what are greenhouse gases? what is global warming?

Question

how do greenhouse gases contribute to global warming?

Answer 1

Greenhouse gasses are things like like H2O, CH4, and CO2. These gasses allow the heat and light energy of the Sun to reach Earth but only allow the light energy and some of the heat energy to escape. It is because of these gasses that we have a habitable planet. If these gasses become in excess then the planet will continue to heat up. This is called a runway greenhouse effect. Venus is a good example of this.

Global warming (and cooling) is a natural and cyclical phenomenon in which the average temperature of the planet increases over time. Earth is not experiencing a runaway greenhouse effect.

Answer 2

Carbon is a greenhouse gas. It contributes to global warming by allowing more of the heat of the sun to reach the Earth and not letting more escape into space. In other words, it acts like the glass of a greenhouse, using the sun to warm an area more than it would normally be.

Answer 3

The sun shines upon the Earth. Sunlight comes to us in a variety of wavelengths from ultraviolet through visible light to infrared (heat). The sunlight (solar radiation) that reaches the earth's surface (land or water) can be reflected, or it can be absorbed and reradiated as heat.

Greenhouse gasses trap the heat and keep it in the atmosphere. Without greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, the Earth would be about 50 degrees centigrade colder, all water would freeze (except possibly the deepest oceans and lakes, kept liquid by heat from the earth's interior) and life as we know it would be impossible.

The most important greenhouse gas is water vapor, which accounts for about 95% of all the heat trapped by greenhouse gasses. Carbon Dioxide, Methane and others make up the remaining 5%.

Greenhouse gasses trap heat (infrared radiation) at a variety of wavelengths. None of the gasses will trap all wavelengths. Each of the gasses has limits on the amount of heat that it can trap. It's similar to putting a coat of black paint on a clear pane of glass. It doesn't take much to make it impossible to see through the glass. Adding more layers just makes the paint thicker, but won't stop any more light from passing through. The first layer already stopped most of it. Similarly, green house gasses, even when their proportions increase, don't trap more heat.
Carbon Dioxide, the biggest concern for global warming, has just about reached it's trapping capacity. Doubling the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will not double the amount of heat being trapped. At this point, carbon dioxide has already done all that it can do to warm the planet. More CO2 in the air now is like adding the 5th and 6th layers of paint to the window. More just doesn't matter, especially since CO2 is only responsible for less than 2% of greenhouse gas heat-trapping.

Answer 4

The drawback with that is, worldwide warming is prompted via the solar heating up the surroundings. There has continually been "worldwide warming" and the now trendy, "local weather difference." The local weather continually alterations. And on the grounds that this was once the 3rd coldest wintry weather in a row, and the moment mildest June, worldwide warming is fake. The thought of greenhouse gasses is fake. Gas does not preserve warmth, and CO2 isn't an insulator. The warmth has to upward thrust FIRST earlier than the gasses can develop.

Answer 5

Go and rent Al Gore's "An inconvenient Truth". All the answers are in there.