In a global warming research paper you have two main options. You can either discuss the controversy surrounding the validity of today's global warming and its causes or you can focus on the effects of global warming. A causality paper will include a thorough explanation of global warming while pointing out the key factors in the analysis. The factors themselves become topics or subheadings within your research paper. Possible topics for these factors include greenhouse gases, solar variability and global warming, and historical climate trends. Stanford University provides useful resources for learning more about these factors.
This is a topic within the "effects" category of global warming papers. A Pentagon study explores what kinds of national security threats are posed by global warming. This paper gives a comprehensive jumping off point for an individual topic that not many others in your class will discuss. By researching the history of the Earth's climate change, you'll learn about what could potentially occur not only in the United States but in other areas of the world as well.
Many scientists, naturalists and environmentalists claim that global warming is already having dire effects on the world's ecosystem. For example, scientists have observed that food sources to specific groups of animals are being affected, causing the animals to die of starvation. This in turn has an effect on humans or other predatory animals that use the global-warming-endangered species as a food source. Indigenous communities such as those of the Inuits in Alaska could be paying the price already for global warming. Another topic regarding observable global warming effects are melting ice caps in the polar regions. Scientists say that the ice caps are melting at alarming rates, which could ultimately affect our air climate and natural resources as water levels and water temperatures of our oceans rise.