The Greenhouse effect is the concentration of gases in the atmosphere that allows sunlight to enter but inhibits the release of heat. It is also thought to hold the potential of warming the earth’s climate due to carbon dioxide and water vapors that form an invisible blanket around the globe. Because of this blanket, the earth is able to maintain and support life. The theories and predictions surround the thickening of this blanket, which involves the trapping of too much heat that brings along with it devastating consequences for the environment and those who inhabit it.
Scientists are divided in what they believe is the cause of global warming. There are those who predict that the earth’s temperature will reach a peak high, causing a disruption in the earth’s climate and biological systems. This disruption is predicted to cause polar ice caps to melt raising sea levels, completely eroding shore lines, devastating small island nations, damaging coastal fisheries, increasing the heat of summers which brings a higher demand for electricity, increasing forest fires, droughts, floods, and out breaks of pests, increasing diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and cholera, bringing about the extinction of plants and animals, and creating extensive problems for leading industrialized nations as they will have fewer resources to meet these disasters.
Other scientists believe that without the greenhouse effect, earth would be uninhabitable. They believe that strong evidence agrees that human activities (such as the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere) are responsible for an increase in global temperatures. They believe that human activities are just enhancing the natural process of increasing the earth’s temperature, therefore causing no real threat.
Do I believe that the greenhouse effect has as big of a negative impact on the atmosphere as some would like us to believe? No. Are there things that we could do to cut down on the pollutions, gases, and human activities, that cause additional warming that is not part of the natural processes of the earth? Absolutely. I believe that undeniable evidence and consistencies amongst the scientist and environmentalists is needed for these predictions to be taken more seriously. I do believe however, that there are other things aside from the earth’s natural processes that are causing the deterioration of our earth’s ecosystem.
