Greenhouse Effect- Reason for global warming

Now a days we often hear the phrase “global warming” & issues like carbon emission reduction, etc. But do you know how increase in carbon emissions is related to Global warming? The link between both of them is a phenomenon, known as Green House Effect. If you ever visited a green house, you will notice the inside temperature is always a few degree higher than outside. This is due to greenhouse effect & for precisely for this reason only green houses are used in cold climate for plant cultivation.

What happens in green houses is the glass walls allow sun light with shorter wavelengths to pass through it. The sunlight increases the temperature of the inside by getting absorbed. Once the internal temperature of greenhouse increases it starts emitting radiations but of higher wavelengths. Glass walls do not allow this higher wavelength radiation to pass through it & reflects it back into inside. This reflected large wavelength radiation again cause heating of the inner side of green house & creates a “heat trap”.

Now the same phenomenon happens in Earth too. We just have to imagine Earth as a big green house with the layer of carbon dioxide in atmosphere acting as glass walls. This layer of CO2 allows shorter wavelengths from sun to pass through it, whereas reflecting back the longer wavelengths emitted by heated earth surface. The more concentration of Co2 in atmosphere will causes a more effective “heat trap” resulting in higher temperatures.