Earth, a fragile planet which is the perfect distance from the sun and capable of supporting life. The main reasons for this is the atmosphere, climate, water, light, and the sun. Together these five components provide the perfect living conditions for living creatures. As of the mid 20th century one of these essential components has been altered due to human activities on the planet’s surface. This process is known as global warming, and or climate change. Global warming is a combination of greenhouse gases known as water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and chlorofluorocarbons. These greenhouse gases create the “greenhouse effect”. The “greenhouse effect” is when the solar radiation enters through the Earth’s atmosphere. A quarter of this radiation is reflected off the Earth’s atmosphere before it even enters, and the other quarter is reflected off the Earth’s surface. Only about half of the solar radiation is absorbed by the Earth’s surface. The radiation is converted into heat energy and then pushed up into the atmosphere. Normally, this would then filter through the planet’s atmosphere, but because of the invisible force field created by the greenhouse gases the solar radiation becomes trapped on Earth. Therefore, causing the planet’s land and water temperature to rise. Over time the fluctuation in temperature has caused the melting of the Northern Polar Ice Caps, which has increased the sea levels. As time goes on this can lead to flooding of major cities along the coastlines. Global warming has also had an impact on the seasons that we experience. For instance, the spring months now come earlier in the year then before. The fall and winter months are shorter, and also come later then they once did. As for the summer months they are longer and often much hotter then before. The major contributor to global warming is co2 emissions. 8 billion tons went in to the air last year.
Global warming and the greenhouse effect are issues...