What is the Greenhouse Effect?

      In my opinion, greenhouse gases are crucial to earth's survival.  However, at the same time, "there really can be too much of a good thing."  According to the article I read, approximately thirty percent of sunlight is deflected by the outer atmosphere and refracted back out to space.  The remainder of this sunlight reaches the earth's surface and is reflected back up as infrared radiation, or slow-moving energy.  The heat caused by infrared radiation is absorbed by greenhouse gases such as water vapor and carbon dioxide, which slows its escape from our atmosphere.  Even though greenhouse gases make up about one percent of the atmosphere, they make a ginormous difference on our planet.  They regulate our climate by trapping heat in our atmosphere so that it is warm enough for us to live here.  Without the greenhouse effect, the average temperature of Earth would be about 30 degrees Celsius colder than what it is now.  Obviously, this is far too cold to sustain the ecosystem and our lives.  So, as you can see, greenhouse gases are extremely beneficial to Earth.  However, on the downside, humans have been releasing too much of these gases.  This has and will cause drastic changes to the planet.  With more greenhouse gases come an increased temperature, which in turn leads to different climates that might not necessarily be what we need at all.  All in all, although greenhouse gases can be trouble, they make it possible for life on Earth.


My article was from here.  The picture I used can be found here.


~Starflower794!