Global Warming: Is it Happening?

Now that we have the technology to understand global warming and its consequences, it is time to act.
According to the U.S. National Climatic Data Center, in 2006 the average temperature recorded was the hottest in North America history. These figures along with other information was presented to the 110th Congress in the beginning of 2007 to fuel the debate on global warming. The discussion involved climate change prevention policies and whether federal bills presented should or should not be condoned. Of all the suggested resolutions and bills presented to Congress, zero where passed in 2007. If Congress is not making much effort to solve this issue the question becomes: is global warming really not that important? Not knowing that much on the issue I did some research and what I found shaped my opinion.
In a study done by the Environmental Protection Agency, experts of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency found that carbon dioxide concentration has increased by 36 percent since 2006 and is higher than anytime in the last 650,000 years. Of this, nearly all of the increased CO2 in the last year was caused by humans activities.
Research done by the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory stated, "The temperature has risen .25-.5 Celsius and that this likely the primary cause of the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere."
GFDL further says this in turn will be the cause of the projected rise of coastlines and increase in violent tropical storms and hurricanes.
The U.S. National Climatic Data Center unsurprisingly shows that the U.S. is the leading contributor along with Europe and China to climate change in the world. With the issue of global warming becoming more and more at hand, Congress is being pressured to act by environmental activist and groups.
By looking at the issue and doing a little research, the solution to this problem is clear. The evidence proves catastrophic consequences are to occur if the issue is continually set aside and ignored. It is obvious that Congress refuses to act on the grounds of an inconvenient change and the idea of global warming by some people has even been claimed as a myth. But the question I have come to after all this is: is global warming really something that we can afford to risk happening? Now we have the evidence of the cause of global warming and the technology to try to change. We must act.