During the second presidential debate last fall, then-Gov. George W. Bush eloquently stated, "I don"t think we know the solution to global warming yet, and I don"t think we"ve got all the facts." What the world does not need right now is a U.S. president who cannot attribute global warming to pollution by humans.

Recently, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report on Global Warming giving the strongest-ever scientific evidence linking changes in climate to human activities.

The report stated the evidence for a causal connection between human activities and global warming is stronger than ever. For example, burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide and other gasses. An increase in carbon dioxide and methane is believed to boost the "greenhouse effect" which traps heat in the Earth"s atmosphere that otherwise would be released.

IPCC"s report went on to say that unless something is done to reduce gas emissions, Earth"s temperature will increase up to 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century. Earth"s temperature has increased by nine degrees since the last ice age.

If the report is correct, people living in low-lying areas will be displaced by rising sea levels. In fact, a recent satellite study showed that roughly 7.5 cubic miles of Antarctic ice has melted in just eight years. In addition, the earth will see a rise in rainfall and an increase in hotter days. These changes will alter agriculture production in the tropics and subtropics and will lead to greater incidence of infection-born diseases such as malaria.

In 1997, more than 100 nations, understanding the need to take action against the threat of global warming, signed an international treaty known as the Kyoto Protocol. Under the requirements of the protocol, industrialized countries must reduce gas emission by an average of 5.2 percent below their 1990 level by 2010. The United States, which is responsible for a disturbingly high one-quarter of the world"s gas emission, signed the protocol but the senate has not ratified it.

The United States has a humanitarian obligation to reduce its gas emission rate so the world does not suffer because of our faults.

Although the Kyoto Protocol is not without faults, the United States must be a global leader in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions before it is too late.