Please explain to me how the greenhosue effect and global warming are related? What are they?

Question

HELP!

Answer 1

Some gases ("greenhouse gases") let sunlight in, which warms the Earth, and then block that heat from leaving. That's the "greenhouse effect", and it's a natural thing, mostly caused by water vapor.

Man is making excessive amounts of greenhouse gases, mostly by burning fossil fuels. That causes the delicate natural balance to go out of whack and the Earth warms. That's global warming.

It won't be a Hollywood style disaster. Gradually coastal areas will flood and agriculture will be damaged. But it will be very bad. Rich countries will cope, but it will take huge amounts of money. In poor countries many people will die of starvation, but not all of them.

Most scientists say, in 20-50 years. But we need to start right now to fix it, fixing it will take even longer than that.

Really good website for more information here:

http://profend.com/global-warming/

Lots of numerical scientific data proving it real here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.png
http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf

Proof that most scientists think it's real and mostly caused by us here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1686

Answer 2

Well I'd have to say as far as basic definitions go, Bob is basically correct......then he takes off on the usual enviormental dribble that they all say.......Man is responsible, man needs to change things. The problem is, putting aside peoples opinions, There isn't enough data to know what is good for the earth, the scientists are devided, the man made portion of gases that effect the planet hasn't been proven to have any adverse effects and if people want to be a little more green conscious, that's fine. What I despise is how people have been trying to turn the world upside down for it. Do you realize that there's now established a farce of a carbon neutral program going on with big business ? It doesn't mean people are polluting less, it just means that those that pollute less get carbon credits from some organization that have established some upper limit based on.......not much scientific data. So basically....out of a guess...about something they can't prove has an ill effect, they are chanrging people and business's.
National car rental recently signed on to one of these. Do people really want to or should people really be forced to participate in a program that can't even prove they are needed or are having an effect ? Consumers do not like higher prices in general. How abou tthe tripple cost for medical inhalers now. Doesn't matter than the gas is going into the person's lung, due to it being a "global warming gas" it has had a rise in price. Some city in New Jersey even lobbied to have barbequing controlled since...after all...Charcoal is 1/2 coal.
Soft coal is a real issue, yes, because it releases sulfur dioxide which makes acid rain. But I ask at least the enviromental whacko's to at least take a hard look at history and data before they run around like chicken little. I recycle, I do what I can, but i'm not for raising my living costs to combat something that no one can prove.
Going back 100 years in the media, we have been warned we were burning up, then we were warned of a 2nd ice age, then buring again....as recent as the 70's they said we were cooling again....Now its starting all over again. The media hypes it, the companies jump on board to make a quick buck.
Now if someone wants to do something real ? Make the all electric car affordable to people...not $100 K. How about legislation that allows me to sue the companies that enjoyed a nice profit at my expense...and America's expense 20 years + down the road when we see for ourselves that catastophe didn't happen.
The earth cooled significan'tly when Mt. Pinotubo volcano blew....It splewed tons of gases and polutants into the are...thus blocking out the sunlight. That is more polution than a country can produce and here we are, still alive, still recovering from these "natural disasters" that happen that we have no control over. The earth produces its own Co2 and other gases naturally, and man adds but barely a fraction to it. Enviromentalists in the news have been very careful to hound on "global warming" but don't distinguish between nature, and man made. Most are mislead into assuming they are one in the same.
The chicken littles believe Al Gore, yet he isn't even a scientist. The UK has basically banned his movie from being seen by their youth unless there is a warning of its inaccuracy...which was a decision rendered by a liberal judge.All I'm saying is, it wouldn't hurt to be a good steward of the earth, but stop the hype and lies. Stop trying to pinch my wallet and make me feel guilty when the world isn't coming to an end any time soon , if at all. Recently chemical reaction in the atmosphere they thought was attributed to the ozone hole was found to be all wrong.....at best only 10% of what they thought. To this day I haven' found a true enviromentalist that can explain to me why that hole was the largest in a 1956 expedition before the common use of CFC's.

Answer 3

Global waring refers to any increase in Earth average temperature. Most often it is used to refer to the warming period starting in the mid-nineteenth century.

Before I (attempt to) explain the basic mechanism behind the greenhouse effect, it's important to understand how Earth's energy balance works. Earth's temperature stays constant as long as it is losing energy to space as quickly as it gains energy from the sun. When this occurs, the planet is in thermal equilibrium. If there's a shift in the balance of incoming to outgoing energy, the planet's temperature will change accordingly. If, for example, the sun's total irradiance increases, energy will reach Earth's surface faster than it can escape to space, and the planet's temperature will go up to compensate. So in general you can think of the planet's temperature as being determined by the flux of outgoing energy needed to balance the flux of incoming solar energy.

There are many ways in which Earth's energy balance can be affected, one of these ways is called the "greenhouse effect" (even though it has sod all to do with greenhouses). Certain trace gases in Earth's atmosphere are transparent to the short wave energy from the sun, but opaque to the long wave, or infrared, energy that Earth's radiates out to space. These gases reduce the emissivity of the planet's atmosphere, and affect the rate energy is able to flow into space. Some rough calculations would show that, without the greenhouse effect, the planet's temperature would be about 0 Cº, whereas with the greenhouse effect, it's a cozy 15 Cº.

Now, as to your question of why the two are related, it's really quite straightforward. Adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere will further reduce the emissivity of the atmosphere, and force the planet's temperature up. Thus, an increase in the greenhouse effect results in an increase in temperature.

Humans have been releasing a great deal of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere over the past century. So the current warming is believed to be caused by an increase in Earth's greenhouse effect resulting from emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities.

So, in summary, global warming refers to an increase in Earth's average temperature, the greenhouse effect is a process that slows the rate at which energy can escape to space (contrary to popular opinion, it doesn't "trap" energy in the atmosphere) and by which the atmosphere is warmed, and adding more greenhouse gases to the air wil cause the atmosphere to warm further. Hope this helps!

-EP-

Answer 4

Greenhouse effect is when gases like CO2 trap heat from escaping out of the atmosphere, and thus increase the temperature in the planet. And this happens throughout the world. Thus the term, GLOBAL warming. Its kinda like putting the lid on a steaming pot.

Answer 5

They are not related by any means. People keep going off on carbon dioxide and how bad it is for the environment. They are all decieved by FAKE scientific studies funded by people who, for some reason, want the world to stop burning fossil fuels. Sure, fossil fuels arent great to use, but they made up global warming to scare humans. Ask them to present facts and you'll end up with an Al Gore type of research by 'scientists' which he seems to say 50 times in the movie, yet doesn't provide who these scientists are or how they came up with the info.

The facts: Our atmosphere is made up of 78% Nitrogen, 20% oxygen, .95% Argon, and the rest are trace gases. So, These 3 gases alone make up about 99% of all the gases in the atmosphere. The other 1% are what the fanatics talk about, the GreenHouse Gases.

Let's look at the GreenHouse gases: We know they only make up about 1% of the atmosphere. So what is this 1% composes of? Well, 70% of it is water vapor, about 20% is carbon dioxide, and the rest is ozone and some other small ones.

Ozone sits at the top of the troposphere and plays a 100x bigger role than carbon dioxide ever would. Fortunately, the ozone layer is intact the same as its been forever and anything else you hear (whether its a hole, whatever) is completely false, madeup by 'scientists'. Go ahead and do the research made by REAL scientists, the ozone layer is in fact intact and completely fine.

Carbon Dioxide plays no threat at all on the environment because it only makes up 0.0032% of our atmosphere. Whereas Venus' atmosphere is made up of 97% carbon dioxide. So, yes, carbon dioxide does effect the temperature. BUT ONLY IN LARGE AMOUNTS. At 97%, the temperature of venus is 872 F. We are around 80-90 whereever you live. You fanatics CLAIM that our carbon dioxide levels raising by .001% is causing the temperature to raise by 3-4 degrees?? NO. UNTRUE.

The only way for our atmosphere to be affected by carbon dioxide is if it reaches high levels. By your calculations, if our atmosphere reached to about .05%, we would be hotter than Venus!!! LOL! Obviously, you have just listened to 'scientists' and haven't done the research yourselves. Even if carbon dioxide was 10% of our atmosphere, it would only cause our temperature to be around 125 F average across the globe. But we are at .0032%!!!

In short, Humans can burn as much carbon as they would like. The fact remains that if we burned up every ounce of carbon on the planet and sent it into the atmosphere, out atmosphere would still be stable at the SAME temperature that we have today.

You global warming fanatics should research. How was england able to grow grapes in the middle ages? Global Warming. How were the vikings able to farm greenland? Global Warming. Why was the Hudson bay such a huge transport area during the 16th and 17th centuries? Global Warming.

I could go on and on, but you decide whether to allow yourself to believe the truth or not. I cannot change your mind even if i sat 1-on-1 and proved the facts to each and every one of you. Go ahead and believe Al Gores unsupported facts (oh wait, his rich 'scientists' back him up). Its all a political stunt. And now with him winning the Nobel Prize, that is even more proof of how much crap all this Global Warming crap really is.

Learn to accept that the climates in different areas of the country SHIFT regularly (atmospheric sciences 101) and have been since the beginning. And at this SAME rate. It's actually slower right now than normal, not faster like you fanatics claim.

Answer 6

These and more definitions can be found on the Glossary of Climate Change Terms on the EPA website listed below.