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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Reflection (9/2/10)

Today, Wen Kai and me did some research on greenhouse gases, effects of it and how it happens.
This is what we found:

The greenhouse effect is caused by an atmosphere containing gases and emitting infrared radiation. However, the earth is currently suffering from greenhouse radiation, because human machinery has been producing a lot of atmospheric gases. The main four gases contributing to enhanced greenhouse radiation are water vapour(36-70%), carbon dioxide(9-26%), methane(4-9%) and the ozone(3-7%) gases.

When the sun shines on earth, about 50% of the heat energy is trapped by the atmosphere. The more humans contribute to greenhouse gases, the more heat is trapped. The more heat is trapped, the higher the average temperature of the earth. The higher the temperature of the earth, the easier the icebergs melt. And like in what was said last week, once the ice melts, the water level will increase, causing flash floods.

What humans mainly contribute to the greenhouse effect is the carbon dioxide gas. We all breathe in oxygen and give out carbon dioxide. Usually, trees performing photosynthesis will be able to counteract the carbon dioxide gases. However, with deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels, there are now less trees to counteract the increase in carbon dioxide. Fossil fuel burning only add on to the carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is an atmospheric gas, it will absorb and emit more and more thermal infrared. To help reduce the rate of the Earth's temperature increase, we can switch to more eco-friendly alternatives of lifestyle, like using less charcoal,fossil fuels and paper.

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