CO2 emissions are slowly heating up are world, climate change is natural, but now we've messed with nature's schedule, looking through our history, right now we should be diving back down into an ice age, but instead the world-wide temperature is climbing all the same.  I am a concerned 8th grader who loves science and the beautiful world we live in.  The big thing right now is that there is political intrigue, misunderstandings, and incorrect 'science' surrounding climate change.  The fist big one is the term, 'Global Warming', global warming is a general and unspecific term describing an overall effect of climate change.  Because of the increased amount of green house gasses into the atmosphere, the total global temperature is rising, causing catastrophic environmental changes world-round.  But global heating does not mean that winters will get hotter and summers boiling, at least not at first.  Climate change is causing EXTREME weather patterns and ranges, basically, colder, harsher winters, and hotter, dryer summers.  But it also means more droughts, hurricanes, tsunami's, tidal waves, higher low tides, and higher high tides.  This means islands sinking beneath the sea, ice caps melting, sea levels rising, and problems that we are not ready to cope with.  Now, I'm just an interested 8th grader, this is what has been proven that I know about, there is so much more out there I have yet to look at, and disasters I know nothing about, and people who are suffering because of our actions.  I believe that the only way we can make a difference is small, fast steps, because it's almost to late already.  One step to take is to make a required level of CO2 emissions, and any factory who exceeds it should face a heavy fine.  Next, people need to be educated on what climate change really is, and how we can make a difference!  This is a huge change, and I'd like to start in my home state of Maryland, after that, well, if it works then maybe we can spread it all across the country, and start saving the world.

-Concerned 8th Grader