Does this Global Warming explanation make sense?

Question

When some of the suns rays are trapped within the Earth’s atmosphere, this heats up the air, causing the air to be much hotter and more polluted than usual.
The sun is constantly raising its temperature, so the air is getting more and more polluted as the greenhouse gases and Co2 are also trapped within the atmosphere.

Answers greatly appreciated and suggestions even more appreciated.

Answer 1

no not too much actually thats what i thought wen i first heard the explanation...earth is 5 billion years old we would've been dead by now if this stuff was true!

Answer 2

You're on the right track, but there are mistakes in your explanation (you got things a bit backwards). I'll try to clear it up a bit for you.

Different kinds of energy come from the Sun from radiowaves to gamma radiation. Some of that goes straight through the Earth and out the other side, some bounces off the atmosphere before it even hits the Earth and some makes it to the ground and then bounces back. Most of it we don't even see or feel.

The types of energy that hit the ground and bounce back range from the UltraViolet ("UV" why you wear sunscreen) through light (what we can see) to Infrared (heat).

CO2 allows UV and visible light through easier than it lets heat through. So when the heat bounces back toward space the CO2 traps it and bounces it back toward the Earth again. Some of it heats up the air but a lot of it is absorbed in the oceans, which makes more clouds and stormy weather.

SO:
- Global Warming doesn't cause the air to be more polluted, it is one form of pollution (greenhouse gasses) that causes the heat to be trapped causing Global Warming,
- the Sun is not constantly raising its temperature, but it does have cycles and solar flares that send more energy to us from time to time. If the amount of energy bouncing off the surface back into space was the same amount as the Sun is sending us then there wouldn't be a problem.

I like your question, most people think they know all the answers. It is nice to have someone ask a question because they really want to know the answer. Thank you.

Answer 3

It's interesting that global warming equates to pollution these days. Global warming is an earth cycle and yes the earth's surface is getting warmer. Is there a possibility that polutants produce too many particles that condensation doesn't occur in clouds for rain, yes. Is there a probability that the increased amount of CO2 in our atmosphere produced by fossil fuels is reflecting more than usual reflected heat from the earth back to the earth, yes. In both cases, these are proven but to what degree? The UN is now stating that it's significant and cause for our icecaps to melt and cause for the severe draughts (with resultant wildfires) that we've seen in California and across the western states. The same is noticed in the UK and France. Are the ocean currents changing the temperatures eratically along the equator, yes. The list goes on.

However, this may be just another earth cycle in climate. We're in a cusp towards a new ice age in 10,000 years so we may be at our height in warmth these years.

The science is there and so are all of the theories. I'd rather side on fixing the problem as it's been presented by the majority of scientists, than to be an armchair scheptic and do nothing.

Answer 4

Sunlight has many forms of radiation. Since the sun is so hot, a lot of the radiation comes in the form of UV rays. UV rays can pass through the atmosphere with very little being absobed. The rays hit the earth and warm it up. The earth radiates back to space. But since the earth is cooler than the sun the radiation is in the form of infrared radiation. The infrared radiation can be absorbed by many things including CO2 and methane (CH4). When it is absorbed it heats the gas molecule which in turn heats the air it is in contact with. The more infrared absorbers there are in the atmosphere the more infrared radiation is absorbed the more the air is heated.

Answer 5

The most acceptable Climate model for global warming assumes that greenhouse gas, such as CO2, water vapor and methane act as a one way blanket, where energy from the sun enters the atmosphere but not enough of it is radiated back to space, exactly as glass roofs do in green houses.
With substantial pollution of the atmosphere an opposite Model takes place, called global dimming, where too much pollution of the atmosphere causes a high blanket of white clouds that do not produce rain, but radiate much of the sun rays back to space.
at present, these 2 opposing models are in action, but if the atmosphere is cleaned up, only global warming will be in effect, which indicates that if global warming is more dangerous than global dimming, we should keep our skies polluted, to protect us from overheating.

Answer 6

this does not sound right.
You can't trap light really or we would always have light.
The heat rises not comes back down to us.
The center of the Earth is hotter than the atmosphere.
The sun & Earth rotate on cycles. We get closer for a few years, then we move outward for a few. I believe around 13.
The winds, clouds & rain are great factors in temperatures.
Greenhouse gases are bad is the general consensus & we should all do our part to eliminate them.
Nasa.com
kidsdiscover.com
nationalgeographic.com
nationalgoegraphickids.com
Hope this helped

Answer 7

You're on the right lines but there is some confusion...

<< When some of the suns rays are trapped within the Earth’s atmosphere, this heats up the air >>

The Sun provides the source of the heat which ultimately leads to global warming but there's a bit more to it than that...

The heat from the Sun is radiation (don't worry, it's not the same as from a nuclear power station or anything like that). We call this 'heat' solar radiation and it's what you feel as warmth from the Sun. When it strikes surfaces such as the ground or buildings some of this radiation is absorbed, the colder and darker the surface the more heat is absorbed. When the ambient (air) temperature subsequently drops this stored heat is re-radiated back into the atmopshere but as a different kind of radiation, in this case it's thermal radiation. This has a longer wavelength than solar radiation and it's because of this that it's absorbed and scattered by the molecules of greenhouse gas in the atmopshere.

It's quite similar to light itself. When you look at something it has colour to it (apart from black) and colour is nothing more than the reflection and absorption of different wavelengths of light. Similarly, atmospheric gases have the ability to reflect and absorb different wavelengths of heat.

<< causing the air to be much hotter and more polluted than usual.>>

As more thermal radiation is trapped within the atmopshere it does warm up but it doesn't directly affect levels of pollution. There is an indirect effect in that the heat from the sun can, in some circumstances, provide the energy that allows chemical reactions to take place in the atmosphere which can alter the components already there. This can turn one pollutant into a different pollutant(s) which can be more or less harmful than the original substance.


<< The sun is constantly raising its temperature >>

The Sun is constantly changing it's temperature and the temperature of the Sun is one factor that determines the amount of heat the Sun emits. It's not correct to say that the temperature is constantly going up, it goes both up and down.

Presently, and in recent decades, the amount of heat we've been receiving from the Sun has fallen vey slightly. This is very worrying, at the same time as the Sun has been declining the amount of warming on Earth has been faster than ever before known.

<< so the air is getting more and more polluted as the greenhouse gases and Co2 are also trapped within the atmosphere. >>

Yes, but not because of the Sun. The amount of 'pollution' we add to the atmopshere has been increasing year on year for a long time now. Currently each person on the planet is, on average, adding 7 tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere each year. It's for this reason that more heat is being trapped in the atmopshere and the planet is wrming at such a fast rate.

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Many people have made a lot of good points in answering your question but just to clarify some of the points made and avoid any confusion...

CANADADANCE says that the Earth's core temperature has been steadily increasing and decreasing. Imagine you put a rock in a fire until it was hot, when you remove the rock it starts cooling down as the heat it contains is radiated outwards. The surface is the first to cool and eventully the centre (core) will cool as well. This is what's happening to Earth, because of it's immense size and amount of heat within the planet the cooling process takes a very, very long time. Over the billions of years the planet has been around it's been cooling down, not warming up or doing both.

CANADADANCE also mentions that Earth is going through another of it's cycles. It's correct to say that there are many cycles which affect the temperature on Earth but becuase they're cycles they're both regular and predictable (just like the cycles that determines day and night, winter and summer etc). We can map where we are within the many, complex cycles and our immediate position is one of very slight cooling, longer term it's one of very slight warming. This underlying natural warming trend contributes just a small fraction of the overall warming.

UGH192 and SWEETBUZ both mention ozone. There is much confusion between ozone, the ozone layer, ozone depleting substances (ODS's) etc and global warming. Although there are some links between the two they're really quite separate and have thier own causes and effects.

SHANNON R Makes some good points but it's not light that is being trapped but heat. It's true to say that heat rises but due to the 'lapse rate' the atmosphere cools as you get higher - that's why there's snow on the tops of mountains for example. As you get higher up the air thins out, the amount of heat is therefore more widely dispersed. You only need to go a few kilometres up into the atmophere and the air is so thin that it's difficult, if not impossible, to breath (hence mountaineers breathe bottled oxygen).

Shannon also correctly notes that there are times when the planet is closer to the Sun. This happens on an annual basis because the orbit we take around the sun is elliptical (squashed circle) and the Sun isn't central to the path Earth takes around it (imagine the path Earth takes around the Sun is an oval, the Sun isn't in the centre but is slightly to one side of the centre as shown in this diagram http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/images/atmosphere/energy/elliptical_orbit.jpg ). The shape of the ellipse itself is also changing, sometimes we take a circular path around the sun, other times the circle is squashed more into an oval shape but this is a very slow and complex cycle that takes 413,000 years to complete.

AMIRAM A mentions global dimming. This is something different to global warming and is caused by a different set of circumstances. It does have a role to play in determining our climate but the role of warming is currently much greater than the role of cooling. A good example of global dimming occurs following major volcanic eruptions - they put so much sulphur dioxide into the atmopshere that the planet cools down a bit, it last happened following the eruption in 1991 of Mount Pinatubo. Sulphur dioixide (along with some other gases) has a reflective property that reflects the incoming solar radiation back into space before it reaches us.

Answer 8

1) Warmer air does not automatically equal more polluted air.

2) The sun is NOT constantly raising its temperature. The sun's temperature moves in cycles, sometimes warmer, sometimes cooler.

3) Next time do a little research before you create a theory...that's called the scientific method.

Answer 9

Yes it makes sense.But the pollution related information is wrong
You can also mention that green house gases and others causes ozone depletion which increases the chances of harmful sun radiations to enter earth enviroment.They then get trapped.The rest is like the same as u have written.
Hope his helps.

Answer 10

There are greater scientists who agree that the earth, that's constantly evolving, is concern to climate tendencies, without or with human effect. The "international Warming" crowd has taken elect records from melting glaciers to further their schedule, yet they overlook to checklist on different areas that are freezing over. To flatly end that guy's burning of fossil fuels has triggered too lots CO2 into the air is previous ridiculous. Their theories would have some benefit if the wind in no way blew or it in no way rained. temporarily, they're attempting to teach a organic incidence right into a frenzy to further an schedule. The info of this schedule incorporate mining the money you have on your pocket.

Answer 11

I've just learned some about this. Yes, there are greenhouse effects, like the temperature in a car. But the ozone fixes itself. But, like in very populated areas, it's super hot in summer because of all the energy being used and carbon monoxide and all that. The sun does not actually give us it's heat...just it's light, which heats us. Our atmosphere deals with it.