What is the greenhouse effect?
Q: What is the greenhouse effect?
A: The greenhouse effect occurs when certain gases in the Earth's atmosphere trap infrared radiation, making the planet become warmer, similar to the way a greenhouse becomes warmer.
Q: What are some of the most important greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere?
A: The most important greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane.
Q: How does an increase in greenhouse gas levels affect climate change and global warming?
A: When there is more greenhouse gas in the air, it holds more heat which causes climate change and global warming.
Q: What would happen if there was no natural greenhouse effect on Earth?
A: Without the natural greenhouse effect on Earth, its average temperature would be around -18 or -19 degrees Celsius (0 or 1 degree Fahrenheit) and it would be locked in an ice age.
Q: How has human activity contributed to changes in atmospheric CO2 levels?
A: Humans have been burning large amounts of fossil fuels which releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This has caused an increase in atmospheric CO2 levels over the past 150 years.
Q: Who first proposed that increased CO2 could cause global warming?
A: Nobel Prize winner Svante Arrhenius was first to predict that carbon dioxide from burning of fossil fuels (and other combustion processes) could cause global warming.
