Cause:
- the Greenhouse effect - increasing levels of Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Monoxide leading to trapping the heat on the planet's surface,
also breaking down the Ozone layer causing UV light to enter the atmosphere,
- reducing number of trees - the green cover - which process the CO2 through photosynthesis, thereby increasing the content of CO2, NO2, CO and SO2 and reducing the fresh O2 content which life breathes.

Effect:
- The heat leading to melting the polar ice, (which regulate most of the tempature of the planet by releasing fresh water into the rivers of the surrounding lands and thereby also providing drinking water to the human settlements in the areas) causing a raise in the sea levels, submerging the low lying sea coastal areas, impacting human settlements and bringing in uncontrollable diseases to the living matter around

- extinction of species with reducing green cover thereby giving no place for the birds, insects, and other species to survive, thereby destroying the ecosystems that are so tightly coupled, thereby leading to a total breakdown of the human ecosystem eventually

Look at the very basic cause, and you will realise that somewhere in it, the human element of emotional overuse, underuse or simply emotional misuse is very heavily active. The simple reason that the emotional factor of empathy towards nature and all it's elements is not being directed correctly by human beings is giving rise to this huge impact.

The emotional empathy quotient relates to people feeling the concern with this knowledge of warming, and it's impacts, sharing this concern with others who are probably uneducated about it, feeling the concern for the depleting natural resources and other living beings and taking active steps to ensure that this concern is addressed to positively

Does this not all emerge from the very basic aspect of emotional intelligence???