The Greenhoues Effect
What is the process?
Step 1. Solar radiation leaves the sun headed towards earth.
Step 2. Solar radiation passes through earth's atmosphere.
Step 3. Earth's surface absorbs around half of the solar radiation
Step 4. Some of the solar radiation is reflected by earth's atmosphere back into space
Step 5. Solar radiation that makes it through the atmosphere is then converted into heart energy.
Step 6. Some of the infrared radiation passes through the atmosphere and out into space.
Step 7. The greenhouse molecules cause some of the radiation to be re-emitted back into the atmosphere.
This is called the green-house effect, the main cause of global warming.
The Human Effects
What does it do?
Green house gasses like carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and nitrous oxide trap solar radiation in the atmosphere which causes warmer temperatures on earth. While the effect is mostly viewed as negative life on earth would not be able to exist without the effect.
As earth gets warmer this causes climate change: rising temperatures, rising sea levels and changing weather patterns.
Rising temperatures have a direct negative impact on human health because we are exposed to high levels of heat that can cause heat exhaustion, heat stroke, heat cramps.
Rising sea levels cause a loss of land and can dramatically change the temperatures in marine habitats.
Changes in water patterns can damage water reasources and cause droughts and losses of stable irrigation for farming.
These rising temperatures are also causing ice caps to melt which is also causing sea levels to rise.
By Ben Smith and David White