Global warming could not be called as an eminent threat but it can destroy new generations for the time to come. Carbon dioxide makes up to 4.1 percent of our atmosphere, and 32 percent of this 4.1 percent is contributed by humans. That means 68 percent is still contributed by other factors because carbon dioxide is constantly taking up the heat and leaking that heat out into space. It could be seen in the above graph that since 1960 onwards, the Carbon dioxide emissions out of the planet and to space has been increasing rapidly from 310 ppm, now it has reached to about 410 ppm. It was noted by Foote and Tyndall in the 1860s that more abundant gases did not absorb heat while carbon dioxide and methane have all been absorbing the heat. Given the amount of the sunlight, that reaches to earth, it was also calculated that earth was almost 60 degrees Fahrenheit and 34-degree centigrade warmer as compared to its original condition. Hence, global warming is the factor that is keeping our planet warmer, but not the an excessive amount of sunlight that reaches earth.
It has been noted that there is no related to absorption of heat in the case of the nitrogen and oxygen since they are not absorbing any heat, as they make about 99 percent of our atmosphere. Their findings revealed that the gases that make a small portion of the earth are mainly responsible for the warmer temperatures, and they proposed these gases trap heat in order to create the effect of the greenhouse. For the planet temperature to remain constant, the earth mainly receives the energy and revert it back to space. The net heat can be balanced through the outgoing heat that it is giving off. In the form of the short waves, the sun is providing its heat to the earth with the help of various visible wavelengths. On the other hand, the earth is not much hot like the sun, that is the reason why it is emitting heat as infrared radiation while having longer wavelengths.
Those gases that trap heat are molecular in structure, which mainly supports them to capture infrared radiation. Among atoms, the molecule is able to vibrate in various ways. Therefore, when a photon is absorbed by a molecule, the molecule attains its energy and absorbs the photon. Oxygen and nitrogen, on the other hand, are not responsible to absorb the infrared radiation. Most infrared radiation released by the earth is entrapped by the gases in the atmosphere, while the radiation coming from the sun has not been absorbed most of the times. Afterwards, these gases radiate that heat into the earth’s surface and hence keeping it warmer as it could be. Incoming solar light is about 340 W/m ^2, the atmosphere absorbs 23 %, while the surface absorbs 48 per cent and the reflected amount is of 7 per cent. Among which cloud reflect 23 per cent and hence reflected solar radiation amounts to about 29 per cent. The evaporation is about 25 per cent, and convection is about 5 per cent. The surface also radiates to about 117 percent and the back radiation is about 100 per cent. Atmospheric window sends back about 12 per cent, and the atmosphere emits about 50 per cent. The outgoing heat radiation is about 71 per cent, the cloud emission was totalled to about 9 percent. All of this data has been collected by NASA.
It was noted during the cold war that the infrared radiations are absorbing a lot of heat, this work was mainly led by the united states air force. Since, to fight Russians, the Americans at that time were developing the heat-seeking missile, and therefore they were researching how they can detect the heat that passes through the air. Hence, that research enabled the researchers to work on the atmosphere and climate of all of the planets in our solar systems, and hence all of the absorption by the infrared has been studied. It was realised that Venus is 470-degree centigrade, that is about 97 per cent of the carbon dioxide. Systems like these also inform NASA that how much radiation is being absorbed by the earth’s atmosphere and is returned to the surface of the earth.Understanding the link of Carbon Dioxide to Global warming is very vital in this context because without this understanding it would not be viable to comment on Carbon dioxide irrelevance to Global warming.
Since the water vapours absorb more radiation and the other gases absorbs it on various wavelengths. The main reason is the upper atmosphere of earth, which is responsible for controlling the radiation that escapes to the outer world space. The upper atmosphere has less vapour and is much dense that also means that it is adding more carbon dioxide which is also influencing infrared radiation to escape it towards space.Deserts are mainly colder at night as compared to the forests, because of the presence of the water vapour in the atmosphere of the forests, not much radiation escapes to space, hence they tend to provide a relatively hotter atmosphere in forests at night as compared to deserts. Same happens to cloudy nights that are hotter than the clear sky. During ice ages on earth, it was noted that the earth was mainly 7 to 13-degree cooler as compared to the 20th century. Carbon dioxide has made up of about 0.018 per cent of the atmosphere.
Changes within the percentage of carbon dioxide have affected the earth temperatures widely, even while the water vapour is very significant for the earth for the natural effect of the greenhouse. Since the earth is becoming warmer, more water vapour is kept by the atmosphere which in turn is making the world more warmer. Humans take small pills to affect their whole body, and that concentration of pills works on our body, similarly, a small concentration of CO2 also affects our atmosphere. Today the levels of carbon dioxide have been historically higher as compared to the older times, the average temperature has been increased to about 21 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1880s. Additionally, humans influence have also helped the heat-trapping gases. Until 2100, it is expected by the researchers that the percentage of carbon dioxide with reach to about 0.1 percent. Without action, the debt left by our ancestors cannot be made any time soon and we all are responsible for it.
