Global warming is defined as the increase of the average temperature on EARTH. As the earth is getting hotter, disasters like hurricanes, droughts and floods are getting more frequent.
Over the last 100 years, the average temperature of the air near the Earth´s surface has risen a little less than 1° Celsius (0.74 ± 0.18°C, or 1.3 ± 0.32° Fahrenheit). Which does not seem that much? It is responsible for the conspicuous increase in storms, floods and raging forest fires we have seen in the last ten years.
Their data show that an increase of one degree Celsius makes the Earth warmer now than it has been for at least a thousand years. Out of the 20 warmest years on record, 19 have occurred since 1980. The three hottest years ever observed have all occurred in the last eight years.
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WHAT IS THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT?
Seen from space, our atmosphere is but a tiny layer of gas around a huge bulky planet. But it is the gaseous outer ring and it is misleadingly called greenhouse effect that makes life on EARTH possible-and that could destroy life as we know it.
The sun is the Earth’s primary energy source, a burning star so hot that we can feel its heat from over 150 million kilometers away. Its rays enter our atmosphere and shower upon on our planet. About one third of this solar energy is reflected back into the universe by shimmering glaciers, water and other bright surfaces. Two thirds, however, are absorbed by the Earth, warming land, oceans, and atmosphere.
Much of this heat radiates back out into space, but some of it is stored in the atmosphere. This process is called the greenhouse effect. Without it, the Earth’s average temperature would be a chilling -18 degrees Celsius, even despite the sun’s constant energy supply.
In a world like this, life on Earth would probably have never
