How Global Warming Endangers Life on Earth

Sunlight penetrates the transp bent spyglass of the baby's room roof and the humid atmosphere of the greenhouse interior. Plants and domain absorb the sun's light. The lightwaves ar transformed into infrared radiation (heat) which is sorb within the atmosphere of the greenhouse and not permitted to escape through with(predicate) the greenhouse roof. This physical mechanism slows down the rate of radiative cool in the greenhouse's interior. Scientists believe that greenhouse gases are responsible for retention the soil's surface at an average temperature of about 25 degrees Celsius. The greenhouse effect maintains the earth's surface at a temperature that is 33 degrees Celsius warm than it would otherwise be.

The greenhouse effect contributes to warm temperatures by dowry balance the earth's physical energy budget: "There is a virtually perfect energetic balance between the amount of electromagnetic energy that is incident to the earth and the amount that is lastly dissipated back to outmost space" (1:52). nigh 30 portion of incoming solar energy is reflected back into satellite space by atmospherical clouds and aerosols or by the earth's surface. The stay 70 percent is absorbed by atmospheric gases. very much of this absorbed solar radiation is reradiated into outer space as long-wave infrared radiation. Atmospheric gases and aerosols intercept some(a) of these infrared rays in an ongoing ex budge of energy: "The ground su

In general, the tan of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) is a major factor in the increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Approximately 90 percent of the world's energy needs are supplied by carbon-based fuels (9:11). Industrial nations currently account for 48 percent of the world's carbon dioxide (8:119). The bionomical effects of the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide are many and varied.

9. Stay cool. Economist. 11-12; April 1, 1995.

6. Leatherman, S. Impact of climate-induced ocean level rise on coastal areas. 170-179. Global climate Change and Life on Earth. Ed. Richard Wyman. New York: Routledge; 1991.

Scientists base some of their predictions of the biological effects of global warming on selective information gathered from El Nino weather events. If waters warm and patterns of water circulation change, widespread changes in species distributions and composition in ocean systems are likely: "In 1982-83, El Nino resulted in the disappearance of an wide seabird community . . . and also in reduction of catches of coastal pelagic and continental shellfish species and an increase in the particular of tropical and temperate tuna" (7:102).

1. Freedman, B. Environmental ecology: The ecological effects of pollution, disturbance, and other stresses. San Diego: Academic Press; 1995.

2. Gates, D. Climate change and its biological consequences. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates; 1993.

In general, climate varies throughout the earth because of the uneven distribution of solar radiation over its surface. About one-third of the incident solar energy is reflected back to outer space. The earth's albedo, the measure of solar reflectivity, is influenced by cloud cover, the quantity of hang particulates in the atmosphere, and by characteristics of the earth's surface. Human intervention has a leaden effect on the earth's surface: "Cutting and burning forests, burning or plowing grasslands, blackening snow with
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