The+Chemistry+of+the+Greenhouse+Effect

= = = = = = =The Chemistry of the Greenhouse Effect = = = =Table of Contents = 1. The Atmosphere: What's it Made of? 2. How Does it All Work? 3. The Chemistry Behind It All A. Carbon Dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect B. Light Spectrum 4. So, What's This All Got to do with Climate Change? 5. Works Cited =  = = =  ==** The Atmosphere: What's it Made of? ** ==
 * Greenhouse Effect Video*
 * Chemistry Connection*
 * Physics Connections*

The atmosphere consists of 4 main gases: These four gases insulate solar energy that heats the earth, but the insulates only some of it keeping the Earth's temperature at in a habitable range. The ratio between the amount of heat that is being radiated from the sun and insulated by the atmosphere's gases to heat Earth, is about equal to the amounts of heat that are re-radiated back into space. [|**The Greenhouse Effect**]
 * Water Vapor (H20)
 * Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
 * Methane (CH4)
 * Nitrous Oxide (N20)

The two most common gases in the atmosphere, nitrogen and oxygen, surprisingly have do not insulate any of the radiation received by the sun at all; actually, 99% of the atmosphere has no insulating capacity. The insulating gases are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide (along with other trace gases) (Revkin 62-63).

=How does it all work? = media type="youtube" key="LFNKfWyGxHw" height="344" width="425"  =The Chemistry Behind It All = =Carbon Dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect =
 * **First:** Sunlight passes through the atmosphere as visible light, warming the Earth's surface. It especially warms dark objects in nature such as plants, soil, and oceans. These are the places where most of the energy is absorbed to and stays absorbed.
 * Some of the sunlight is reflected by the clouds, while the rest is absorbed.
 * **Second:** The plants, lands, soil, and oceans release the energy that has been absorbed as heat, or infrared radiation, to balance the incoming energy. This infrared radiation being released is a lower form of the original energy because some of the energy still remains in the plants, lands, soil, and oceans where it was originally absorbed.
 * this happens when the CO2 molecules vibrate, allowing these molecules to
 * **Third:** Water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane absorb part of the radiation released by the land and ocean, while a small portion of this radiation is sent back into space.
 * this warms the lower atmosphere, which heats up the planet.
 * **Finally:** When the lower atmosphere absorbs this radiation (or heat), the planet is kept warm and habitable for all life.
 * problems can occur when there is too much of the greenhouse gases
 * this causes too much of the radiation to be absorbed by greenhouse gases and less of it is being able to pass through the atmosphere and radiate out into space
 * therefore, more heat is kept within the planet's atmosphere, causing the planet's temperature to rise.

= = Carbon Dioxide plays a very important role in the scheme of the process of the Greenhouse effect. CO2 is therefore allowed to absorb heat; insulating the planet and keeping it at a "normal" temperature. Carbon dioxide is a conductor to infrared radiation and transmits the energy absorbed to other molecules, such as oxide and nitrous oxide. [|**Radiation and the Earth**]
 * Carbon Dioxide molecules absorb infrared radiation, which is emitted by the Earth after it has absorbed the solar radiation,causing the molecules to vibrate.
 * Once they have been vibrating for too long, they will then re-emit the infrared radiation they have absorbed
 * this keeps the heat near the surface of the atmosphere
 * this also insulates the surface from the cold of space
 * Carbon Dioxide molecules are loosely bound to allow the vibrations to occur when the heat radiation is absorbed
 * Unlike Nitrous Oxide and Oxide, which are too tightly bonded to allow these vibrations to occur,


 * In connection to** Ryan and Josh's Wikispace **about the Carbon Cycle...**
 * there has been immense and unnecessary human influence that has caused a great disruption in the Carbon Cycle
 * humans extract fossil fuels from the Earth
 * then burn those fuels, releasing the Carbon from the fuels into the atmosphere
 * the atmosphere therefore has higher Carbon levels than normal, and the ground's Carbon levels are greatly depreciated
 * the balance of Carbon placement is greatly altered in a negative way
 * to make matters worse, the Carbon in the atmosphere stays in the atmosphere and can never be transferred back into the land/fuels that it once came from. Once it's out, it's out.
 * These extra amounts of Carbon that are being put into the atmosphere, further advance the greenhouse effect's damage in the sense that more insulators are being added to the blanket of them that is presently causing climate change.


 * In connection to the** SumAly Group Wikispace **from Advanced Physics about the Long-Term Carbon Cycle...**
 * The long term carbon cycle includes the carbon cycling through rock instead of the oceans, plants, and the atmosphere.
 * There are two ways in which carbon is buried:
 * silicate-carbonate sub cycle
 * Carbon cycles through chemical changes until it ends up as limestone (CaCO3).
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0,0,0);"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">After exposed to heat, pressure, and a very long time (millions of years), fossil fuels are created.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0,0,0);">burial of organic matter
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0,0,0);">Human have hastened this cycle by burning organic carbon in sedimentary rocks that, without human interference would oxidize only through weathering, which would take enormous amounts of time.

=
<span style="text-align: center; display: block; color: rgb(68,149,15); font-size: 120%;">**Light Spectrum** The sun releases a large amount of energy which is emitted through many different wavelengths. One common form that contributes to the Greenhouse Effect is infrared radiation, which, in terms of wavelength, is longer than visible light.The infrared radiation is the heat that is given off by the sun and what is increasing our global temperature. The Visible light emitted from the sun is absorbed into the Earth and re-emitted as infrared radiation. As mentioned before, only some of this radiation leaves the atmosphere while the rest is reflected off of clouds etc. The shorter waves of visible and ultraviolet light easily pass through the atmosphere. But once those waves are changed into infrared radiation, the waves are too long and slow to pass through the atmosphere and are trapped in between the atmosphere and the Earth itself. This gives this process the name "Greenhouse" effect because a greenhouse allows in light but doesn't let the infrared radiation out, causing the internal temperature to be greater than that of the outside. ===== [|Greenhouse Gases] =**<span style="text-align: center; display: block; color: rgb(68,149,15); font-size: 150%;">So, What's all this got to do with Climate Change? **= <span style="color: rgb(68,149,15);">

media type="custom" key="3597498" Quite a bit actually. Since carbon dioxide is both one of the main gases that is a part of the process of keeping the Earth insulated, and one of the most highly produced gases by humans on Earth, this is bad news for our planet. Since there is obviously overproduction of carbon dioxide through cars, factories, generators, etc., this means that all these extra carbon dioxide molecules are being emmited into the atmosphere. Therefore, there is more insulation of the heat emitted from the land and oceans, keeping it from being allowed to escape through the atmosphere. (or at least diminish it's effects)**
 * In other words:**
 * more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, means more molecules to keep more of the heat between the atmosphere and the actual planet
 * more heat means a hotter Earth, which means climate change
 * The temperature is determined by the amount of energy absorbed from the sun versus the amount of energy emitted back into space by the earth (lands and oceans).
 * climate change means that most of the ecosystems and ways our planet works will be set out of balance and this is not good news folks...
 * but there is hope!
 * To possibly reverse this...
 * start riding your bikes more
 * turn off some of those unnecessary lights!
 * switch to fluorescent light bulbs
 * carpooling
 * combine little trips in a close proximity
 * cut emission productions overall
 * use public transportation
 * recycle more

We need to reduce our carbon dioxide production in order to somewhat decrease the amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere so more heat can emanate into space and less stays on Earth, making the Earth's temperature rise into an uncomfortable range. [|**The Greenhouse Effect Process**] (Ziegler)

<span style="text-align: left; line-height: 200%; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; color: rgb(77,176,59); font-size: 12pt;">

<span style="text-align: center; display: block; color: rgb(68,149,15); font-size: 130%;">**Works Cited**
"The Greenhouse Effect." __Cycles of the Earth and Atmosphere__. 14 Jan. 2009 <http://www.ucar.edu/learn/1_3_1.htm>. "The Greenhouse Effect." __Earthguide: Educational Resources in Earth, Marine, Environmental and Planetary Sciences__. 17 Jan. 2009 []. __Greenhouse Effect__. __YouTube__. 2 Apr. 2008. 3 Apr. 2009 []. "Greenhouse Gases." __Elmhurst College: Elmhurst, Illinois__. 17 Jan. 2009 <http://www.elmhurst.edu/%7Echm/vchembook/globalwarmA5.html>. "Greenhouse: questions and answers." __CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research__. 16 Jan. 2009 []. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Revkin, Andrew. __Global warming understanding the forecast__. New York: Abbeville P, 1992.a "What is the Greenhouse Effect?" __Global Warming__. 15 Jan. 2000 <http://www.global-greenhouse-warming.com/what-is-the-greenhouse-effect.html>. Ziegler, Jack. "Laugh if you will, but my kind once ruled the earth." Cartoon. __Cartoon Bank__. 25 Mar. 1991. New Yorker Magazine. 3 Apr. 2009 < Ziegler, Jack. "Laugh if you will, but my kind once ruled the earth." Cartoon. __Cartoon Bank__. 25 Mar. 1991. New Yorker Magazine. 3 Apr. 2009 <[]>.

rss url="http://www.global-greenhouse-warming.com/Global-warming.xml" link="true" number="5" date="true"