we create from driving or the greenhouse gases. A long time ago, a huge amount of carbon was mysteriously released into the atmosphere. This is called the PETM, or the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. It greatly affected the ocean's acidity and the life forms within the ocean.
This happened 55 million years ago, before cars, and electricity were invented. But phenomenons aren't the only factors that contribute. The sun is a major contributor to climate change. According to the National Center for Science Education, when energy from the sun enters the atmosphere and then goes back into space, global temperatures go up. When more energy goes into space than come into the atmosphere, the climate cools down.
Even so, humans are the main reason for the climate change happening today. Climate Change 101 on the National Center for Science Education page says that we are responsible for all of th e carbon dioxide that is put into the atmosphere by using transportation devices such as cars, trains, and airplanes. It is also created when humans use gasoline or coal to produce energy. However it is created mainly today, we need to take measures to fix it, or we may end up with no clean air.