Have you ever been inside a greenhouse on a cold winter day? It may be cold outside, but inside beautiful green plants are growing in the warmth and sunshine. Greenhouses are made of glass and are designed to hold heat inside. Our planet's atmosphere captures energy just like a greenhouse. Energy from the Sun can enter the Earth’s atmosphere, but not all of it can easily find its way out again. What blocks the Sun’s energy from escaping from the Earth? Unlike a greenhouse, the Earth does not have a layer of glass over it! Instead, molecules in our atmosphere called greenhouse gases absorb the heat. Greenhouse gases include water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and chlorofluorocarbons (CFS).
We all know what water vapor is but what does it do? It acts as a feedback to the climate. Water vapor increases as the Earth's atmosphere warms, but so does the possibility of clouds and precipitation, making these some of the most important feedback mechanisms to the greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide -or CO2- is a minor but very important component of the atmosphere, CO2 is released through natural processes such as respiration, volcano eruptions and through human activities such as deforestation, land use changes, and burning fossil fuels. Methane is a hydrocarbon gas produced both through natural sources and human activities, including the decomposition of wastes in landfills, agriculture, and especially rice cultivation, as well as ruminant digestion and manure management associated with domestic livestock. On a molecule-for-molecule basis, methane is a far more active greenhouse gas than CO2, but also one which is much less liberal in the atmosphere. Nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas produced by soil cultivation practices, especially the use of commercial and organic fertilizers, fossil fuel combustion, nitric acid production, and biomass burning. Chlorofluorocarbons are synthetic compounds entirely of industrial origin used in a number of applications, but now largely regulated in production and release to the atmosphere by international agreement for their ability to contribute to destruction of the ozone layer. There may not be much of some of these gases in our atmosphere, but they can have a big impact. Each greenhouse gas molecule is made of three or more atoms that are bonded loosely together. These molecules are able to absorb heat, which makes them vibrate. They eventually release the heat energy and it is often absorbed by another greenhouse gas molecule.
I always thought greenhouse gases were bad for the Earth and everything on it but it turns out that without them the Earth would be completely frozen! We would be human icicles! But that doesn't mean they aren't harmful. Too much greenhouse gases are bad, because they create global warming. If there are too much greenhouse gases in the air then too much heat will be trapped on earth and can't escape to space causing melting ice caps and glaciers and floods. If that happened then in a few years islands would be completely underwater, and a lot of cities would be flooded. This might happen if we don't stop adding more greenhouse gases to our atmosphere, and causing a repidly inceasing greenhouse effect. The increased greenhouse effect is causing changes in our planet that can affect our lives.
What can we do to stop this? I think there are tons of thing we can do to stop or at least decrease greenhouse gases but we aren't trying to. Tuning off unnecessary light can have a big effect to the environment. Half the time people aren't even using the lights. Use less electricity. On a winter day, turn off your fridge and put all of your food outside (just kidding...maybe). Save energy. Don't drive your car or use transit to go places where you can walk or bike to. Don't litter. It only takes about a minuet for you to walk over to the trash can, open it and throws something away. Recycle! Did you know that most of what you recycle is remade into paper or pop cans with twice as less energy and electricity as it did to make a brand new pop can or paper. People who smoke are also a big part of increasing greenhouse gases. They don't know that cigarettes contain over 4000 chemicals that are released into the air and cigarette butts that are tossed end up in lakes and oceans, most of the time, and are later turned into the water we drink. One thing that would really help earth is if we destroy all humans except for the nature loving ones. But then there wouldn't be many humans on Earth, would there?
My point for this post before I started writing it was that greenhouse gases are bad but after doing a lot of research I don't think that anymore. Sure, they can be bad but only when there is a lot of it. Greenhouse gases can sometimes be bad and sometimes be good. There are some things we need from it and some things we don’t. All we have to do is find a way to block out the bad part. Until that happens, I hope we continue to help not pollute and ruin the atmosphere.
We all know what water vapor is but what does it do? It acts as a feedback to the climate. Water vapor increases as the Earth's atmosphere warms, but so does the possibility of clouds and precipitation, making these some of the most important feedback mechanisms to the greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide -or CO2- is a minor but very important component of the atmosphere, CO2 is released through natural processes such as respiration, volcano eruptions and through human activities such as deforestation, land use changes, and burning fossil fuels. Methane is a hydrocarbon gas produced both through natural sources and human activities, including the decomposition of wastes in landfills, agriculture, and especially rice cultivation, as well as ruminant digestion and manure management associated with domestic livestock. On a molecule-for-molecule basis, methane is a far more active greenhouse gas than CO2, but also one which is much less liberal in the atmosphere. Nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas produced by soil cultivation practices, especially the use of commercial and organic fertilizers, fossil fuel combustion, nitric acid production, and biomass burning. Chlorofluorocarbons are synthetic compounds entirely of industrial origin used in a number of applications, but now largely regulated in production and release to the atmosphere by international agreement for their ability to contribute to destruction of the ozone layer. There may not be much of some of these gases in our atmosphere, but they can have a big impact. Each greenhouse gas molecule is made of three or more atoms that are bonded loosely together. These molecules are able to absorb heat, which makes them vibrate. They eventually release the heat energy and it is often absorbed by another greenhouse gas molecule.
I always thought greenhouse gases were bad for the Earth and everything on it but it turns out that without them the Earth would be completely frozen! We would be human icicles! But that doesn't mean they aren't harmful. Too much greenhouse gases are bad, because they create global warming. If there are too much greenhouse gases in the air then too much heat will be trapped on earth and can't escape to space causing melting ice caps and glaciers and floods. If that happened then in a few years islands would be completely underwater, and a lot of cities would be flooded. This might happen if we don't stop adding more greenhouse gases to our atmosphere, and causing a repidly inceasing greenhouse effect. The increased greenhouse effect is causing changes in our planet that can affect our lives.
What can we do to stop this? I think there are tons of thing we can do to stop or at least decrease greenhouse gases but we aren't trying to. Tuning off unnecessary light can have a big effect to the environment. Half the time people aren't even using the lights. Use less electricity. On a winter day, turn off your fridge and put all of your food outside (just kidding...maybe). Save energy. Don't drive your car or use transit to go places where you can walk or bike to. Don't litter. It only takes about a minuet for you to walk over to the trash can, open it and throws something away. Recycle! Did you know that most of what you recycle is remade into paper or pop cans with twice as less energy and electricity as it did to make a brand new pop can or paper. People who smoke are also a big part of increasing greenhouse gases. They don't know that cigarettes contain over 4000 chemicals that are released into the air and cigarette butts that are tossed end up in lakes and oceans, most of the time, and are later turned into the water we drink. One thing that would really help earth is if we destroy all humans except for the nature loving ones. But then there wouldn't be many humans on Earth, would there?
My point for this post before I started writing it was that greenhouse gases are bad but after doing a lot of research I don't think that anymore. Sure, they can be bad but only when there is a lot of it. Greenhouse gases can sometimes be bad and sometimes be good. There are some things we need from it and some things we don’t. All we have to do is find a way to block out the bad part. Until that happens, I hope we continue to help not pollute and ruin the atmosphere.
References: http://www.nasa.com/, http://www.wikiawnsers.com/, http://www.yahoo.com/, http://www.google.com/, Mr.C.
Maha, your blog post is really wonderful.I really learned lots of things about green house gasess
ReplyDeletethanx maha and i really like your background it matches your blog topic !!!!
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