Greenhouse Effect – part 2

Why Greenhouse effect is named as such?

From the last part of discussion, you probably have got an idea what is greenhouse effect. Here I am going to discuss in detail why this atmospheric change is termed as greenhouse effect. It is easily understandable that this analogy have come from the real Greenhouses that are used to grow plants in cold countries. Many people get confused thinking that Greenhouses create these greenhouse gases which is a complete misunderstanding. If you want to understand what is the similarity between the greenhouse gases and the greenhouses, you need to understand how greenhouses work. What greenhouses usually do is that it prevents the heat transport and stops the convective cooling. And this is done by physically preventing the air convection through special type of grass or other heat protective material. But, in case of greenhouse effect, the physical movement of heat transportation is not prohibited. Rather the greenhouse gases work by warming the earth and also do some re-radiation of energy back to the surface. So you can see that the analogy is not because greenhouses produces greenhouse gases, rather the fact that greenhouse gases kind of work as a greenhouse work in terms of heat conduction.

Industrial revolution and its role in greenhouse effect.

There are many reasons that have been found out as the reasons for the current greenhouse effect and the global warming issues. Usually the carbon emitted by the natural processes in earth gets absorbed by the natural carbon sinks that are present in the nature. But the industrial revolution in the past few centuries have resulted in a sharp increase of carbon dioxide presence in the atmospheric air from 280 ppm to a high level of 390 ppm. Since the initial phase, industrial revolution has been creating a great disturbance in the overall balance of the greenhouse gases and making it impossible for the natural sinks to deal with the excess amount of greenhouse gases.
The recent situation of increased amount of atmospheric CO2 is mainly due to the human activities destroying the natural balances. This situation has been termed as enhanced or anthropogenic greenhouse effect. And the reason for this radiation emission to the atmosphere through the greenhouse gases have spurred from the high level of carbon dioxide emitted by the human beings and the most part of this increased level is because of the industrial revolution and the uncontrolled carbon dioxide emission by the industries.
The principal source of CO2 emission is the burning of fossil fuel. There are other major sources of CO2 such as producing cements,. Cutting down tropical trees leading towards deforestation. From the historical information found in the ice core data, it is now evident that the current level of CO2 is now the highest among the complete history of earth. This horrific effect is also known as calendar effect and has been referred as the main reason for variable weather and the prominent changes in the weather system.

End note and my 2 cents on Greenhouse Effect

If we cannot control this CO2 and other greenhouse gas emission to our atmosphere, we will see how the weather quality of our dear earth will diminish in the near future without giving us any time to repair it. The next part of the chapter will focus more on the human activities that are worsening the situation and transforming our planet to be an unlivable place for the next generations of humans and other species.