The Domino effects of the greenhouse gases on global warming

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What is the greenhouse effect? What is the greenhouse effect

The greenhouse effect is a natural process To put it simply it is Natural process where gases
that warms the Earth's surface. When the
in the earth's atmosphere trap the sun's radiation
Sun's energy reaches the Earth's atmosphere,
some of it is reflected back to space and some to warm the planet. The greenhouse effect is
is absorbed and re-radiated by greenhouse actively trying to help the earth by preventing
gases. itself from being extremely cold by using
radiation from the sun to heat the earth.
However, we will see later on how this
phenomenon can become dangerous

Physics application: In order to understand the underlying mechanism

of the greenhouse effect, we first need to discuss
http://www.khadley.com/Courses/Astronomy/ph_205 the heat transferring process of radiation from
the sun towards the earth's surface and its
/topics/earth/greenhouse-effect.html correlation to the electromagnetic radiation
spectrum.

The sun as we know plays a big role in the

greenhouse effect, as its solar radiation contains
https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2007/07/25/ all kinds of wavelengths from the EM radiation
greenhouse_effect/ spectrum. And some of these EM radiations
have long enough wavelengths that can travel to
Visible light earth's atmosphere or surface.
https://gisgeography.com/atmospheric-windo
w/ For the EM radiation that can’t travel to the earth
is due to the
https://public.wmo.int/en/sun’s-impact-earth Shorter wavelengths of the suns solar radiation
such as x-rays and gamma rays can’t affect the
earth due to their very short wavelengths that
can’t travel the distance to earth's surface

Visible light. Infrared radiation, and UV radiation

are the notable of theseEM rays that pass
through the atmosphere and serve a great role in
the greenhouse effect and global warming. It
should be noted that infrared and UV radiation
have most of their long wavelength radiation
absorbed by the atmosphere and reaches little
towards the earth's surface. For visible light it
becomes an exception as its not significantly
 affected by the atmosphere.

Now that we know this information lets explain

How does the Greenhouse effect work? the greenhouse effect

● Near Infrared radiation gets In its simplest explanation

in through the atmosphere
The sun is continuously sending out solar
● Light is absorbed and
radiation in all directions towards the earth. After
re-emitted by Earth being partly absorbed or passing through the
○ Earth is warmed by earth's atmosphere, the Solar radiation that
visible light reaches Earth’s surface is either absorbed or
reflected.
○ Re-emitted light has
lost some energy To know what places are good reflectors or
absorbers of heat. Dark covered areas Like City
■ Re-emitted light streets are great absorbers of EM radiation. On
has longer the other hand, white covered places like snow
are good reflectors that don’t absorb as much
wavelength (far radiation.
IR)
For the earths Absorbed solar radiation energy, it
● Re-emitted far Infrared gets re-radiated back to space in the form of
radiation is absorbed by infrared, also known as longwave radiation.
greenhouse gases Infrared radiation is invisible to our eyes, but we
● Some of this light is emitted feel it as heat.
back toward Earth
Due to this change of visible light to infrared
● Net effect: greenhouse gases waves most of them gets trapped in the
trap heat atmosphere by the influence of greenhouse
gases.

Now that we have got a better understanding on

What are Greenhouse Gases? how the earth stays so warm we can now move
on to greenhouse gases.

Natural occurring greenhouse gases about 0.1% are left to natural greenhouse
Water vapor gases. Although a small amount, these
Carbon dioxide greenhouse gases make a big difference in
Methane trapping infrared heat.
Nitrous oxide
ozone The main gases responsible for the greenhouse
effect include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous
(how the gases store heat) oxide, water vapour and fluorinated gases
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2021/02/2
5/carbon-dioxide-cause-global-warming/ They are held together in the atmosphere by
gravity and the main culprit why infrared radiation
is absorbed to heat the earth, thus the
greenhouse effect.
 These gas molecules all are made of three or
more atoms. The atoms are held together loosely
enough that they vibrate when they absorb heat.
Eventually, the vibrating molecules release the
radiation, which will likely be absorbed by
another greenhouse gas molecule. This process
keeps heat near the Earth’s surface.

Physics of Greenhouse Gases (Philip)

-if you need help pm me To add on more

Knox, Robert S. (1999). Physical aspects The greenhouse effect properly follows the laws
of the greenhouse effect and global of thermodynamics.
The Earth absorbs energy in the form of heat and
warming. American Journal of Physics,
radiates energy back into space which follows
67(12), 1227–. doi:10.1119/1.19109 the first law. The second law states that heat
flows from a hot object to a cold object. The Sun
heats the Earth, because the sun is a hot object
I used this source a bit^^^ its heat flows to a colder object which is the
earth.
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When does the greenhouse effect As we established, the greenhouse effect is a

good phenomenon that gives heat to earth's
become bad? (Philip) surface. However, humans have increased the
amount of greenhouse gas within the
(put content for ppt here) atmosphere meaning much more heat is being
trapped and being redistributed to the Earth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IADrwC_B
cVA During the 1960s up until the current year in the
Hi can you add some points from this video at US, it was observed that the carbon dioxide
2:13 regarding carbon concentration concentration was starting to increase due to the
use of fossil fuels and other man-made carbon
emissions. The carbon dioxide concentration
went from 300 parts per million to 400 parts per
million, meaning much more heat is being
trapped.

With more heat being trapped, the hotter the

Earth gets which leads to global warming which
is when the greenhouse effect becomes a
problem.

And this problem is what you call global warming

What is global warming? (Bens)

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 So what are these human activities
Causes of global warming (Bens)

(put content for ppt here) Mainly greenhouse gas emissions, seasons,
human activity (which releases greenhouse gas
emissions)
Examples:
Animals
* Biological life releases Methane a form of GHG
* Raising animals for human consumption uses
different processes and large amounts of
materials. In the production of these materials
GHGs such as Carbon Dioxide is produced as
discussed in the production of energy
* More factors will be discussed in later slides

Electrical Production
* There are many ways to convert energy into
electrical energy
* One common way is using fossil fuels which
release large amounts of byproduct GHGs
* Using the electricity is used in different
manufacturing processes such as metal, cement,
glass, etc. leading to further gas emissions

Marine Life Dying Out

* This is one effect but at the same time cause
* Plant life in the oceans is an often underrated
GHG sink
* This plays into the domino effect

Deforestation and Wildfires

* This plays into being a GHG sink for the planet
* Increasing temperatures and lessening this
would lead to more wildfires as dry climate
becomes more common

Other Sources
Transportation
Air Conditioning
Factories

A domino effect affecting major natural sciences

Impact of Global Warming (Bens)
One is Biology, the next is Physics, and another
would be Meteorology (which could be counted
(put content for ppt here) in Physics)

Animal and plant life are sensitive to minute

temperature changes. Some plants are so
sensitive they only grow in certain areas of the
 world where it is incredibly cool. Animals are the
same in that they notice extremely small
changes. They die out. Global Warming isn’t
directly caused by the extinction of animals.

Human activity such as deforestation also

contributes to both biodiversity issues and global
warming. Cutting down trees releases stored
underground greenhouse gases. At the same
time this destroys habitats of animals. To be used
for farmland, which if breeding animals
contributes even more to greenhouse gas
emissions (CO2 and Methane)

What about marine life? If marine life dies out,

plants in the oceans would die, releasing a ton of
greenhouse gases while destroying an important
greenhouse gas sink. That would affect humans
too, less marine biodiversity, less food to eat,
less nature, less clean air, dead seas, etc.

It’s self-making. One impact of Global Warming

from high concentrations of greenhouse gas
emissions lead to more greenhouse gases being
released into the Earth.

Utilisation of more Renewable energy

What can we Do? (Philip) sources

Solar energy - solar photovoltaic cells can

(put content for ppt here) convert solar radiation directly into electricity that
can be used. Solar energy can also be
harnessed in a form of concentrated solar power
where sunlight is focused to heat a fluid which is
fed into a heat engine to convert up to 30% of the
heat to usable electricity.

Wind energy - kinetic energy from the wind is

converted to electricity using wind turbines. This
is possible with the use of windmills, the blades
capture kinetic energy from the wind to turn a
gearbox which eventually converts that
mechanical energy into electrical energy.

Geothermal energy - energy is extracted from

heated water below the Earth’s surface, aside
from being used as a heater, it can also be
converted to electrical energy using geothermal
power plants where steam rotates a turbine to
produce energy.

Renewable energy sources such as solar panels,

 windmills, and geothermal power plants emit
considerably less carbon compared to the use of
fossil fuels.

Reduction of carbon emissions from

transportation

The use of the alternatives such as active travel,

has shown to immensely reduce carbon
emissions. Lessening the use of motor vehicles
along with active travel gives the most health
benefits and mitigation of climate change effects.

Dietary Changes

Certain foods when consumed release greater

greenhouse gases during digestion. Changes in
an individual’s diet can play a huge role when
aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

More trees

Trees are natural carbon sinks as they absorb

carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas.
Meaning, the planting and protection of more
trees is beneficial when reducing greenhouse
emissions.

Overall, the massive increase in greenhouse

gases in the Earth’s atmosphere trapping more
heat is the main cause of global warming which
is why the solutions being proposed are all
focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Water vapor appears to cause the most important positive feedback. As the earth warms, the rate of
evaporation and the amount of water vapor in the air both increase. Because water vapor is a
greenhouse gas, this leads to further warming.

Water vapour is the most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, yet other greenhouse gases
(such as carbon dioxide and methane) are often portrayed as the main drivers of climate change.
Why is that?

- Water vapour is the most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, both by weight and by
volume (1), (2). Water vapour is also an effective greenhouse gas, as it does absorb longwave
radiation and radiates it back to the surface, thus contributing to warming
-When compared to other greenhouse gases, water vapour stays in the atmosphere for a much
shorter period of time. Water vapour will generally stay in the atmosphere for days (before
precipitating out) while other greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide or methane, will stay in the
atmosphere for a much longer period of time (ranging from years to centuries) thus contributing to
warming for an extended period of time.

-The addition of water vapour to the atmosphere, for the most part, cannot be directly attributed to
human generated activities. Increased water vapor content in the atmosphere is referred to as a
feedback process. Warmer air is able to hold more moisture. As the climate warms, air temperatures
rise, more evaporation from water sources and land occurs, thus increasing the atmospheric
moisture content. The increase in water vapour in the atmosphere, because water vapour is an
effective greenhouse gas, thus contributes to even more warming: it enhances the greenhouse
effect.