Greenhouse gases

Greenhouse gases and the global climate

What is the greenhouse effect?

Greenhouse effect is known by that because is similar to the effect produced by the glass panes of a greenhouse. The solar radiation passes through the Earth’s atmosphere and is absorbed by the surface of the Earth causing it to get warmer. Part of the energy absorbed by the Earth is return to the atmosphere, but noeverything can cross the atmosphere to the space, so it get trapped between the atmosphere (combined with the greenhouse gases) and the surface of Earth, so the lower atmosphere gets warmer.

What are greenhouse gases?
Greenhouse gases are the amount of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous dioxide and fluorocarbons in the atmosphere that keeps warm the temperature of the Earth. These gases cause the“greenhouse effect”, which is the action of heating the Earth due to the presence of the mentioned gases.
Since the last century the Earth’s temperature has increased .5 degrees Celsius, which is a lot cause it’s not normal that it changes at least that. Many scientists think that it is the consequence of the increase in the concentration of the greenhouse gases. The greenhouse effect is consideredthe beginning of the Global Warming.

Why are consider as bad the greenhouse gases?

Because people have been increasing the rates of the production of gases and we have seen the negative consequences in the environment such as floods and droughts, increasing prevalence of insects, sea levels rising and the precipitation of the Earth redistribute. All this changes in the environment will causenegative effects on society like lower health and decreasing economic development. Although scientists claimed that all these changes in the environment are a natural phenomenon the consequence of the natural cycle of the planet. If we are the cause of these changes or if it is nature we are not so sure, but the only thing that is certain is that the planet won’t be the same from now on, so wehave to take more care of it than years ago.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
It’s a gas that doesn’t have color, is not flammable and in the most prominent greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. The formed of recycling it is with the photosynthesis, which makes the humans can live. The photosynthesis is the process in which green plants transform the CO2 into oxygen. The carbon dioxide is emitted into the air ashumans exhaled, when we burn fossil fuels and deforest the planet. Every year humans add over 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by all these processes.
A test done in Mauna Loa in Hawaii, the largest volcano in the world (40,000 km3 and 4,170 meters above sea level) revealed more than 12% increase in the annual concentration of carbon dioxide (316 ppm in 1959 to 360 ppm in1996). The ice core samples shown that they also have a dramatic increase in the CO2 levels. When drilling the polar ice caps and glaciers and taking out the samples of ice, and then melting it and capturing the gas, it shown that there is an increase in the concentrations of carbon dioxide over the past 100 years. The U.S is the country that continues to emit more than any other country in the world,accounting for 25% of the global emissions. U.S emissions increased 3.3%, the European Union 2.2%, Eastern Europe had a decrease rate of -2.4% and China had an increase of 4.7% all of this in 1996.

Fossil Fuels

The creation of fossil fuels was because of the decay of plants form millions of years ago. We use coal, oil and natural gas for daily things, such as generate electricity, heat ourhomes, power factories and run the cars. All these fossil fuels have carbon, so when they are burned they get mixed with oxygen, causing more carbon dioxide. The World Energy Council reported that global carbon dioxide emissions from the burned of fossil fuels increased a 12% between 1990 and 1995. The increased from developing countries was 3 times more than the developed countries. Middle...