The Greenhouse Effect

What is the greenhouse effect?

To explain this phenomenon, we need to compare it to a greenhouse.

A greenhouse is a structure where plants are grown.

In these structures, you could grow plants more easily because of its glass or plastic walls which trap heat from the sun.

In a similar way, the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere trap heat caused by the sun's radiation.

The main gases that trap this heat are known as greenhouse gases. You may have already heard about some of them, particularly carbon dioxide.

Other Greenhouse Gases

The other greenhouse gases include:

• Chlorofluorocarbons
• Hydrochlorofluorocarbons
• Hydrofluorocarbons
• Methane
• Nitrous Oxide
• Ozone
• Perfluorocarbons
• Sulfur Hexafluoride
• Water Vapour

Carbon Dioxide: The Main Greenhouse Gas

The reason for which you probably heard of carbon dioxide is because it is the most crucial one.

Why? The amounts of carbon dioxide has drastically increased in the last two hundred years due to industrialization and is the main cause of global warming.

In order to reduce our environmental impact, we must decrease our carbon footprint.

Isn't Carbon Dioxide Natural?

Now you may believe that the greenhouse effect is a bad thing.

However, it is not. In fact, it is very important for life here on Earth and exists naturally. In effect, if all the heat of the sun were sent back into space, there would be no life on Earth (or at least very little).

The problem arises when there is a large increase of greenhouse gases in a very short period of time.

Natural Fluctuations

Over thousands of years the amount of carbon dioxide increases and decreases. Life on Earth could easily adapt to this natural fluctuation.

Moreover, levels of carbon dioxide change from season to season.

During summer and spring, plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen through photosynthesis.

In retrospect, when winter arrives, plants release their carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.

So as you can see, it is normal for concentrations of carbon dioxide to change over time, but only to a certain extent.

Very Rapid Increase

So what is a very short period of time? Well, when considering the carbon dioxide levels over the last 800,000 years, they have never exceeded 300 ppm (parts per million).

In the last 200 years, they went from about 260 to 390 ppm; that is an incredibly fast increase, especially in geological terms.

With the rate it has been increasing over the last 200 years, organisms could not adapt. Actually, many are on the brink of extinction or have already gone extinct.

In fact, ocean acidification is occurring due to the increased amounts of carbon dioxide in our oceans which will in turn, fundamentally affect all marine life by endangering species at the bottom of the ocean food chain.

Other Greenhouse Gases

It should also be noted that the other greenhouse gases play a role even though it is smaller. However, in the near future they could accelerate the effects of climate change.

A great example would be the methane trapped in the permafrost in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in Canada and Russia.

Feedback Mechanism of Permafrost

With global warming, this permafrost will melt and massive amounts of methane will be released causing even more increases in temperatures.

This is in turn will cause more methane to melt and this causes a very bad snowball effect.

This snowball effect is one of many that will take place.

For more information, see feedback mechanism.

Other Snowball Effects

As glaciers and the polar ice caps melt, less sunlight is reflected (the color white reflects light) and thus the melting will accelerate.

As the polar ice caps and the massive ice shelves in Antarctica melt, the waters around them will warm up and accelerate this melting even more.

The greenhouse effect is much more alarming then it first appears, especially if you do not take these feedback mechanisms into account.

Troubling Trends

Not only is the amount of carbon dioxide that we release into the atmosphere accelerating, but so is the increase in global temperatures.

End result? People simply don't realize this acceleration affect and thus don't understand how dire the situation is.

So now you may ask, what will happen if the planet simply warms up? Will we just have nicer summers? Not exactly.

The greenhouse effect has much more severe consequences.

To learn about them, proceed to effects of climate change.

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