Laura, I'm going to tell you a story about something that just happened that you should remember when you grow up.

Once upon a time, in November 2000, just after your first birthday, a bunch of very smart people met in a place called Holland to plan how to save your future. Of course your name was never actually mentioned, but I'm sure they were all thinking of you and the other 1-year-olds all over the planet who would live in the world they were planning.

These people were delegates to the United Nations World Climate Change Conference. (That's a lot of words. Let's just call it the UNWCCC.) The delegates all had spent years studying and arguing about how to reduce the amount of gross stuff called carbon dioxide that comes from cars and power plants. Most scientists agreed that putting lots more carbon dioxide in the air was not a good thing. And they were very worried that it could turn out to be a really bad thing.

During the 20th century (it ended three months after you were born) people added lots more carbon dioxide and other nasty chemicals called greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. While this was happening, the earth's average temperature increased by a single degree. One degree might not sound like much, but it usually takes a thousand years for the earth's temperature to change by a degree.