Natural Green House Effect

The natural greenhouse effect is vital to life on earth, but industrial emissions have boosted the atmosphere’s insulating power. Sun rays come towards the earth and some of the sun’s energy is reflected back to space. Remaining rays are absorbed by the earth. Absorbed heat is radiated back towards space. Natural and man made greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane trap this heat in the atmosphere. Trapped heat re-radiates back towards the earth. In this way earth warming takes place.

Glaciers melt and there comes a rise in sea level and it may spoil the ecological balance. It has been predicted that global warming in the next century may turn out to be much worse than estimated. Rise of atmospheric temperature would be 1’C and the rise in sea level would be 1 meter even if the Green House Gas emissions are stabilized. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted that warming could lead to a 6°C rise in temperature by 2100, 2°C higher than the already predicted figure. Global warming may cause heavy rainfalls. The Hadley Centre, UK has discovered that by 2050 the trees will start falling and there will be less absorption of carbon dioxide. This very Centre fears that by 2100 Antarctica ice would melt away. Melting of sea ice can further accelerate global warming as the ocean surface will not be in a position to reflect as much sunlight as ice sheets. Afforestation may be one of the solutions to reduce warming as the trees absorb carbon dioxide but it is not a dependable solution. One more problem is feared. Forest area is usually darker than the other areas and it may absorb more sunlight and thus it may cause more warming.