Since the beginning of time Earth has been through many changes in its climate. The Earth has gone through continental shifts, ice ages, and warm spells. One of the first issues with climate change is greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases are released through humans, factories, vehicles, and animals. Even the dinosaurs have released methane into the atmosphere. Oceans currently release methane into the atmosphere. Since the birth of industry around the world and destruction of natural resources the climate of Earth has been rapidly changing and decaying. In the United States many federal agencies and departments have been created to monitor the climate and create policies that help to protect the climate and Earth.
The many departments and agencies include the Dept. of Agriculture, Dept. of Commerce, Dept. of Defense, Dept. of Energy, Dept. of Homeland Security, Dept. of Health and Human Services, Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, Dept. of the Interior, Dept. of Transportation, United States Agency International Development, National Science Foundation, the Smithsonian Institute, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency (Matulka, 2012; EPA, 2014; NASA, 2014; U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2014). The DOC includes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration which monitors changes in the ocean, atmosphere, and weather. Another agency that is monitoring weather, ocean levels, ozone, ice melt, and other scientific climate variables is NASA. NASA has many ground sensors and space satellites that monitor weather and climate changes. Some recently launched satellites include SMAP to monitor soil moisture, DSCOVR to monitor space weather and ozone changes, TRMM to monitor rainfall, NPP to monitor storms, and NASA has done recent ground research in Greenland in operation Ice Bridge to study the melting of polar ice (NASA, 2014).
Many departments and agencies monitor impacts made by humans, animals, and the use of natural resources. Those agencies include the USDA, DOD, DOE, DHS, DHHS, and the DOI (Matulka, 2012; U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2014). These agencies focus on farming, forests, food, disasters, diseases, wildlife, parks, housing and land development, energy, and use of fossil fuels and natural resources. These agencies hope to create green energy, reduce impacts to humans and wildlife, reduce emissions and waste from humans and developments, to protect forests, to protect fish and wildlife, and to prevent disease from destroying crops, humans, wildlife, fish, and forests. The DOE and DOT have been involved in reducing the greenhouse gas levels (Matulka, 2012). Emissions from homes, factories, chemicals, and transportation vehicle have been released in massive amounts into the atmosphere and ozone. These departments help to reduce those emissions and create new forms of green energy and green living standards. Cars and vehicles are being run on new fuels that don’t pollute the atmosphere, strict standards on chemicals have been implemented, and less fossil fuels’ are being used.
The main department for climate change policy that works under the President and Congress is that of the Environmental