What is the reason of greenhouse effect

Greenhouse Effect: Advantages and Disadvantages

With the increasing buzz around climate change and global warming, the whole idea of the greenhouse effect is being increasingly discussed. While some experts illustrate how greenhouse gases are important for sustainable growth, others highlight the detrimental effect it has on the human existence. Invariably, there are both negative and positive effects of greenhouse effect. Before we jump to say if the greenhouse effect is good or bad, it will be a good idea to understand what is the greenhouse effect and what are the advantages and disadvantages of the greenhouse effect. This article will draw a comparison between the pros and cons of the greenhouse effect by delving deep into the whole phenomenon-

What is the Greenhouse Effect?

Greenhouse effect refers to a process where thermal radiation from the earth’s surface is reabsorbed by greenhouse gases and then radiated in all directions. The main greenhouse gases include Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide and Ozone. However, the first three are more worrying when it comes to the greenhouse effect as Ozone’s detrimental role kicks in more with respect to global warming. How the greenhouse effect functions is a two way process. Firstly, being poor absorbers, these gases are unable to prevent the solar radiation that enter the earth’s surface. This in turn raises the earth’s temperature. However, these gases effectively absorb outgoing radiation and redirect it to the earth’s surface. This further adds to the earth’s temperature. This in a nutshell is the greenhouse effect. For centuries, this process has been in play to maintain the earth’s temperature. In fact, some countries which have lower temperatures artificially replicate this mechanism to construct greenhouse buildings to create pleasant temperate conditions.

So what’s the Problem?

If we say that the greenhouse effect has been in play for centuries and is in fact a necessity for human existence, then the question remains, why is it a cause for concern over the past few years. Well, the answer is not too difficult to guess. The rise in the burning of fossil fuels and an increase in the carbon footprint across the globe is leading to an excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This exponential increase in atmospheric CO2 is creating a temperature imbalance. The logic is simple. As the amount of CO2 is increasing so is its power to entrap solar radiation and direct it to the earth’s surface. This is contributing to an incremental rise in the earth’s temperature, which is now touching dangerous levels. Additionally, the greenhouse effect is causing rapid climate change with global warming, melting glaciers, erratic temperate conditions, etc. Thus, it is not the greenhouse effect essentially which is the cause of the problem. In fact, it is the human interference that has ruined the balance between the incoming and outgoing radiation, due to increased CO2 which is problematic.

Greenhouse Effect Advantages

To discount the contribution of the greenhouse effect by labelling it as an evil is an overstatement. As mentioned above, the greenhouse effect is an important element for sustainable living. There are several greenhouse effect benefits. Some of the top benefits of greenhouse gases are as follows-

Greenhouse effect supports and promotes life

It is no surprise that human existence and life is only possible at a certain temperature. While the earth’s atmosphere also faces variations, they are within a set limit and not too erratic. The greenhouse effect helps earth maintain a decent temperature that makes this planet habitable. The entire credit for this inhabiting temperature goes to the greenhouse gases. Owing to the presence of these greenhouse gases, the earth is warm enough. Simply because the greenhouse gases are able to entrap the solar radiation and bounce it back to the earth’s surface, is the reason the earth hasn’t frozen yet. Additionally, the greenhouse gases also ensure that we are not fried by the sun’s heat by absorbing some percentage of the radiation. Therefore, on the one hand, benefits of greenhouse gases turn to their ability to prevent the heat from escaping the earth’s surface help human life have a warm enough climate. On the other hand, their ability to bounce of a fair share of the radiation, help the human life avoid an unpleasantly hot and unbearable atmosphere. Additionally, they have been of vital importance in maintaining our planet’s water level. In the absence of greenhouse gases, the polar caps would rapidly melt, raising water levels beyond alarming marks.

Protection from Danger

Imagine a sieve that you use at home to filter milk and dispose off the impurities. Well, the greenhouse gases play the exact same role in protecting earthlings from dangerous solar radiation. They block those parts of the solar radiation which are harmful to our existence and bounce them back into the atmosphere. The greatest example is that of the UV or Ultra- Violet radiation. Ozone, which is one of the main greenhouse gases, acts as a shield against the UV rays entering the earth. In the absence of the ozone layer, there will be no resistance to the UV rays and they would reach us directly. They carry immense potential to harm the earth’s surface and its inhabitants.

Benefits of Greenhouse Gases for Photosynthesis

Greenhouse Effect Disadvantages

It is true that the greenhouse effect is a boon to maintaining the earth’s habitable temperature and has multiple other benefits. However, it comes with a few disadvantages as well-

Global Warming

While the greenhouse effect maintain the temperature, its increase directly translates to rising temperatures. As the volume of greenhouse gases is increasing with more burning of fossil fuels, etc, its is contributing to an increase in the planet’s average temperature and climate. In fact, the past few years have seen much warmer summers in comparison to the decadal average trend. As the gases increase, their ability and power to trap the heat and radiate it back to the earth also increases. This invariably increases the earth’s temperature.

Increasing Water Levels

Next in line comes the increase in water levels above the safe marks. The logic is quite simple. As the average temperature of the earth is steadily increasing, the polar ice caps are rapidly undergoing a melt down. This is resulting in massive rise in water levels, well beyond the safe levels. This rapid increase in the ocean water levels can invariably lead to flooding of low lying areas and demand evacuation. The increase in water levels will accentuate displacement and cost human lives along with destruction of flora and fauna. Additionally, the existence on the polar caps of penguins and polar bears is under deep threat,

Destruction of Marine Life

It is a well known fact that oceans absorb CO2 and maintain the alkalinity. However, the rate at which carbon dioxide is increasing is bad for marine life. As more and more carbon dioxide gets absorbed by the oceans, their alkalinity levels will touch dangerous marks. This is increasingly posing a serious threat to the marine life that stands at a danger of extinction if the rise in alkalinity continues.

Why is Greenhouse Effect a Concern for Students

The pros and cons of greenhouse effect is one of the most popular topics given to students for assignment and essay writing. Most students wonder the reason behind the same. Academic institutions have two reasons for encouraging students to work on this topic. Firstly, being topical in nature, it is important for students to be aware about what is happening at the environmental level. They need to be aware about how the greenhouse effect works and its impact. The logic is simple, to be update to date about the current happenings. Secondly, assignments on advantages and disadvantages of greenhouse effect can sensitize students about the need of the hour and help them realize how small steps they take can go a long way to preventing the increase in the greenhouse effect.

If you have recently been given an assignment on the advantages and disadvantages of greenhouse effect and wish to get grades in it, consider getting help from experts at TutorBin. The panel of global subject matter experts can help you submit well written and informative assignments and essays on the pros and cons of greenhouse effect and other science topics too.

What is Greenhouse effect, its causes & outcome

The word greenhouse effect has been discussed on a very wide range in this new era. Even this being a heated discussion, very few of us know what it is and the causes of greenhouse and its effects. Let’s bring in here all these subjects under a single topic for a better understanding of what is greenhouse effect, its causes and effects.

What is Greenhouse effect?

The Greenhouse effect is a process through which the Earth surface remains warm. The solar energy reaches the Earth’s atmosphere from the Sun. Some portion of this energy is radiated back into space and the rest is absorbed by the greenhouse gases.

Water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and artificial chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are the primary greenhouse gases present in Earth’s atmosphere.

The absorbed energy warms the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth. This effect keeps the temperature of Earth around 33 degrees Celsius and allowing life on Earth to exist.

Now due to the human activities (the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation), the natural greenhouse effect has increased, resulting global warming.

History

The existence of the greenhouse effect was remarked by Joseph Fourier. In 1859, Irish physicist John Tyndall proved that some gases have a remarkable capacity to hang onto heat, thus demonstrating the basis of the greenhouse effect. Svante Arrhenius, Swedish scientist was the first to claim that fossil fuel combustion may result in enhanced global warming. The term “Greenhouse” was first used by Nilis Gustaf Ekholm in 1901.

Mechanism

The Earth receives energy from the Sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation but mostly is in the form of visible light and infrared. About 30 percent of the energy is reflected back and remaining energy is absorbed by the Earth’s surface. This energy keeps the Earth warm.

The heat is then radiated from the Earth into space but the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere traps this heat. This process helps to sustain life here.

But the activities such as burning fossil fuels, deforestation are increasing the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. Due to this reason, extra heat is trapped in the atmosphere and thus the Earth’s temperature rise.

Causes of the Greenhouse Effect

Fossils fuels like coal, petroleum and natural gas have become an important part in human’s life. The fuels are used on large basis to generate electricity and for transportation. When they are burnt, the carbon stored in them is released which reacts with oxygen in the air to form carbon dioxide. The number of vehicle is increased with the increase in the population and has resulted in the increase in the pollution in the atmosphere. These vehicles while running, release carbon dioxide which is one of the main gas responsible for the greenhouse effect.

The emissions are high while producing electricity because still coal is used for the generation which releases large amount of carbon dioxide. Still it is the primary sources for the production. Though renewable sources are available, it may take a time before reducing the dependence on coal.

The major portion on the Earth’s surface is covered by forest. Plants and trees take carbon dioxide and releases oxygen through the process of photosynthesis. The large scale development has resulted in clearing the forest by cutting down the trees so people could occupy the land for living. The stored carbon in wood is converted into carbon dioxide while burning.

There has been tremendous growth in population over the last few decades. This has increased the demand for food, cloth and shelter. The increased demand brought Industrial Revolution which caused the release of harmful gases like CFCs into the atmosphere. Also, more people means more usage of the fossil fuel which in turn increases the greenhouse effect.

The fertilizers are intensively used in agriculture which has nitrous oxide, one among the greenhouse gases which causes the greenhouse effect. This leads to global warming.

Since the Industrial Revolution, the industries have tremendously increased and new technologies are implemented for the manufacturing of the various products. Industries which are involved in cement production, fertilizers, coal mining, oil extraction produce harmful greenhouse gases.

Landfills filled with garbage produce carbon dioxide and methane gases contributing to the greenhouse effect.

Effects (Outcome)

The increased greenhouse gases due to the human activities have many consequences in the climate change.

Greenhouse gas levels have been increasing since the Industrial Revolution has started, but over the last few decades the growth has been tremendously rapid. And so the greenhouse effect is enhanced to the point where too much heat is kept in the Earth’s atmosphere. The extra heat trapped has increased the surface temperature by 0.75 degree Celsius over the last 100 years.

Global warming is damaging the environment in many ways:

The increased level of carbon dioxide has made the oceans more acidic than ever. The ocean serves a sink and absorbs about a quarter of human carbon dioxide emissions, which then goes on to react with seawater to form carbonic acid. Thus as the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rises, the acidification of the oceans increases. [Read more about acidification of Ocean]

Over the last century, global background ozone concentrations have become twice mainly due to the emissions of the methane and nitrogen oxide caused by human activities. At ground level, ozone is an air pollutant, a major component of smog which is dangerous for both human and plants.

Life expectancy has been reduced by the long term exposure to the ozone. Recent studies states that the yield of the key staple crops, like corn, wheat are being reduced due to present day ozone exposure.

Ozone depletion is observed since the late 1970s: a steady decline of about four percent in the total amount of ozone in Earth’s stratosphere. CFCs are referred to as ozone-depleting substances (ODS). The ozone layer prevents most harmful ultraviolet light from passing the Earth’s atmosphere. The projected decreases in ozone generated worldwide concern, leading to adoption of the Montreal Protocol which bans the production of CFCs, halons and other ozone-depleting chemicals. A variety of biological consequences such as increase in sunburn, skin cancer, cataracts, damage to plants and reduction of plankton populations in the ocean is resulted from the increased UV light exposure due to ozone depletion.

If the enhanced production of the greenhouse gases is not reduced within the next few decades, it is possible that life on Earth might be difficult for the generations to come. Increase in heat and radiation may make going outside difficult or dangerous during the daytime. These increased energies could affect the entire ecosystem. The plants and animals will become extinct from the global warming. So the renewable energy resources should be used which will reduce the greenhouse effect. And new methods should be explored to save the Earth.

Greenhouse Effect 101

Jump to Section

The greenhouse effect is a good thing. It warms the planet to its comfortable average of 59 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius) and keeps life on earth, well, livable. Without it the world would be a frozen, uninhabitable place, more like Mars. The problem is, mankind’s voracious burning of fossil fuels for energy is artificially amping up the natural greenhouse effect. The result? An increase in global warming that is altering the planet’s climate systems in countless ways. Here’s a look at what the greenhouse effect is, what causes it, and how we can temper its contributions to our changing climate.

What Is the Greenhouse Effect?

Identified by scientists as far back as 1896, the greenhouse effect is the natural warming of the earth that results when gases in the atmosphere trap heat from the sun that would otherwise escape into space.

What Causes the Greenhouse Effect?

Sunlight makes the earth habitable. While 30 percent of the solar energy that reaches our world is reflected back to space, approximately 70 percent passes through the atmosphere to the earth’s surface, where it is absorbed by the land, oceans, and atmosphere, and heats the planet. This heat is then radiated back up in the form of invisible infrared light. While some of this infrared light continues on into space, the vast majority—indeed, some 90 percent—gets absorbed by atmospheric gases, known as greenhouse gases, and redirected back toward the earth, causing further warming.

For most of the past 800,000 years—much longer than human civilization has existed—the concentration of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere was between about 200 and 280 parts per million. (In other words, there were 200 to 280 molecules of the gases per million molecules of air.) But in the past century, that concentration has jumped to more than 400 parts per million, driven up by human activities such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation. The higher concentrations of greenhouse gases—and carbon dioxide in particular—is causing extra heat to be trapped and global temperatures to rise.

Michal Bednarski for NRDC

What Are Greenhouse Gases?

Earth’s greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere and warm the planet. The main gases responsible for the greenhouse effect include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor (which all occur naturally), and fluorinated gases (which are synthetic). Greenhouse gases have different chemical properties and are removed from the atmosphere, over time, by different processes. Carbon dioxide, for example, is absorbed by so-called carbon sinks such as plants, soil, and the ocean. Fluorinated gases are destroyed only by sunlight in the far upper atmosphere.

How much any one greenhouse gas influences global warming depends on three key factors. The first is how much of it exists in the atmosphere. Concentrations are measured in parts per million (ppm), parts per billion (ppb), or parts per trillion (ppt); 1 ppm for a given gas means, for example, that there is one molecule of that gas in every 1 million molecules of air. The second is its lifetime—how long it remains in the atmosphere. The third is how effective it is at trapping heat. This is referred to as its global warming potential, or GWP, and is a measure of the total energy that a gas absorbs over a given period of time (usually 100 years) relative to the emissions of 1 ton of carbon dioxide.

Radiative forcing (RF) is another way to measure greenhouse gases (and other climate drivers, such as the sun’s brightness and large volcanic eruptions). Also known as climate forcing, RF quantifies the difference between how much of the sun’s energy gets absorbed by the earth and how much is released into space as a result of any one climate driver. A climate driver with a positive RF value indicates that it has a warming effect on the planet; a negative value represents cooling.

What Are Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

Since the start of the Industrial Revolution and the advent of coal-powered steam engines, human activities have vastly increased the volume of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere. It is estimated that between 1750 and 2011, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide increased by 40 percent, methane by 150 percent, and nitrous oxide by 20 percent. In the late 1920s, we started adding man-made fluorinated gases like chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, to the mix.

In recent decades we’ve only picked up the pace. Of all the man-made emissions of carbon dioxide—the most abundant greenhouse gas released by human activities, and one of the longest-lasting—from 1750 to 2010, approximately half were generated in the last 40 years alone, in large part due to fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes. And while global greenhouse gas emissions have occasionally plateaued or dropped from year to year (most recently between 2014 and 2016), they’re accelerating once again. In 2017, carbon emissions rose by 1.6 percent; in 2018 they increased by an estimated 2.7 percent.

Five Major Greenhouse Gases

The most significant gases that cause global warming via the greenhouse effect are the following:

Carbon Dioxide
Accounting for about 76 percent of global human-caused emissions, carbon dioxide (CO₂) sticks around for quite a while. Once it’s emitted into the atmosphere, 40 percent still remains after 100 years, 20 percent after 1,000 years, and 10 percent as long as 10,000 years later.

Methane
Although methane (CH₄) persists in the atmosphere for far less time than carbon dioxide (about a decade), it is much more potent in terms of the greenhouse effect. In fact, pound for pound, its global warming impact is 25 times greater than that of carbon dioxide over a 100-year period. Globally it accounts for approximately 16 percent of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions.

Nitrous Oxide
Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is a powerful greenhouse gas: It has a GWP 300 times that of carbon dioxide on a 100-year time scale, and it remains in the atmosphere, on average, a little more than a century. It accounts for about 6 percent of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

Fluorinated Gases
Emitted from a variety of manufacturing and industrial processes, fluorinated gases are man-made. There are four main categories: hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆), and nitrogen trifluoride (NF₃).

Although fluorinated gases are emitted in smaller quantities than other greenhouse gases (they account for just 2 percent of man-made global greenhouse gas emissions), they trap substantially more heat. Indeed, the GWP for these gases can be in the thousands to tens of thousands, and they have long atmospheric lifetimes, in some cases lasting tens of thousands of years.

HFCs are used as a replacement for ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), usually in air conditioners and refrigerators, but some are being phased out because of their high GWP. Replacing these HFCs and properly disposing of them is considered to be one of the most important climate actions the world can take.

Water Vapor
The most abundant greenhouse gas overall, water vapor differs from other greenhouse gases in that changes in its atmospheric concentrations are linked not to human activities directly, but rather to the warming that results from the other greenhouse gases we emit. Warmer air holds more water. And since water vapor is a greenhouse gas, more water absorbs more heat, inducing even greater warming and perpetuating a positive feedback loop. (It’s worth noting, however, that the net impact of this feedback loop is still uncertain, as increased water vapor also increases cloud cover that reflects the sun’s energy away from the earth.)

Walter via Flickr

Where Do Greenhouse Gases Come From?

Population size, economic activity, lifestyle, energy use, land use patterns, technology, and climate policy: According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), these are the broad forcings that drive nearly all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Here’s a closer look at greenhouse gas emissions by source.

Electricity and Heat Production
The burning of coal, oil, and natural gas to produce electricity and heat accounts for one-quarter of worldwide human-driven emissions, making it the largest single source. In the United States it’s the second-largest (behind transportation), responsible for about 27.5 percent of U.S. emissions in 2017, with carbon dioxide the primary gas released (along with small amounts of methane and nitrous oxide), mainly from coal combustion.

Agriculture and Land Use Changes
About another quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions stem from agriculture and other land-use activities (such as deforestation). In the United States, agricultural activities—primarily the raising of livestock and crops for food—accounted for 8.4 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in 2017. Of those, the vast majority were methane (which is produced as manure decomposes and as beef and dairy cows belch and pass gas) and nitrous oxide (often released with the use of nitrogen-heavy fertilizers).

Trees, plants, and soil absorb carbon dioxide from the air. The plants and trees do it via photosynthesis (a process by which they turn carbon dioxide into glucose); the soil houses microbes that carbon binds to. So nonagricultural land-use changes such as deforestation, reforestation (replanting in existing forested areas), and afforestation (creating new forested areas) can either increase the amount of carbon in the atmosphere (as in the case of deforestation) or decrease it via absorption, removing more carbon dioxide from the air than they emit. (When trees or plants are cut down, they no longer absorb carbon dioxide, and when they are burned or decompose, they release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.) In the United States, land-use activities currently represent a net carbon sink, absorbing more carbon dioxide from the air than they emit.

Industry
About one-fifth of global human-driven emissions come from the industrial sector, which includes the manufacturing of goods and raw materials (like cement and steel), food processing, and construction. In 2017, industry accounted for 22.4 percent of U.S. man-made emissions, of which the majority was carbon dioxide, though methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases were also released.

Transportation
The burning of petroleum-based fuels, namely gasoline and diesel, to power the world’s transportation systems accounts for 14 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, with Americans buying larger cars and taking more flights and with low gas prices encouraging drivers to use their cars more, transportation is the largest contributor of greenhouse gases. (It accounted for 28.7 percent of U.S. emissions in 2017.) Carbon dioxide is the primary gas emitted, though fuel combustion also releases small amounts of methane and nitrous oxide, and vehicle air conditioning and refrigerated transport release fluorinated gases too.

Nationwide, cars and trucks are responsible for more than 80 percent of transportation-related carbon emissions.

Buildings
Operating buildings around the world generates 6.4 percent of global greenhouse gases. In the United States, homes and businesses accounted for about 11 percent of warming emissions. These emissions, made up mostly of carbon dioxide and methane, stem primarily from burning natural gas and oil for heating and cooking, though other sources include managing waste and wastewater and leaking refrigerants from air-conditioning and refrigeration systems.

Other Sources
This category includes emissions from energy-related activities other than fossil fuel combustion, such as the extraction, refining, processing, and transportation of oil, gas, and coal. Globally, this sector accounts for 9.6 percent of emissions.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Country

Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, more than 2,000 billion tons of carbon dioxide have been released into the atmosphere by human activities, according to the Global Carbon Project. North America and Europe are responsible for approximately half of that total, while the emerging economies of China and India have contributed another 14 percent. For the remainder, 150-plus countries share responsibility.

An analysis of carbon dioxide emissions by country today shows that China now leads the pack, responsible for 27 percent of all emissions. Next comes the United States (15 percent), the European Union’s 28 member states including the United Kingdom (10 percent), and India (7 percent) next. Together, these global powers account for almost 60 percent of all emissions.

The Consequences of the Greenhouse Effect

Today’s human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are higher than ever, the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is rising rapidly, and according to the IPCC, the planet is heating up. Between preindustrial times and now, the earth’s average temperature has increased 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1.0 degrees Celsius), with approximately two-thirds of that warming occurring in the last handful of decades alone. According to the IPCC, 1983 to 2012 was likely the warmest 30-year period of the last 1,400 years (in the Northern Hemisphere, where assessment is possible). And all five of the years from 2014 to 2018 were the hottest on record globally. If warming trends continue at the current rate, it’s estimated global warming will reach 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above preindustrial levels between 2030 and 2052.

Fueled by man-made greenhouse gas emissions, global warming is altering the earth’s climate systems in many ways. It is:

These changes pose threats not only to plants and wildlife, but directly to people. Warmer temperatures mean insects that spread diseases like dengue fever and Zika can thrive—and heat waves are getting hotter and more lethal to humans. People could go hungry when our food supply is diminished thanks to droughts and floods—a 2011 National Research Council study found that for every degree Celsius that the planet heats up, crop yields will go down 5 to 15 percent. Food insecurity can lead to mass human migration and political instability. And in January 2019, the Department of Defense released a report that described the threats to U.S. military installations and operations around the world due to flooding, droughts, and other impacts of climate change.

The Greenhouse Effect Solution

The earth has always experienced warm and cool phases, with natural forces—from the sun’s intensity, volcanic eruptions, and natural changes in greenhouse gas concentrations—affecting how much energy from the sun our planet absorbs. Scientists say that as recently as a couple of centuries ago, the planet underwent a “Little Ice Age,” caused by a decrease in solar activity and an increase in volcanic activity. But today’s climatic warming—particularly the increase in temperatures since the mid-20th century—is occurring at a pace that can’t be explained by natural causes alone. According to NASA, “natural causes are still in play today, but their influence is too small or they occur too slowly to explain the rapid warming seen in recent decades.”

In other words, humans are the problem. But we may also be the solution. We have the ability to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, though doing so certainly won’t be easy. Overhauling our energy systems will require transformative, aggressive global action—and now. According to the IPCC, we must decrease greenhouse gas pollution by 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2050. To allow global warming to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius (which the IPCC has identified as the threshold for avoiding climate change’s worst impacts) would mean more intense drought, extreme heat, flooding, and poverty, the decline of species (including a mass die-off of the world’s coral reefs), and the worsening of food shortages and wildfires.

Reducing our greenhouse gas emissions will require significant effort at the international, national, and local levels. First and foremost, we must slash fossil fuel production, consumption, and pollution by ramping up our use of clean, renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies and by investing in fuel-efficient and electric vehicles. We must end fossil fuel subsidies and better leverage “cap and invest” programs, carbon pricing, and carbon capture, storage, and utilization technologies (which catch the carbon dioxide from emissions sources like power plants or directly from the air and permanently bury it underground or convert it into other materials). We must protect our carbon-storing forests and reduce food waste and the emissions that go with it. And as individuals, we must commit to taking carbon-cutting actions in our daily lives.

Currently the United States faces the additional hurdle of an administration doubling down on fossil fuel use by rolling back standards aimed at reducing emissions from dirty power plants and cars and trucks (in other words, from the electricity and transportation sectors, the nation’s two largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions). President Trump is also working to withdraw the nation from the landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement even though nearly two-thirds of Americans believe we should do more to tackle climate change, not less.

Still, decision makers, companies, leaders, and activists across the country and around the world staunchly believe we must act on climate change. For just as the emissions of man-made greenhouse gases long ago are inducing the climate change we see now, the emissions we release today will impact us long into the future.

This NRDC.org story is available for online republication by news media outlets or nonprofits under these conditions: The writer(s) must be credited with a byline; you must note prominently that the story was originally published by NRDC.org and link to the original; the story cannot be edited (beyond simple things such as time and place elements, style, and grammar); you can’t resell the story in any form or grant republishing rights to other outlets; you can’t republish our material wholesale or automatically—you need to select stories individually; you can’t republish the photos or graphics on our site without specific permission; you should drop us a note to let us know when you’ve used one of our stories.

Related Stories

Bitcoin Mining Is Bad for the Climate—and Local Communities Too

Upstate New York’s defunct power plants have become a hot spot for cryptocurrency operations, and Finger Lakes residents say they’re just another blight.

How Austin Plans to Grow—Without Adding More Cars to Its Roads

By tackling transit, ride sharing, and more, the Texas capital hopes to embrace its big-city identity.

Global Warming 101

Everything you wanted to know about our changing climate but were too afraid to ask.

Fossil Fuels: The Dirty Facts

Mining, drilling, and burning dirty energy are harming the environment and our health. Here’s everything you need to know about fossil fuels, and why we need to embrace a clean energy future.

The “Big Tent” of People Who Want Climate Action Just Keeps Getting Bigger

How much longer can politicians pretend that it’s a divisive issue?

Mo Methane, Mo Problems

When it comes to harmful greenhouse gases, methane’s some pretty potent stuff. Here’s why.

Less Carbon, More Money

A recent climate assessment raised red flags about a shrinking economy. But maybe it doesn’t have to play out that way for millennials—we can start demanding with our dollars for a green, just economy.

Trump’s Pick to Lead His New Climate Change Panel Says CO2 Has Been “Demonized”

The appointment of William Happer shows that as public opinion and government reports increasingly back climate science, deniers (including the president) are getting desperate.

Could Our Farms Become the World’s Great Untapped Carbon Sink?

Carbon farming, an agricultural movement taking root in Northern California, aims to improve the soil and help stabilize the climate.

Are the Effects of Global Warming Really that Bad?

Short answer: Yes. Even a seemingly slight average temperature rise is enough to cause a dramatic transformation of our planet.

The IPCC Climate Change Report: Why It Matters to Everyone on the Planet

The U.N. report warns that dire impacts from climate change will arrive sooner than many expected. Here’s why we need to follow the report’s advice, and why every ton of emissions reductions can make a difference.

Support Our Work

Join Us

When you sign up you’ll become a member of NRDC’s Activist Network. We will keep you informed with the latest alerts and progress reports.

What Is the Greenhouse Effect?

Watch this video to learn about the greenhouse effect!

How does the greenhouse effect work?

As you might expect from the name, the greenhouse effect works … like a greenhouse! A greenhouse is a building with glass walls and a glass roof. Greenhouses are used to grow plants, such as tomatoes and tropical flowers.

A greenhouse stays warm inside, even during the winter. In the daytime, sunlight shines into the greenhouse and warms the plants and air inside. At nighttime, it’s colder outside, but the greenhouse stays pretty warm inside. That’s because the glass walls of the greenhouse trap the Sun’s heat.

A greenhouse captures heat from the Sun during the day. Its glass walls trap the Sun’s heat, which keeps plants inside the greenhouse warm — even on cold nights. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The greenhouse effect works much the same way on Earth. Gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, trap heat similar to the glass roof of a greenhouse. These heat-trapping gases are called greenhouse gases.

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. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

How are humans impacting the greenhouse effect?

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.

What reduces the greenhouse effect on Earth?

Just like a glass greenhouse, Earth’s greenhouse is also full of plants! Plants can help to balance the greenhouse effect on Earth. All plants — from giant trees to tiny phytoplankton in the ocean — take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen.

The ocean also absorbs a lot of excess carbon dioxide in the air. Unfortunately, the increased carbon dioxide in the ocean changes the water, making it more acidic. This is called ocean acidification.

More acidic water can be harmful to many ocean creatures, such as certain shellfish and coral. Warming oceans — from too many greenhouse gases in the atmosphere — can also be harmful to these organisms. Warmer waters are a main cause of coral bleaching.

This photograph shows a bleached brain coral. A main cause of coral bleaching is warming oceans. Ocean acidification also stresses coral reef communities. Credit: NOAA

Why the Greenhouse Effect Is Important: How It Works and Causes Global Warming

Oct. 21 2019, Updated 4:51 p.m. ET

The more I research the climate crisis as an adult, the more I wish I had paid better attention in science class as a child. Case in point: My teachers definitely taught me about the greenhouse effect, but I don’t remember what we learned at all. (I mostly just remember making dioramas out of shoeboxes.)

Back then, I had no idea just how important the science we were learning about the environment really was — not only in terms of my grades (don’t worry, I still did well in science class thanks to those dioramas), but also in terms of the future of humanity. Luckily, I’ve since woken up to that fact and started paying attention to science — and I’ve learned that one of the most important concepts to understand in this fight to protect the climate is the greenhouse effect.

Read on for all the basics you need to know about the greenhouse effect, how it causes global warming, and what we can do to reduce our impact in terms of emitting greenhouse gases.

How Does the Greenhouse Effect Work?

The greenhouse effect is the natural process of the sun warming the Earth’s surface. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (primarily carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and water vapor) trap the sun’s heat and cause the global temperature to rise, otherwise known as global warming.

Why Is It Called the Greenhouse Effect?

This process is called the greenhouse effect because it echoes what happens in a greenhouse used to grow plants in the winter. The sun enters the greenhouse during the day, and the glass walls trap the sun’s heat, which warms up the air inside the greenhouse, even keeping the greenhouse warm overnight when the sun is down and outside temperatures are low.

Why Is the Greenhouse Effect Important?

The greenhouse effect is the reason our global temperature is rising — and global warming is a significant part of the climate crisis. The more greenhouse gases we emit, the more heat we trap in the atmosphere, the more the globe warms up. As global temperatures rise, we witness changes in ecosystems all over the Earth. For example, ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising, and oceans are warming — all of these changes affect animal habitats and put various species at risk of becoming endangered or extinct.

Why Is the Greenhouse Effect Harmful?

As you can gather from the above information, the greenhouse effect is harmful to so many different ecosystems on our planet. As humans continue doing activities that put greenhouse gases into the atmosphere — such as burning fossil fuels, producing trash, and raising livestock — the greenhouse effect continues to make our Earth a little less inhabitable for us.

What Greenhouse Gases Are Produced by Humans?

According to the U.S. Congress’ ACS, the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere that occur both naturally and due to human activity include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and water vapor. Then, there are the fluorinated gases (such as chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs), which are greenhouse gases that do not occur naturally and are only caused by human activity, as per ACS.

Greenhouse gases do occur on their own from a few natural processes on Earth that we cannot help — for example, natural matter decaying and respiration. But if those were the only things causing greenhouse gases to enter our atmosphere, we wouldn’t be in a climate crisis.

That said, most greenhouse gas emissions come from human activities — and the sharp increase in these activities is what has gotten us into the climate emergency we are currently in. The activities we do that are responsible for the most significant greenhouse gas emissions include burning fossil fuels, animal agriculture (which is responsible for at least 14.5 percent of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, according to the New York Times), clearing land for agriculture, and more, as per the EPA.

Which Greenhouse Gas Is the Worst?

According to the IPCC via the EPA, in 2014, the global breakdown of greenhouse gas emissions was as follows: carbon dioxide from fossil fuels, 65 percent; carbon dioxide from forestry and agriculture, 11 percent; methane, 16 percent; nitrous oxide, 6 percent; fluorinated gases, 2 percent.

While methane is notably a smaller percentage than carbon dioxide, methane is still of immense concern because it is more potent than CO2 — according to a study published on ScienceDaily, methane is actually about 30 times more potent at trapping heat in the atmosphere than CO2 is.