Major scientific reports commissioned by governments and agencies ranging from the United Nations to the White House of George W. Bush all confirm the same thing: The planet is warming very rapidly, driven mostly by the combustion of fossil fuels worldwide. Oil, coal, and natural gas help power our economy. But they also  give us billions of tons of carbon dioxide annually, a gas that travels to the atmosphere to form a smothering, heat-trapping blanket around our fragile planet. Left unchecked, this phenomenon could by 2100 raise mean global temperatures 3-10 degrees Fahrenheit and lead to a catastrophic rise in sea level worldwide , ushering in an era of social, agricultural and ecological chaos on Earth.