How does the greenhouse effect work?
The greenhouse effect is a natural process. Sunlight passes through the atmosphere, warming the Earth s surface. In turn, the land and oceans release heat, or infrared radiation, into the atmosphere, balancing the incoming energy. Water vapour, carbon dioxide and some other naturally occurring gases can absorb part of this radiation, allowing it to warm the lower atmosphere. This absorption of heat, which keeps the surface of our planet warm enough to sustain us, is called the greenhouse effect. Without heat-trapping greenhouse gases, average global surface temperature would be -18°C rather than the current average of 15°C.
• Visible light from the sun passes through the atmosphere and is absorbed by the Earth’s surface – some of that energy is then emitted back to the atmosphere as heat. Greenhouse gases trap that heat, which would otherwise be released into space, raising the temperature of the atmosphere and, subsequently, the Earth’s surface. Increases in greenhouse gases from human activities increase the amount of heat trapped by the atmposhere causing global warming and climate change.
This is true but “An Inconvenient Truth” is very inaccurate. I suggest listening to both sides of an argument before going “green”. New studies have shown that there is a greater relation between the differences in sun temperature and earth temperature than co2 levels and earth temperature. Also even more studies suggest co2 is a low factor in global warming and in the greenhouse effect. A far larger gas emitted is that of cow gas. Cows emit more greenhouse gases than cars on world wide bases. This number is growing to satisfy the increasing demand for cow meat. Al Gore says he would do anything to stop global warming but he still eats meat, increasing the demand for it and so making farmers breed more cows. There are so many other things I could say but it would take up pages, also ethanol increases global warming. And in the past they said there was going to be an ice age not global warming, before that was global warming, before that was ice age theory, and so on. Each time they sai
It is commonly stated that the greenhouse effect causes warming because greenhouse gases “trap” the heat, preventing it from escaping. This is a misconception! If all of the absorbed sunlight were trapped as heat, the temperature would be rising by 26 deg F per week, and the oceans would boil away in only 1500 years! This is totally contradicted by everyday experience as well as detailed observations of the climate system. In reality, the Earth resides near an equilibrium where, under normal conditions, the rate of heat loss by infrared radiation to space almost exactly cancels the energy absorbed as sunlight. The temperature can thus remain stable over time. The surface temperature at this equilibrium depends on whether the atmosphere acts as an insulator. Without a greenhouse effect, the atmosphere has no insulation, so Earth can easily lose its heat to space while remaining cool. With a greenhouse effect, the atmosphere acts like an insulating blanket, so Earth can only lose its hea
