issue guide: Global Warming It could be the greatest threat to
our way of life – or just a lot of hot air. Scientists warn that
global warming – caused partly by human activities – will
radically alter weather patterns and sea levels in the not so
distant future. Some skeptics say the forecasts of gloom and
doom are overstated; for others, the jury’s out on how much
humans have had an impact on temperature rises and how much we
can do to slow or stop the trend. They warn instead that cutting
back on carbon emissions, the prime cause of warming according
to environmentalists, will end up severely hurting our economy
without making a dent in the weather. Environmentalists advocate
a couple of measures to slow down warming. The Kyoto protocol,
an international treaty that aggressively caps CO2 emissions and
was once the gold standard of climate combat, was never ratified
by the US. Now it looks like it'll be replaced by a new - less
stringent - treaty that could be hatched in Copenhagen this
December. Congress,