TGE+2010

** __The Greenhouse Effect__ **
by Matt Knoecklein

What is the Greenhouse Effect? The greenhouse effect is the phenomenon that helps maintain the heat of the Earth's atmosphere. Heat energy first enters the Earth's atmosphere, carrying waves of generally short wavelentgh. Some of the waves are absorbed by the Earth's surface, thus heating it up, where-as the remaining waves are re-radiated as infared waves back into space. However, some of these infared waves are absorbed by greenhouse gases and re-emitted back towards Earth. This causes the Earth's surface to heat up. It works just like a greenhouse, hence the name, where heat enters through the glass panes and then is trapped inside, keeping it warm inside. The Greenhouse effect is a naturally occuring process. Photo Source: []

What Exactly ARE Greenhouse Gases? Greenhouses gases are chemical compounds that are both naturally occurring and brought about by humans. Some examples of greenhouse gases are Carbon dioxide, Methane, Nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases. Carbon dioxide is the most abundent and important gas in the greenhouse effect. It is emitted by burning fossil fuels, wood products, as well as chemical reactions. Methane is releaed by means of fossil fuel productiona and transportation, as well as a result of agricultural production and organic waste decay. Nitrous oxide is emitted through agricultural and industrial production, as well as through fossil fuel combustion. The flourinated gases, also known as industrial gases, are those created through industrial process, ie by Human. This wiki page explains some of the more chemical aspects of certain fossil fuels, and where many of them are found.

Climate Change? The Greenhouse effect plays a large role in climate change and global warming. Some will say that climate change is actually just another word for the enhanced greenhouse effect, because the two are so connected, however, they are not the same. Since the greenhouse effect helps to maintain the temperature of the earth, and its atmosphere, at hospitable levels, an increase in the amount of greenhouse gases can alter the global climate. However, climate change is a general change in climate, while the greenhouse effect is just one of the factors that plays in. The enhanced greenhouse effect is, in its most basic sense, caused by the energy trapped in our atmosphere that is released by human production. So, without the greenhouse effect, not only would the temperature drop tremendously, about 33°C cooler than the current average, but climate change would also be less of a problem. This is not what we want, so the greenhouse effect is clearly not to blame, because if we were to get rid of it in some way, we would all die. So the real problem with climate change does not rest in the greenhouse effect, but in the increase of greenhouse gases caused by humans. While the Greenhouse effect and Climate change are not exactly the same, they are very closely connected and the Greenhouse effect certainly plays a large role in climate change. The History of the Greenhouse Effect 

In 1859, the Origin of Species wasn't the only scientific breakthrough of note, as this was the year when John Tyndell established the basic principles that would eventually make up the greenhouse effect. John Tyndell wasn't the first to take interest in this phenomena, however, as it was first mentioned by French polymath Joseph Fourie. His ideas were controversial at the time and unaccepted, as gases were thought to be transparent to heat. Joseph Tyndell devised several simple experiments to test Fourie's theory. Whilst working in the basement of the Royal Institution in London, Tyndell discovered that some gases, such as Carbon dioxide and Water vapour, do in fact absorb heat (at certain wavelengths), thus proving that the greenhouse effect was possible and did happen. The idea that the greenhouse effect and climate change were connected was first stated by Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius in 1896, who claimed that an increase in fossil fuel combustion would lead to global warming. He discovered that the Earth's temperature was about 15oC and that doubling the amount of Carbon dioxide would lead to a 5oC increase in the global temperature. 

Source: []

Here is a diagram of what the greenhouse effect works:



 Source: [] As we can see, the energy is sent down from the sun. While some of it escapes back to space, the rest kept in our atmosphere. Some of the heat trying to escape also gets blocked by the greenhouse gases, keeping the temperature of the planet maintained.

This graph shows a break-down of human involvement in greenhouse gas emission. As one can see, most of the emissions are by human industry. This can show that human involvement is having a large effect on the enhanced greenhouse effect, and thus climate change.

Source: []

Sources: [] [] [] []