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According to the National Climatic Data Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the average temperature in 201 2 was 55. 3 degrees, which is 3. 2 degrees higher than the 20th-century average (NCSC). These weather patterns are “described as part of a longer-term trend of hotter, drier and potentially more extreme weather” (Alpine 1). However, the increased usage of carbon emissions is also contributing to the increase of global temperatures.
According to a Global Carbon Project report, along with the record high global temperature average that rise every year, carbon emissions also rose 54%, and will continue to rise in the future. This correlation between record high global temperatures and an increase in carbon emissions proves the point that when carbon emissions rise due to an increase in human populations, temperatures are affected by what scientists call the greenhouse effect.
Although the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty that “imposes concrete reductions in greenhouse gas emissions on a umber of industrialized countries” (the Kyoto Protocol”), was supposed to cut the world’s greenhouse-gas output, the yearly increase of the world’s population will call for more energy usage. In fact, the World Resources Institutes predicts that 1 ,200 new coal plants have already been proposed for construction (Yang). When one of the cheapest energy sources is the burning of fossil fuels, more coal plants will be built and global temperatures will continue to rise as well.