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2 answers

It's not so much a case of finding evidence, more an understanding of how carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases work.

Out atmosphere is primarily made up of nitrogen and oxygen - both are simple atoms. There's also small amounts of hydrogen, helium, argon and a whole host of other simple atoms. But there's also much larger and more complicated molecules of carbon dioxide, methane, water vapour, nitrous oxide and the like.

All these atoms and molecules are bouncing around in the atmosphere and completely envelope our planet.

Heat from the sun reaches the Earth and keeps it at a habitable temperature; this heat reaches us in the form of solar radiation (sunlight). Much of this heat is then lost back into space and it leaves the planet as thermal radiation (warm air).

Solar radiation has a very short wavelength so it's easy for it to slip through the gaps between the atoms and molecules. Thermal radiation has a longer wavelength and it tends to collide with the molecules in the atmosphere and get trapped.

The more molecules there are the more thermal radiation is trapped - this is the principle behind global warming.

As I hope I've explained, it's not so much about finding evidence but more about the physical properties of the components of our atmosphere. It's a very similar reason to this that gives us a blue sky - instead of heat waves being bounced about off the molecules it's lightwaves, some pass through the atmosphere and some don't; those that do make it through are the colours that combine to make the sky appear blue.

Any increase in the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases makes it harder for thermal radiation to escape. In short, the more greenhouse gases in the atmopshere the warmer our planet becomes.

2007-05-13 12:59:40 · answer #1 · answered by Trevor 7 · 0 0

It is a none fact that Carbon dioxide (CO2) traps heat, if there wasn't any of it in the atmosphere then the earth would freeze, humans put off alot of CO2, so logically more CO2 means more heat, is trapped and the erath is warmed.
I do not fully believe in global warming, but I think it is plausable.

2007-05-12 22:22:36 · answer #2 · answered by Han Solo 6 · 0 0

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