What is one cause of the greenhouse effect?

Answer 1

The earth's atmosphere maintains a relatively stable temperature because the heat that is absorbed by the atmosphere from the sun is balanced by the amount of heat that the atmosphere loses into space. However, some gases in the atmosphere hold on to heat better than others. If the amounts of these gases in the atmosphere increase, then more heat is retained in the air than is lost to space and so the atmosphere heats up resulting in global warming. The greenhouse effect is so called because the glass of a greenhouse has the same effect - allowing heat into a greenhouse from the sun, but not allowing it to escape back out very well. The main culprits are Carbon Dioxide, methane and nitrogen oxides. The amount of carbon dioxide in the air has been very constant for a long time as it is released by burned fuels and respiration and removed by plants photosynthesing. However, with the increase in burning fossil fuels the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the air has increased adding to the greenhouse effect. We must not forget, however that methane (given off a great deal when cows and other ruminants break wind) and nitrogen oxide are both far more able to contribute to the greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide, having the ability to retain much more heat. There are issues however. The developed world has had the blame for causing global warming because of their many cars and aircraft, burning lots of fuel. This is true, but the vast bulk of carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere is not obtained from transport but from electrical power stations burning coal, oil and gas. To use electric cars is just as polluting as using petrol cars because the electricity that you use in the car originally comes from polluting power stations producing the electricity when you charge up the car. Despite the blame for global warming being placed firmly on the developed industrial countries (USA in particular, along with China and Europe) there are reliable studies that divorce the greenhouse effect from the amount of greenhouse gases in the air - and they suggest that global warming is inevitable and a result of changes in the sun's activity and not on the fuel we use. So the blame for the greenhouse effect placed at the door of the industrialised countries, the motorist and the air travelling tourist could be thought of as rather unfair if this research is correct. The real crime is that we are continuing to burn fossil fuels unnecessarily - fuels that will one day run out and that are a rich source of other materials and do not, as a result, deserve to be buurned. It is much better to recycle (providing the recycling process does not use even more energy to produce new stuff) and to research alternatives. Wind power is a non-starter as the production of turbines uses more energy than they produce in their lifetime - AND they only work when it's windy and have to be backed up with other methods. Hydroelectric, solar, geothermal, wave and tital power all need to be harnessed far more, Nuclear power is now very very safe, with very little waste; new methods of waste disposal are now being researched to make this even safer. And lets not forget that nuclear power produces no greenhouse gases. Also, more research should be done in nuclear fusion - using water as the fuel - where there is no radioactive waste. So, as to who actually causes the greenhouse effect, although the blame has been put at the door of the developed industrial countries, the jury is still out as to the most fundamental cause. If it is indeed the changes in solar activity, all we can do is to try to reduce the impact by reducing carbon emissions and sit back to wait for the inevitable.

Answer 2

1. Burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) in industry, transport and the generation of electricity, releases extra carbon dioxide (CO2) that has been hidden away for millions of years under the earth.

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas.