Question

Discuss briefly about greenhouse effect.

Answer 1

•  The greenhouse effect is a naturally occurring process that keeps the Earth’s surface and atmosphere warm.
• It is due to the fact that certain atmospheric gases like carbon dioxide, methane, water vapour, are capable of trapping the sun’s heat.
• This natural trapping of heat or the greenhouse effect has made Earth habitable. This effect helps to maintain the Earth’s mean temperature at 15˚C while in absence of the greenhouse effect it would have been about -18˚C.
•  However, due to human activities the concentrations of the greenhouse gases has increased which will enhance the greenhouse effect thereby, increasing the Earth’s surface temperature beyond 15˚C. This is referred to as global warming.
•  Besides carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and water vapour other greenhouse gases are include CFCs and ozone.
• Methane is produced naturally when vegetation is burnt, digested or rotted in the absence of oxygen.
•  It is also released in paddy fields, coal mines, from rotting garbage dumps and by fossil fuels. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are man-made industrial chemicals used in air conditioning etc.
•  Nitrous oxide occurs naturally in the environment.
•  In recent years, their quantities have increased significantly due to the use of chemical fertilizers and the burning of fossil fuels.