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The greenhouse effect is the mechanism that keeps our planet’s temperature stable. The Earth’s atmosphere functions like the glass panes of a greenhouse, trapping part of the sun’s radiation. Incident radiation energy penetrates the atmosphere, and some is reflected back to the atmosphere from the Earth’s surface as infrared (IR) radiation.
The Earth receives a significant quantity of radiant energy from the sun, with approximately 30% of this energy being reflected. Longer wavelength infrared radiation does not permeate the atmosphere as well as incoming radiation. Water vapor and carbon dioxide absorb the reflected heat, warming the Earth. This is known as the greenhouse effect.
The greenhouse effect on climate change
The natural greenhouse effect is caused by trace gasses known as Greenhouse gasses that are largely transparent to sunlight light but absorb a significant amount of infrared heat emitted by the Earth. This causes the Earth to warm by around 30°C, making it habitable.
The greenhouse effect is the primary cause of climate change. Some gasses in the Earth’s atmosphere act like greenhouse glass, trapping heat from the sun and preventing it from escaping into space, causing global warming. Although many of these greenhouse gasses exist naturally, particularly:
Human activity emits lower amounts of greenhouse gasses. Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2, but it has a shorter lifespan in the atmosphere. Like CO2, nitrous oxide is a long-lived greenhouse gas that accumulates in the atmosphere over decades to centuries.
Function of greenhouse gasses
Greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and certain synthetic chemicals absorb some of the energy emitted by the Earth, causing heat to be trapped in the atmosphere. This heat trapping alters the Earth’s radiative balance—the balance of energy absorbed from the sun and radiated by the Earth altering climate and weather patterns on a global and regional scale.
Many greenhouse gasses have extraordinarily long atmospheric lifetimes, with some remaining airborne for tens to hundreds of years after being released. These long-lived greenhouse gasses are widely mixed in the atmosphere, and their concentrations reflect previous and recent contributions from global emission sources. Others, such as tropospheric ozone, have a brief lifetime in the atmosphere.
How to Reduce Our Greenhouse Gas Emissions
There are numerous strategies to lessen our own contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. Check out our tips on lowering your carbon footprint and energy use at home; lowering your single-use plastic use and going zero waste; and moving to a plant-based diet, as animal agriculture accounts for 14.5 percent of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions
Greenhouses require a warm temperature to grow.
Temperature is a crucial environmental component that influences greenhouse crop growth. In plant growth, there are three critical temperature points: minimum temperature, optimal temperature, and maximum temperature. They are referred to as cardinal temperatures. Using the minimum temperature, we can subjectively classify crops as cold-tolerant, cold-temperate, or cold-sensitive. Crops do not respond to temperature in the same way at all stages of development. The optimal temperature for vegetative growth, for example, may not be good for floral development.
A greenhouse should be kept at a temperature between 80 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s a simple response, however the ideal temperature is determined by the plants you’re cultivating in your greenhouse. Temperatures are preferred by different plants.
Conclusion
A greenhouse gas is a gas that absorbs and emits radiant energy in the thermal infrared spectrum, resulting in the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gasses in the Earth’s atmosphere include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.
The greenhouse effect is the cause of rising global temperatures, and global warming is a major contributor to the climate problem. The more greenhouse gasses we emit, the more heat we trap in the atmosphere, and the faster the world warms. For example, ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising, and oceans are warming, all of which have an influence on animal habitats and put many species at risk of extinction.
