Transportation has been around for thousands of years, whether it is a simple horse-drawn cart or a revolutionary airplane, transportation is an integral part of trade between nations and people. However, global warming and climate change are affecting our ability to do this. Not only is modern transportation affected by global warming, it is also a major cause of it, as most forms of transportation release large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. How do greenhouse gases cause global warming? Light from the sun passes through the atmosphere in the form of UV (ultraviolet) light. It then bounces off the earth's surface into space as IR (infrared) light. To return to space, the IR light must first pass through the atmosphere, however, the atmosphere, as always, traps some of the IR light that escapes. This is good, we want this to happen, without this feature we would probably all die. However, greenhouse gases are constantly being released into the atmosphere and thickening it, thus trapping more IR light. This is known as the greenhouse effect and is causing the Earth to warm(6). This warming is obviously a bad thing, warming will melt glaciers and other large bodies of ice (e.g. Antarctica) raising sea levels. In fact, regardless of the melting of the ice, the sea level will rise because the increase in temperature will cause the water molecules to move away, increasing the volume they occupy. Global warming will also be responsible for thunderstorms occurring more often and being more erratic when they occur. The planet has warmed by about one degree Celsius since before industrialization hit the world, and for every degree Celsius increase in te...... middle of paper ...... the only real solution to this and that is to raise the tracks before they are flooded. This would prevent flooding of the tracks, but the ocean could erode the embankment that supports the railway tracks, rendering them unusable.LOCAL/PERSONAL-Dunedins Harbor RoadsDunedin, New Zealand, is a very coastal city, with many low-lying coastal roads. Many of these roads are often used by large numbers of the population and taking them out of service could cause serious traffic jams as people turn to higher roads. There is a coastal road that I take to school every day that would definitely be affected by the estimated 1-2 meter rise in sea level. Predicted sea level rise is one of the biggest threats to Dunedin Harbor roads - coastal flooding. Coastal flooding will cover roads along Dunedins Harbor with water, making them impassable by car