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A simple guide to the greenhouse effect for those who find it difficult
By Peter Simmons
Despite having been discovered in 1824 by Joseph Fourier, the greenhouse effect seems to be far from clear to some people. Yet the process is quite simple. The greenhouse effect made us possible The greenhouse effect is the mechanism which has kept Earth within an even enough range of temperatures over millions of years for life to evolve and survive. Without it, Earth would be too cold for any life to have got started. The mechanism It works like this: just as with an actual greenhouse, short wave radiation from the sun [UVA & UVB] enters the atmospere and warms it. The resultant long wave radiation, or heat, is then radiated out and leaves the planetary surface heading for space. Some atmospheric gases that we call greenhouse gases reflect back some of this energy, preventing a complete loss and transferring a percentage of the energy to other molecules in the atmosphere, and it thus radiates in all directions, including back down towards the surface transfering energy to the lower atmosphere and surface more than just by the sun's radiation alone. Of course there is no glass involved, so hot air is not trapped as it is in an actual greenhouse, but the reflective nature of greenhouse gases has a similar effect; warming. What are the Greenhouse gases? Water vapor is 36–70% of the greenhouse gases, with carbon dioxide second at 9–26% of the total, followed by methane, contribting 4–9% and ozone adding 3–7%. Water vapour is largely the clouds which reflect light back into space as well as absorbing heat energy and transporting it round the planet in what we call weather, discharging it in storms and rain. Carbon dioxide is absorbed by plants which then exhale oxygen in the process of photosynthesis which fuels growth using the sun's radiation. The plants won't let it happen!
Simplistic deniers of man-made global warming will cite this as a reason why it's not going to happen; the plants will apparently get bigger and lusher the more carbon dioxide they have and will absorb it, voila! No problem, all go back to sucking our thumbs. This shows a lack of basic understanding of the process; since the time carbon dioxide began to be measured in the atmosphere, plant growth has not increased along with an increase in CO2. Basically, plants can only do what they do, an optimum is reached and no matter how much you increase the sunlight, carbon dioxide and nutrients, no further improvement in crop yield is possible, except by genetically engineering the crops to utilize these increases; a possible long term method of repairing the damage caused to the atmosphere and help remove the excess carbon along with planting trees and hemp, but hardly a quick fix solution. How have we caused a change in this greenhouse effect?
Since the industrial revolution kicked off in the 18th century, man has been burning fossil fuels. The rate of burning has been increasing, and in the last fifty years has increased massively with the increase in personal transport, flying and industrial development of increasingly more countries. Currently China and India with vast populations are in a race to grow their economies and as Europe, the US and the West generally fade as the powers
in the world, the pollution increases despite efforts by those countries to learn from the mistakes of the old colonialists.
We have already reached peak oil, when the known remaining reserves are less than what has already been extracted. Peak coal in many countries was reached decades ago, and countries currently exporting coal will soon have stripped their reserves out. And what must be remembered is that all these fossil fuels are the result of millions of years of plant [mostly tree] growth in a carbon rich atmosphere that was poisonous for oxygen breathing animal life. It was the plants which removed carbon and replaced it with oxygen which made evolution possible and eventually us. That fact alone should ring alarm bells. |
http://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php
PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
Fool on the Hill
A blog about the state of the world
www.oneworldnet.co.uk/blog/index.php
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Most people do not care and just pollute without thinking about it. They do not think about the consequences.
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