Greenhouse Effect Greenhouse Effects

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Carbon Dioxide is one of the primary gases involved in the greenhouse effect and one of the most common also. Carbon dioxide is emitted through the burning of fossil fuels, solid waste, trees and wood products. Deforestation and soil degradation add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, while forest regrowth takes it out of the atmosphere. It has 1 year of global warming potential. Methane is another one of the primary gases that affect the greenhouse effect and it is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane has a 12-year average lifetime in the atmosphere and 28 years of global warming potential. Another primary gas is Nitrous oxide, which is emitted during agricultural and industrial activities,…show more content…
No one realizes that without the greenhouse effect, earth would be a frigid planet. It would have an average temperature of around zero degrees Fahrenheit. The greenhouse effect that keeps our planet warm is really the "natural greenhouse effect". As the sun's energy reaches Earth's surface, some of it is reflected back into space and some of it is absorbed by the earth and its atmosphere. The absorbed energy warms the earth, which in turn radiates heat back towards space as infrared energy. Water vapor, carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere absorb some of the outgoing infrared energy, which heats them. These molecules then radiate the energy in all directions, including back to Earth. The greenhouse effect has some benefits towards our world and to our society today, because greenhouse effect is essential to life on earth, otherwise the radiation from the sun would simply be-radiated back out into space; and the earth would be a frozen…show more content…
They are also worried about a global warming vicious cycle that had not been part of their already gloomy climate forecasts: Warming already underway thaws permafrost, soil that had been continuously frozen for thousands of years. Thawed permafrost releases methane and carbon dioxide. Those gases reach the atmosphere and help trap heat on Earth in the greenhouse effect. The trapped heat thaws more permafrost, and so on. "The higher the temperature gets, the more permafrost we melt, the more tendency it is to become a more vicious cycle," said Chris Field, director of global ecology at the Carnegie Institution of
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