The greenhouse effect is the name given to the system that provides us with a relatively mild climate. Without the greenhouse effect, the changes in temperature between day and night would make the planet uninhabitable. The greenhouse effect works by retaining and dissipating energy from the sun, originally reflected from the Earth’s surface, back into the atmosphere.
The greenhouse effect is only a matter for concern when it is exaggerated by human activities. By adding greenhouse gases to the system, such as carbon dioxide and methane we are increasing the strength of the greenhouse effect. This ‘enhanced’ greenhouse effect is what causes the increases of temperature known as global warming and the resulting climate change.
Greenhouse gases
The term ‘greenhouse gases’ covers the trace gases in the atmosphere, which despite only accounting for 1% have a huge effect on the climate.
Carbon dioxide
Methane
Nitrous oxide
Ozone
Water vapour
Industrial Gases
The levels of these gases in the atmosphere stay reasonably constant due to the various cycles occurring all around us all the time.
By burning fossil fuels we are adding extra carbon to the system, carbon that has been locked up for tens of thousands of years. This is more than the system can absorb and produces the increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide. This causes the enhancement for the greenhouse effect.
Additional to this, we are increasing the levels of methane and nitrous oxide through agriculture and changes in land use and ozone from sources such as vehicle exhaust.
