2006-10-09 03:39:28 · 8 answers · asked by Chris M 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Weather
Planting trees can, at least in theory, reduce the greenhouse effect by removing carbon dioxide from the air (the plants take in carbon dioxide when they do photosynthesis, they add water and turn it into glucose sugar). Reducing the grenhouse effect would have the result of allowing the earth to cool.
A much more important and direct effect is what is called 'global dimming'. There was a NOVA tv program about this just last year. You can probably find it online.
Global dimming happens when humans burn coal and other fuels. The soot from the smoke goes into the air and affects how rain clouds are formed. When more clouds are formed, a lot of sunlight is reflected back into space, rather than shining on the ground and heating the earth. This means that there is a pretty major amount of cooling happening as a result of the loss of sunlight. So far the global dimming and global warming are about equal so the climate has not changed too much.
2006-10-09 03:52:33 · answer #1 · answered by matt 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The earth's temp does cycle. But here's where most people get it wrong. What causes the change? Well, as many believe, CO2 (a greenhouse gas) is the cause. But 99% of the greenhouse gas in our atmosphere is water vapor (yes, it's a greenhouse gas), so we should stop worrying about CO2 and start our dehumidifiers going. (Even if it was CO2, we'd have to shut down volcanoes to make a difference.) Humans can't really do anything, so it's got to be something else, maybe something big. How 'bout that 800,000 mi wide, millions of degrees, burning ball of hydrogen and helium we call the sun. That has a far greater impact on global warming than anything else. Have you heard about the ice caps on Mars melting. It wasn't little green men causing global warming with CO2 emissions. It's the sun! So we can pour water on the sun!
2006-10-09 14:06:40 · answer #2 · answered by Matt 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It was discovered that jet trails contribute greatly to the cooling of the earth by reflecting incident sunlight back out into space. This was demonstrated on the day after 9/11 when all plane traffic in the US was halted.
2006-10-09 14:42:08 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i am with u misterplo... u cant find human activities that work to cool the Earth's climate but u can find activities that work to slow the warming
2006-10-09 10:51:13 · answer #4 · answered by romeo 1 · 1⤊ 1⤋
A serious answer is sun dimming and it may be a major effect. The industries of the world emit dust (eg coal fired power stations) and these dim the sun (quite significantly).
One of the reasons global warming has begun to accelerate is because we are cleaning up our stack emissions but the CO2 continous to be emitted more than ever.
Don't laugh, this is a dead serious issue
2006-10-09 12:35:56 · answer #5 · answered by andyoptic 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
YES!!!!
if people from all over the world jump high at the same time, when we fall down on the Earth - it will be a little bit further than the Sun. --- cool as having an ice cream :-)
2006-10-09 11:14:24 · answer #6 · answered by chloe 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No but there are activities that work to slow the warming
2006-10-09 10:42:17 · answer #7 · answered by misterplonk 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
planting and tending trees....by hand.
2006-10-09 10:47:42 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋