What are the causes and effects of the greenhouse effect on earth?

Answer 1

There are two greenhouse effects. There is the long-term natural greenhouse effect that has kept the earth warm for millions of years.

Causes of this natural greenhouse effect:

The way the planet Earth is heated and cooled is, the Earth is heated by visible light from the sun during the day, and it cools off at night by radiating infra-red radiation to space. The earth's water and carbon cycles move water vapor and carbon dioxide in and out of the atmosphere constantly. These gases are known as greenhouse gases, and have the property of being transparent to visible light but opaque to infra-red light. They absorb the infra-red radiation coming up from the warm earth and prevent some of it escaping to space. The warmed greenhouse gases then re-radiate heat, some of which goes back to earth. So they allow heat in during the day but prevent it from escaping at night.

Effects of this natural greenhouse effect:

The earth is comfortably warm enough for life. Without this greenhouse effect human life on earth would be impossible as the earth would be in a permanent Ice Age.

The second greenhouse effect is known as the enhanced, or accelerated greenhouse effect.

Causes of the enhanced greenhouse effect:

Extra carbon dioxide (CO2) has been added to the atmosphere by human activity, largely since the beginning of the Industrial Age, when we began burning fossil fuel (coal, oil and natural gas) to drive industry, transport and to generate electricity. This CO2 had been underground for 300 million years, so releasing it into the atmosphere is proving too much for the carbon cycle to manage. So more and more CO2 is remaining in the atmosphere and is causing global warming. The other human activity that adds to this is deforestation. In the past 250 years we have cut down many of the great forests of the world that used to adsorb and store carbon.

Effects of the enhanced greenhouse effect:

Global warming is causing climate change. This increase in the temperature of the Earth has many effects. We are presently seeing the melting of a lot of glaciers, increased amounts of flooding in many areas, and increasingly violent weather, with more powerful hurricanes on average than we used to have. Winters may become shorter, but harsher. Summers may become increasingly hotter. Hurricanes and tornadoes may become gradually stronger and more common, and their range may become larger.

This may have a dramatic affect on many different animals, especially those that thrive and require very cold, or very hot climates.

So far the effects are minor. Much more serious effects will result if this trend continues. If too much of the Antarctic glaciers melt, sea levels will rise and coastal areas will flood. Agriculture will be disrupted. All weather patterns will change, with increased floods and increased droughts in various locations. There will be very big problems.