Greenhouses Gases: The Principal Cause of Global Warming

Greenhouse gases are, as most people are aware, the principle cause of global warming. This includes both methane and carbon dioxide, both of which have the regrettable effect of making heat more difficult to escape from Earth's atmosphere.
 
More than 40% of all the carbon dioxide emissions from the US come from Coal-Powered electric plants, which have a number of other seriously negative environmental impacts. Switching to a cleaner burning fuel--even switching to nuclear power would have a major impact that would drastically improve the state of our environment, and in the long run, save everyone money. Coal was for the steam age, people, lets move along, already.
 
Cars and other gas-powered vehicles across the US account for 33% of the country's carbon dioxide emissions; this is another cause of global warming. The EPA estimates that for every gallon of gasoline consumed by a car, 20 pounds of carbon are released into the atmosphere. The city-gridlock phenomenon (the major traffic jams that metropolis's are known for) wastes 600 million gallons of gasoline every year--in L.A. and N.Y. alone. That translates into about 8 million tons of carbon dioxide. Alternative fuels are the answer, but even increasing the gas mileage of new cars would take pressure off of the atmosphere--and the economy—by mitigating the effects of this cause of global warming.
 
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that modern aviation accounts for 3.5 percent of the world's greenhouse emissions, and they believe that this number will increase to 15% by 2050.
 
Building structures worldwide account of 12% of the world's greenhouse emissions. Laws across the US are forcing public, and sometimes private buildings, to adhere to strict "green construction," which decreases emissions by making the buildings consume less power. However, to be truly effective, these measures would need to be enforced retroactively in buildings across the world.  This is not likely to happen. And there we have yet another cause of global warming.
 
Carbon dioxide, however, is not the only greenhouse gas that can cause global warming. In fact, ecologists estimate that Methane is twenty times worse that CO2. The principle methane emitters? Cows. Cows and Rice Fields. There are several ideas floating around on how to harness this release of methane—one major cause of global warming—and simultaneously use it as a power source and while stopping it from adding to the greenhouse effect, but none of them have been given serious consideration.
 
If we put each cause of global warming aside, deforestation is one of the greatest contributors to the problem. Forests are being decreased in size, yearly, by about 34 million acres. For perspective, that’s about the size if Italy. Deforestation is responsible for 25% of the world's (not the US's, the WORLD's) Carbon Dioxide emissions. The cutting and burning of tropical forests alone pumps hundreds of millions (MILLIONS) of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. This helps perpetuate global warming by more than just the initial carbon it throws up; trees help absorb carbon dioxide. The less of them there are, the more greenhouse gases there are helping heat things up.
 
Global warming is real, and there are ways that each individual can help stop it. People always say, "I'm just one person, what difference will that make?" But they fail to consider that it not one person, or even one single factor that is hurting the atmosphere. Buying energy efficient products, using a high gas mileage car, even keeping gardens and planting front-lawn trees helps. Blindness on everyone's part contributes to the cause of global warming, more than any other cause.
 
So what would happen if we all opened our eyes?