The Greenhouse Effect

Everytime you tune in to listen to the rado or watch television, there is some energy issue being discussed. Why is there such a huge debate going on with regards to energy consumption? Firstly, fossil fuel is running out and being depleted by the day. Also, these fossil fuels contribute to the greenhouse effect, which I would try to briefly explain here.

Joseph Fourier, a mathematician and physicist was the first to comtemplate the Earth's energy balance. He suspected that the outgoing energy from Earth is being intercepted by the atmosphere, thus keeping us warmer than we would otherwise be. Fourier made a comparison of our atmosphere to that of how a glass box traps heat, hence the concept of GREENHOUSE EFFECT(GH). However, this analogy is flawed as out atmosphere doesn't trap air the way glass box does, but absorbs infrared radiation from the Earth's surface. So, the more greenhouse gas there is, the less radiation can escape from Earth to space-hence the warmer we get!

I have explored the basic idea of the greenhouse effect. The effect has been exagerrated over the decades or centuries even due to the existence of positive feedback of our system. Going back to pure control theory, negative feedback offsets a fault and stabilises a system, whereas positive feedback accelerates a process making it deviate even further from equilibrium.

Now, moving towards the greenhouse gases itself. John Tydall carried out experiments and discovered that the broader the absorption profile of a gas, the more wavelengths(varies across the spectrum) it can absorb, hence the more powerful it is to provide the greenhouse effect. Carbon Dioxide, Nitrus Oxide, Methane, Ozone, Water vapour and Chlorofluorocarbons are among the main culprits that contribute heavily towards GH effects which in turn helps promote global warming or the more 'hip' term 'global climate change'.

The main push for expansion in GH effects is the industrialisation of many nations! However, we can't blame them as developing countires especially, depend on manufacturing industries to develop their country. From a developing nations point of view, economic factor outweighs environmental effects, hence we see loads of open burning in Indonesia(especially in Kalimantan-part of Borneo), China concentrating on manufacturing with increasing usage of coal and gas and America not being part of the Kyoto Protocol!