Saturday, May 2, 2009

Have you ever heard of the greenhouse effect? Many might not know what is this effect. Let me explain. Everyone knows that the atmosphere is made up of small quantities of greenhouse gases such as water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, halocarbons (e..g chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs) and nitrous oxide. Just like the glass in a greenhouse, these gases absorbs and trap solar energy, and warm the earth. This natural atmospheric process is called the greenhouse effect. without the greenhouse effect, it is believed that the Earth's average temperature would be about -18°C. Thus without greenhouse gases, the Earth would be inhabitable.

However, human activities can cause the quantities of the greenhouse gases to increase resulting in more heat being trapped. This effect is known as the enhanced greenhouse effect. Certain human activities include industrialisation, the burning if forests and cattle ranching have led to the increased accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

<$Tempracity>lived on8:13 AM

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