What is the greenhouse gas effect?

Question

can anyone give me a detailed explination of what it is and how the holes are made in the ozone layer



thanks

Answer 1

There are two meanings of the term "greenhouse effect". There is a "natural" greenhouse effect that keeps the Earth's climate warm and habitable. There is also the "man-made" greenhouse effect, which is the enhancement of Earth's natural greenhouse effect by the addition of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels (mainly petroleum, coal, and natural gas). In order to understand how the greenhouse effect operates, we need to first understand "infrared radiation". Greenhouse gases trap some of the infrared radiation that escapes from the Earth, making the Earth warmer that it would otherwise be. You can think of greenhouse gases as sort of a "blanket" for infrared radiation-- it keeps the lower layers of the atmosphere warmer, and the upper layers colder, than if the greenhouse gases were not there.

About 80-90% of the Earth's natural greenhouse effect is due to water vapor, a strong greenhouse gas. The remainder is due to carbon dioxide, methane, and a few other minor gases.

It is the carbon dioxide concentration that is increasing, due to the burning of fossil fuels (as well as from some rainforest burning). This is the man-made portion of the greenhouse effect, and it is believed by many scientists to be responsible for the global warming of the last 150 years. Also, the concentration of methane, although small, has also increased in recent decades. The reasons for this increase, though, are uncertain.

Answer 2

Do not mix up the ozone hole and the green house effect. Those are two TOTALLY different environmental problems. The ozone hole does not cause a greenhouse effect and I will say no more about it here.

The greenhouse effect is named after glass greenhouses where visible light passes in through the clear glass, gets absorbed by the ground and planets and other things inside the greenhouse. That absorbed light energy warms up those things which then start to glow in infrared light. The infrared light cannot pass through glass, so it just gets reflected back by the glass to the plants and ground in the greenhouse, further heating them. The warm plants and ground warm up the air by conduction. In the absence of the glass, the infrared light would leave the greenhouse never to return and carry away the heat energy that created it in the first place, cooling the plants and ground and so the air.

In the Earth's atmosphere, certain gasses, such as water vapor, methane and carbon dioxide act like the glass; they block infrared light. Widespread human activity is increasing the amount of methane and carbon dioxide in the air.