What Effect Does Greenhouse Gases Have On The Environment – Earth’s atmosphere contains five greenhouse gases: water, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. These molecules have the ability to “radiate” any energy they absorb in any direction. This means that some of the energy emitted by the Earth is absorbed by greenhouse gases and radiated back to the Earth’s surface. Like the greenhouse you use in your garden, gases like carbon dioxide insulate the planet and create a habitable climate.

However, recent human activities have led to sudden increases in atmospheric concentrations of these gases, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4), as well as nitrogen oxides (NO2) and HFC chemicals.

What Effect Does Greenhouse Gases Have On The Environment

Humans emit carbon dioxide when we breathe, and more importantly, when we burn fossil fuels such as oil and coal to fuel our vehicles and generate electricity. CO2 is also released when we plow the land, cut down trees or burn wood. You can also find CO2 emissions from unexpected places like clothing and concrete production. Methane is released from the burning of natural gas, from the intestines of cows and other livestock such as goats. Nitrogen oxides are found in fertilizers and HFCs are emitted by our air conditioners and refrigerators.

Greenhouse Gases & Climate Change

As more greenhouse gases trap energy in the atmosphere, Earth’s average temperature warms. Although warming the planet by a few degrees may not seem like a big deal, climate change will cause major problems not only for humans, but also for our animals, plants and landscapes.

For example, rising temperatures lead to worse and more frequent extreme weather events. This means more intense fire seasons, droughts, extreme heat and storms, which can have devastating effects on communities, food systems and wildlife. Rising temperatures will also cause sea levels to rise. This is not only because the glaciers are melting in the north, but because the warmer climate is causing the water to expand. Sea level rise has the potential to change coastlines and threaten the world’s major cities and natural landscapes.

By changing patterns of things like seasons and rainfall, climate change can also disrupt animal and plant species that have adapted to certain conditions over thousands of years. For example, amphibians that depend on shallow ponds for spawning may find ponds that have dried up due to changing rainfall and higher temperatures. About EJN Who we are What we do Courses Journalism teams Gender and inclusion projects Current projects Past projects GeoJournalism project Updates Opportunities Latest opportunities Expired opportunities Stories Latest stories Special reports Information journalism

Greenhouse gases heat the Sun’s trap in Earth’s atmosphere through a process called the greenhouse effect.

Carbon Cycle And Greenhouse Effect

The main greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide and fluorine gases. These gases surround the Earth’s surface and absorb radiant heat that is then re-ejected into space. Without this natural process, the planet would be 30 degrees cooler on average.

Many people have artificially increased the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Measurements from Antarctic ice cores show that the pre-industrial concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 280 parts per million (ppm) by volume. Since then, it has increased rapidly, reaching 387 hours by 2009. According to NOAA, the current rate of growth is 100 times faster than what occurred at the end of the last ice age.

The main sources of these emissions are the burning of fossil fuels, which release gases such as carbon dioxide.

Forests are another important source, accounting for one-fifth of human-caused greenhouse gases. When forests are cleared or burned, carbon dioxide locked in the living plant material is released.

What Are Greenhouse Gasses?

Most of the fertilizers and pesticides used in agriculture are produced using fossil fuels. Large-scale intensive agriculture produces high emissions because it depends on income, mechanized farming, and fuel for transportation.

Farmers are also a major source of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas produced by bacteria living in flooded rice fields and the digestive systems of large plants.

Although these methane emissions are small compared to carbon dioxide from other sources, they are still significant because methane has a stronger warming effect. A molecule of methane traps 20 times more heat than carbon dioxide.

As the average temperature increases, the rate of evaporation also increases, adding water vapor to the atmosphere. This creates a positive feedback loop, where rising temperatures increase the greenhouse gas emissions of water vapor, which further increases temperatures.

What Is Climate Change? A Really Simple Guide

The Teplice effect is not a new discovery. It was discovered by Joseph Fourier in 1824, tested by John Tyndall in 1858, and quantitatively reported by Swante Arrhenius in 1896.

Since then, scientists have provided evidence not only of increases in greenhouse gas concentrations, but of climate change threats (see Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).

Professionals say the fastest, cheapest way to do this is to improve energy efficiency by, for example, improving insulation and reducing electricity use.

Other ways to mitigate climate change include actions that remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, such as planting trees or using algae to absorb carbon dioxide as they grow.

What Makes Certain Gases Greenhouse Gases? » Science Abc

These include things like using nuclear power as an alternative to fossil-based energy, or using renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and hydropower.

Other promising and controversial approaches include carbon capture and storage and REDD, or reducing deforestation and forest degradation.

Mitigation is a key focus of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its successor agreement, the Kyoto Protocol.

Greenhouse gas emissions vary widely both within and between countries – but media reports do not always clearly reflect these variations.

Greenhouse Gas’ Effects On The Economy

Although China currently emits more than any other country, its per capita emissions are lower than most other countries. For comparison, Wikipedia has tables ranking countries by total (here) and per capita (here) emissions.

The Carbon Disclosure Project is a good source of information on what companies are doing to measure, report and reduce emissions. It has information on more than 2,000 companies in 60 countries.

To find out what journalists are doing to reduce emissions, journalists can check their national contacts on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which also has a list of greenhouse gases produced by industrialized countries.

Journalists reporting on local weather conditions, such as temperature, must also check global events. For example, January 2010 was extremely cold in the UK and eastern US, leading some to think that the greenhouse effect was not real. But globally, January 2010 was the hottest on record.

Greenhouse Gases, Facts And Information

It’s important to remember that El Niño/La Niña cycles of warming and cooling in the Pacific also affect global temperatures.

Investigating new mitigation techniques is important because greenhouse gases are a global problem.

By visiting the EJN site, you agree to the use of cookies, which are designed to improve your experience and are used for analytics and personalization purposes. Read our Privacy Policy for more information CO2 and other greenhouse gases are the primary explanation for why the planet is warming, and science has known it for over a century. Our atmosphere is transparent to visible light – the red-to-red rainbow that forms natural sunlight. When the sun shines, its light passes through the atmosphere to warm the earth.

The warm Earth then radiates some of its energy upward in the form of infrared radiation—red light that our eyes can’t see (unless we’re wearing infrared-sensitive night goggles). If all that infrared radiation escaped into space, the Earth would freeze. However, naturally occurring greenhouse gas molecules—including not only CO2, but also methane and water vapor—rescatter infrared radiation in all directions, including back to Earth. It keeps us warm.

Greenhouse Gases Earth Hi Res Stock Photography And Images

When we add additional greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, we increase the atmosphere’s ability to retain heat. Less heat escapes into space, more returns to Earth, and the planet warms.

There is really no scientific doubt about this process, known as the Teples effect. What scientists don’t know is how strong the effect is. That’s because blocking the heat is only the first step. As the planet warms, it changes. Ice on land and in the oceans is melting, allowing the Earth to absorb more heat than ever before. Oceans are warm, but currents carry some of that warm water beneath the surface where it is temporarily hidden. The oceans also stop absorbing CO2 as easily, so more remains in the atmosphere, contributing to the greenhouse effect. When the atmosphere itself holds more water vapor

Greenhouse effect on environment, greenhouse effect on the environment, what gases cause the greenhouse effect, greenhouse gases effect on earth, what effect does greenhouse gases have on the earth, greenhouse gases impact on environment, what is the effect of greenhouse gases on the environment, greenhouse gases effect on environment, greenhouse gases effect on health, what is the effect of greenhouse gases, what gases contribute to the greenhouse effect, how does greenhouse gases affect the environment