Why greenhouse effect occurs

During the day, the Sun shines through the atmosphere. Earth's surface warms up in the sunlight. At night, Earth's surface cools, releasing heat back into the air. But some of the heat is trapped by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. That's what keeps our Earth a warm and cozy 58 degrees Fahrenheit 14 degrees Celsius , on average.

Earth's atmosphere traps some of the Sun's heat, preventing it from escaping back into space at night. Human activities are changing Earth's natural greenhouse effect. Burning fossil fuels like coal and oil puts more carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. NASA has observed increases in the amount of carbon dioxide and some other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.

Too much of these greenhouse gases can cause Earth's atmosphere to trap more and more heat. This causes Earth to warm up. Just like a glass greenhouse, Earth's greenhouse is also full of plants! Plants can help to balance the greenhouse effect on Earth. These type of gas molecules are called greenhouse gases," Michael Daley, an associate professor of Environmental Science at Lasell College told Live Science. Carbon dioxide CO 2 and other greenhouse gases act like a blanket, absorbing IR radiation and preventing it from escaping into outer space.

The net effect is the gradual heating of Earth's atmosphere and surface, a process known as global warming. Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the early s, the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gasoline have greatly increased the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, especially CO 2 , National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA. Atmospheric CO 2 levels have increased by more than 40 percent since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, from about parts per million ppm in the s to ppm today.

The last time Earth's atmospheric levels of CO 2 reached ppm was during the Pliocene Epoch, between 5 million and 3 million years ago, according to the University of California, San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The greenhouse effect, combined with increasing levels of greenhouse gases and the resulting global warming, is expected to have profound implications, according to the near-universal consensus of scientists.

If global warming continues unchecked, it will cause significant climate change, a rise in sea levels, increasing ocean acidification, extreme weather events and other severe natural and societal impacts, according to NASA, the EPA and other scientific and governmental bodies. There are those that say that gases are not the cause of global warming, though that goes against the opinion of the global scientific community.

Many scientists agree that the damage to the Earth's atmosphere and climate is past the point of no return or that the damage is near the point of no return. In Werne's opinion, there are three options from this point forward:. Keith Peterman, a professor of chemistry at York College of Pennsylvania, and Gregory Foy, an associate professor of chemistry at York College of Pennsylvania, think that the damage isn't to that point yet, and that international agreements and action can save the planet's atmosphere.

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You know that when you stand in sunlight, you feel warmer than when you are in shadow, so you can feel that the light radiant energy the sun gives off carries energy that can warm an object—you. Although you usually cannot see it, all objects give off radiant energy and you can sometimes feel this energy.

For example, if there is a pot of hot water on your stove, you can feel the radiant energy it gives off without touching it. The amount of infrared radiation energy a warmed object gives off depends on its temperature—the higher the temperature, the more energy is given off.