Climate Change: How humans have caused the enhanced greenhouse effect

Climate Change

Climate Change: You’ve probably heard a lot about it, but what is it? Climate change is the consequence of the greenhouse effect. The radiation of the sun heats the earth. This radiation is called short wave-radiation. This radiation heats the surface of the earth and then the earth emits heat to the atmosphere. This emitted heat is a different type of radiation and it’s called long-wave radiation. There are particles in the atmosphere that reflect the long-wave radiation emitted by the earth much better than the short wave radiation which is emitted by the sun. The long-wave radiation is therefore reflected back to the earth. 

Just like a greenhouse, the heat can easily enter the atmosphere, but it’s hard to for the heat to leave the atmosphere.  You could compare this to a car with the sun shining in. The heat can easily go in, but the heat can’t leave the car, which causes the car to heat up very quickly. Without the greenhouse effect, it would be around 30 degrees colder on Earth. So it's a good thing that this effect exists!

However, more greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere through the emission of exhaust gases. This makes the greenhouse effect stronger. This is therefore referred to as the enhanced greenhouse effect. Among other gasses, carbon dioxide, which is often abbreviated to CO2, is responsible for this. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere differs per season. There is more land in the northern hemisphere and therefore more trees. In the summer months, they absorb a lot of CO2, reducing the CO2 content in the atmosphere. At the end of the summer, the CO2 content in the atmosphere increases again, as leaves are broken down. Nature therefore also has a major influence on the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

The amount of CO2 is measured by the number of CO2 particles in the atmosphere per million gas particles in the atmosphere. There are also many other gases in the atmosphere, such as nitrogen, oxygen and water vapor. About 250 years ago there were 277 parts of CO2 per million particles. Now there are 404 and this number is growing every year.
Although 400 CO2 particles per million does not seem very much, the increase is almost 50% and this can have major effects on processes in the atmosphere.

Let's see where that extra CO2 comes from. The C in CO2 stands for carbon. Carbon occurs in the atmosphere in two forms, which we call C12 and C13. C12 is lighter and plants therefore prefer to absorb C12. Plants and ultimately fossil fuels therefore contain a relatively large amount of c12.
We see that the ratio between C12 and C13 in the atmosphere is changing. This is because proportionally more and more C12 enters the atmosphere. This means that the extra carbon comes from plants. The most likely explanation is that burning fossil fuels has contributed to an increase in the C12 share in the atmosphere. Namely, if other sources of carbon were responsible, such as volcanoes, the ratio of C12 and C13 in the atmosphere would remain the same. This means that most scientists see this as proof that the rise in CO2 levels is also caused by people. Some scientists think the evidence is still too brief to establish this relationship.

The connection is therefore as follows:
- There is a natural greenhouse effect: 0.08-0.34
- More and more greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere, including CO2: 1.02-1.09
- This increase is most likely caused by humans 2.43-2.50
- As a result, the global temperature will rise.

[merlingeikie]

We evolved during the last 2.7 million years of Ice Age.
The planet is experiencing a slight warming in an otherwise cold period.
The CO2 levels are some of the lowest ever recorded.
Most of our available carbon is locked up underground in limestone and other deposits.
All life vitally depends on carbon being readily available, for plants this is available as a trace gas in air.
In order to feed our global population, we need more CO2 in the atmosphere, not less.
Therefore put more carbon into the atmosphere, the amount of warming is a tiny amount but the benefits of extra plant growth and life forms is great.
Models of catastrophe and doom have be proven to be inadequate in predicting reality.
None of the climate change scenarios have happened even thought they have been being said over and over since the 1960s.
Thank you.