Has the human race permanently altered the chemical make up of our atmosphere???

Question

Will a future asteroid impact set things straight and clean once more for planet earth???

Answer 1

No we haven't, but I'm sure that won't be enough to convince you so I suppose I'll have to educate you (You've probably stopped reading already, scared of learning scientific fact).

In our everyday lives we encounter matter in three forms; solid, liquid and gas. For example, we are all familiar with water as solide ice, as liquid water and as a vapor. The atmosphere is made up primarily of a mixture of gases that include liquid and solid particles suspended in air, such as water droplets, ice crystals and dust particles.

The molecules of gases and liquids are in constant motion. They naturally spread out, or diffuse, from high areas of concentraion to areas of low concentration. This begs the question "if our atmosphere is an area of highly concentrated molecules, why don't they diffuse into empty outer space?" Gravity.

Gravitational attraction plays an importatn role in the evolution of the concentration of gases in our atmosphere. Since it's formation approximately 4.5 billion years ago the Earth and its atmosphere have undergone extraordinary changes. In the beginning, the Earth's atmosphere was hot and consisted mostly of Hydrogen (H), Helium (He), Methane (CH4), and amomia (NH3). Only small amounts of these gases remain in today's atmosphere. The gases composing today's atmosphere are mostly nitrogen (n2) and oxygen (O2).

If you measured the percentage of different gases in some fixed volume of air you would find 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. Only small amounts, or "traces", of other atmospheric gases.

Here is a list of todays composition.
Nitrogen = 78.08%
Oxygen = 20,95%
Argon = .93 %
Trace gases are as follows.
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) = 0.038%
Methane = 0.00017%
Ozone = 0.000004%
Chlorofluorocarbons = 0.000000012%
Water Vapor = Highly variable (0-4%)

These percentages haven't changed much (0.0001-0.001%) since man has been keeping track.

The gases in today's atmosphere are largely a result of emissions by volcanoes over billions of years. A volcanic eruption throws ash and rock, and large amounts of gases, into the atmosphere. The major gases in a volcanic plume are water vapor, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen. But what happened to these gases? After it's formation, the Earth began to cool. During the cooling process, the water vapor from volcanic eruptions condensed and formed clouds. The percipitation from the clouds evenutally formed oceans, glaciers, lakes and rivers. The development of oceans affected the atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. Some carbon dioxide from the atmosphere dissolved and accumulated in the oceans as they formed.

Answer 2

Well I think human interaction has. What replaces the ozone is being depleted like the Rain Forest and just trees in general. Mainly, due to the fact that humans cut trees down and causing less O2 release from the trees. I think all and all that is the problem. Not only that I think there are more people on the planet then their ever were dinosaurs so it’s the carbon we exhale that is killing the Ozone. That in turn is causing all the strange changes (i.e. killer earthquakes and hurricanes to sweep across our planet.)

Answer 3

No, and Yes. Once you understand the dynamic changes that the Earth has gone through and will continue to go through, you realize that a catastrophic impact is inevitable. Just hope you aren't around when it happens.

Answer 4

Anything expelled into the atmosphere changes it's chemical make-up. It makes sense to do everthing reasonable to cut down on our contribution to the problem. The hysterics from extremists on both sides are preventing anything at all to be done.

Answer 5

No.....
This just in...
"Water vapour was responsible for 95 per cent of the greenhouse effect, an effect which was vital to keep the world warm, he explained.

"If we didn't have the greenhouse effect the planet would be at minus 18 deg C but because we do have the greenhouse effect it is plus 15 deg C, all the time."

The other greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen dioxide, and various others including CFCs, contributed only five per cent of the effect, carbon dioxide being by far the greatest contributor at 3.6 per cent.

However, carbon dioxide as a result of man's activities was only 3.2 per cent of that, hence only 0.12 per cent of the greenhouse gases in total. Human-related methane, nitrogen dioxide and CFCs etc made similarly minuscule contributions to the effect: 0.066, 0.047 and 0.046 per cent respectively. ""
For that link from New Zealand go here...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaruherald/4064691a6571.html

Answer 6

Nope, it's a natural occurrence but some fat people (Gore) think it's because of humans. He complains then turns right around and does worse than most Americans do.

Answer 7

No and NO.

When a volcano erupts, how many hundreds of thousands of tons of sulfur, CO2, Carbon Monoxide, acid, etc. are spewn into the atmosphere? What about the vents under the ocean that natually leak millions of gallons of fossil fuels into the ocean? Rotting jungles and forest fires? Cow farts?

Get a life.

Answer 8

Actually Global Warming is altering the make up of Al Gore's bank account, nothing more.

Answer 9

No. The Earth was here long before we came along and will continue long after we're gone. To think that we matter more is wrong and self important.

Answer 10

Human activities have altered the chemical composition of the atmosphere through buildup of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxideand. There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.