
Changes in our Climate
What is the greenhouse effect?
The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmosphericgreenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. The Earth gets energy from the sun in the form of sunlight. The earth's surface absorbs some of this energy and heats up. The earth's warm surface then emits lower-energy infrared radiation. But before all this radiation can escape to outer space, greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb some of it, which makes the atmosphere warmer. As the atmosphere gets warmer, it makes the Earth's surface warmer.
How does the greenhouse gases affect the atmosphere and temperature?
Greenhouse gases affect the atmosphere and the temperature by absorbing the radiation and radiate the energy in different directions, which cause half of the radiation gets sent back toward the earth's surface. There is a experiment at HOME, that proves that greenhouse gases actually increases the temperature of the earth. http://www.climatehotmap.org/ is a website that shows the impact of global warming to the climate. Climate change is giving lots of troubles to the people, especially who works in agricultural industries. The average temperature of the earth is increasing every year. It is important to care about the environment and reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The change in temperature caused more storms, drought, wildfire and intense rainstorms.
Some examples are:
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The number of category 4 and 5 storms has greatly increased over the past 35 years, along with ocean temperature.
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The 2006 wildland fire season set new records in both the number of reported fires as well as acres burned. Close to 100,000 fires were reported and nearly 10 million acres burned, 125 percent above the 10-year average.
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National annual precipitation has increased between 5 and 10 percent since the early 20th century, largely the result of heavy downpours.
