Greenhouse effect is the heating of the surface and lower atmosphere of a planet due to the greater transparency of the atmosphere to visible radiation from the sun than to infrared radiation from the planet. Greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide and other gases contribute to the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse Effect is termed so because greenhouse is a transparent glass or plastic building for rearing or hastening the growth of plants. Environment activists have been highlighting the negative impact of Greenhouse Effect on the environment. Greenhouse Effect is a term from environmental science referring to an increase in the average temperature of the earth brought about by the effects of atmospheric pollution.
Silent Spring was an early call to arms for the environmental movement. In Silent Spring Carson portrays the forces that modern society has brought into being which assault nature and human life itself. Earth's greenhouse effect has evolved over geologic time scales and continues to evolve.
History of the greenhouse effect - M.D.H. Jones, A. Henderson-Sellers. The greenhouse effect is now commonly accepted. However, the misnomer 'greenhouse effect' has perpetuated, and there are a number of aspects of the effect which are poorly understood outside the atmospheric sciences. On such misconception is that greenhouse research is a recent phenomenon; another is that glasshouses are warmed by the same mechanism as lies at the heart of the greenhouse effect.
Evolution of Earth's Greenhouse Effect -
Kiehl, J. T.
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2003. The major factors contributing to Earth's greenhouse effect are discussed along with
various quantitative methods for determining the greenhouse effect. The magnitude of
Earth's greenhouse effect is explored for particular time periods of Earth's evolution
from the Neoproterozoic to present. Coupled climate model simulations for these various
time periods are used to estimate the magnitude of the greenhouse effect. The connection between
the greenhouse effect and Earth's hydrologic cycle is also discussed. Finally, a
comparison is made of between past greenhouse effects and that predicted for the end of
the twenty-first century.
Greenhouse effect dependence on atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse
substances and the nature of climate stability on Earth - V. G. Gorshkov and A.
M. Makarieva,
Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, 188300, Gatchina, St.-Petersburg, Russia.
Due to the exponential positive feedback between sea surface temperature and saturated
water vapour concentration, dependence of the planetary greenhouse effect on atmospheric
water content is critical for stability of a climate with extensive liquid hydrosphere. The observed
stability of modern climate over geological timescales is therefore likely to be due to
dynamic singularities in the physical temperature-dependent behaviour of the greenhouse
effect.
Global Sea Level Rise and the Greenhouse Effect: Might They Be Connected?
W. R. PELTIER and A. M. TUSHINGHAM -
Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A7.
Because global coverage of the oceans by the tide gauge network is highly
nonuniform and the tide gauge data reveal considerable spatial variability, there has been
a well-founded reluctance to interpret the observed secular sea level rise as representing
a signal of global scale that might be related to the greenhouse effect.
The Greenhouse Effect: Science and Policy
Stephen H. Schneider, National Center for Atmospheric Research
Global warming from the increase in greenhouse gases has become a major scientific and
political issue during the past decade. Results from
most recent climatic models suggest that global average surface temperatures will increase
by some 2 to 6 degree centigrade during the next century, but future changes in greenhouse gas
concentrations and feedback processes not properly accounted for in the models could
produce greater or smaller increases. One approach is to implement those policies now that
will reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and have additional societal benefits.
The greenhouse effect and climate change - F W Taylor, Dept. of Phys.,
Oxford Univ., UK
Abstract. On any planet with an atmosphere, the surface is warmed not only by the Sun
directly but also by downward-propagating infrared radiation emitted by the atmosphere.
This phenomenon, known as the greenhouse effect, keeps the mean surface temperature some
33 K warmer than it would otherwise be and is therefore essential to life. The radiative
processes which are responsible for the greenhouse effect involve mainly minor atmospheric
constituents, the amounts of which can change either naturally or as a by-product of human
activities. The
author reviews the physical processes involved in the greenhouse effect and discusses
current progress, theoretical and experimental, towards an understanding of the greenhouse
effect on the climate.
Experimental short film about greenhouse effect: EFECTO INVERNADERO (greenhouse
effect) by Andres Victorero -vimeo.com.
Geological Assessment of the Greenhouse Effect
Thomas J. Crowley, Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, College Station,
Texas.
ABSTRACT: Geologic studies provide a valuable perspective on the importance of greenhouse
forcing for climate change. On both Pleistocene and tectonic time scales, changes in
climate are positively correlated with greenhouse gas variations.
Knowledge about the Greenhouse Effect and the Effects of the Ozone Layer among
Norwegian Pupils Finishing Compulsory Education in 1989, 1993, and 2005, What Now?
P. J. Kirkeby Hansen, Oslo University College, Norway
Abstract: The greenhouse effect and the effects of the ozone layer have been in the media
and public focus for more than two decades. During the same period, Norwegian compulsory
schools have had four national curricula. The two last-mentioned prescribe explicitly the
two topics. The point of departure for this questionnaire-based
examination of the development of pupils' knowledge about the greenhouse effect and the
effects of the ozone layer from 1989 to 2005 is the changing curricula and formal and
informal learning. In 2005 the trends seem to be that more pupils confuse the greenhouse
effect with the effects of the ozone layer. At the same time, specific knowledge about the
greenhouse effect is improving.