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Greenhouse gases and global warming
are not a new topic but are ones that been receiving more and more attention
lately. This is due to the rising
concern over the increased amount of global warming occurring due to excessive
greenhouse gasses. Greenhouse gases are
gaseous components of that atmosphere that contribute to the greenhouse
effect. Greenhouse gasses naturally
cover the earth keeping it at roughly 33 degrees Celsius warmer than it would
be without those gasses (greenhouse effect) (Cohen, Hopwood). The temperature of the earth has slowly been
rising this is because of the rising level of gases that are being released
into the atmosphere.
The reason
for the name “greenhouse effect" is simple it follows all the same
basic
principals that a normal glass greenhouse employs. The process is
rather simple really. One can think of the glass panes of the
greenhouse as the protective layer of greenhouse gasses we have in our
atmosphere. Short wave radiation from
our sun passes through these layers and continues to the earths surface
where
it turn it is absorbed the earth causing it to warm. However not
all of the energy is fully
absorbed into the earth, part of it is radiated back to the atmosphere
but now
as long wave radiation. Long wave radiation
rarely passes through the greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere.
The absorbed waves that are not allowed to
travel back into space are then reemitted back downward causing the
lower
atmosphere to warm, hence the problem of excessive amounts of
greenhouse gasses
enwrapping earths surface. Theses long
wave gasses once again go through the same process of being sent down
to earth
heated, being absorbed and some of then getting trapped again in this
very
cycle. The idea that causes most concern
to us the increasing amount of greenhouse gases we as humans with our
machines
are emitting into our atmosphere. The
more gasses we release the less long wave radiation will be allowed to
travel
back into space, hence a gradual heating of the earths climate over a
given
amount of time.
Understanding the concept of
greenhouse gasses and their processes is the first step we must take in order
to help combat our problem of global warming.
We as a uman race need to step up and take initiative to prevent this
problem from getting out of hand. By
reducing the amount of greenhouse gasses we put into our atmosphere we can help
cut down on the amount of long wave radiation that is retransmitted back to the
earth.
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