Air-Greenhouse Effect

Our blue planet is the third planet from the sun and receives 1367 watts per metre square of solar radiation per day. As we know, all light that falls on an object gets reflected. Similarly, when sunlight falls on the Earth, it gets reflected to space. But a slight difference is light has to go through an envelope of air that surrounds the Earth called the atmosphere.

The atmosphere is made up of multiple gases, and amongst these gases, a few trap sunlight. When sunlight gets trapped between the surface of Earth and its atmosphere, the temperature of the Earth rises. This phenomenon, in simple words, is known as the Air-Greenhouse Effect or simply the Greenhouse Effect.

What is the Greenhouse Effect?

The atmosphere of the Earth is the only protective layer that we humans have around our beloved planet. It is responsible for protecting us from harmful radiations of the sun and only letting the pleasant rays carrying warmth pass through to us. 

But all that travels must meet its destination. Similarly, when the rays enter the Earth’s atmosphere, they travel through the layers of the atmosphere and finally reach the surface of the earth. All waves reflect after hitting a surface, and sun rays are no different. The rays that arrive from the sun hit the Earth’s surface and begin travelling in the reverse direction towards space. 

But on their way out of the Earth’s atmosphere, these rays meet a set of certain gases in the atmosphere that trap the heat that is carried by the waves. These gases trap a certain amount of heat from the rays, which leads to an increase in the Earth’s overall temperature. This rise in temperature caused by the trapping of heat by gases is called the greenhouse effect.

Gases that are the greenhouse effect’s underlying cause are aptly called greenhouse gases. Such greenhouse gases include some commonly known gases like water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.

Importance of Greenhouse Effect

The Greenhouse effect is not a human-caused phenomenon. The greenhouse effect has been going on before humans started treading the Earth. If the greenhouse effect were not present, our Earth could not have become a habitable planet today. 

Greenhouse gases are naturally present in the atmosphere of the Earth. They occur naturally in different natural activities like volcanic eruptions, geysers, etc. These greenhouse gases that lead to the greenhouse effect are also why Earth is called the Goldilocks planet. It is not too cold or too hot but just the right temperature for life to sustain on it. Without the natural greenhouse effect that the Earth has, our blue planet would not be as amenable today.

But in recent years, human activities have disturbed the delicate balance of greenhouse gases that existed in the atmosphere of the Earth, leading to an increase in the existing greenhouse effect on Earth. The greenhouse effect ensures that Earth is warm enough for life, but with an increased greenhouse effect, the temperature of Earth keeps on increasing beyond the safe level.

Human activities like burning fossil fuels, large-scale industries, and deforestation are at the forefront of the wave, causing an aggravated greenhouse effect. This temperature rise has brought a new phenomenon called Global Warming to the centre stage.

Global Warming

The greenhouse effect is the reason for ensuring that the Earth is warm enough for life. But the same life-saving effect is also causing raised temperatures of the Earth’s surface that lead to endangering life on Earth.

Global warming is not just the rise in temperature of Earth, but also includes the effects of this temperature rise. One of the most obvious effects of global warming is rising sea levels and melting polar ice caps. The increase in water level can be directly attributed to endangering the lives of terrestrial animals, humans’ lives, and marine wildlife.

With polar ice caps melting, more freshwater is being released into oceans which disturbs the salinity of the oceans, thus causing irreversible changes to the habitat of marine wildlife.

Another effect that can be traced back to global warming and the greenhouse effect is weather changes. Huge storms, sudden volcanic eruptions, temperature changes during seasons are all effects of global warming and, ultimately, the greenhouse effect. The wind patterns change as the temperature of the surface changes, and this causes huge cyclones to develop seemingly out of nowhere.

A practical method to feel how the greenhouse effect has been causing global warming is sitting in a closed car without switching on the ignition. The windshield and the windows act like greenhouse gases and trap a certain amount of heat that enters the car. Inside the car, this leads the temperature to increase rapidly. The effect is very similar to how global warming works in real life.

Conclusion

The greenhouse effect refers to the warming of the Earth’s surface caused when heat is trapped by the greenhouse gases that form a part of the Earth’s atmosphere. The greenhouse effect ensures that the surface of the Earth remains warm enough for life.

Global warming is a phenomenon that is caused due to aggravation in the greenhouse effect that is caused by human activities. Due to this, hazardous phenomena like storms, cyclones, unpredictable volcanic eruptions, etc., are occurring, putting not just human life but both terrestrial and marine wildlife at risk.

The greenhouse effect is necessary to maintain life on this planet. Still, human activities aggravate the greenhouse effect that is causing the temperature of the Earth to increase and endangering human and animal life.