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PART B

Our Earth is wrapped in a blanket of air called the atmosphere, which is made up of
several layers of gases. The sun is much hotter than the Earth and it gives off rays of heat
(radiation) that travel through the atmosphere and reach the Earth. The rays of the sun warm the
Earth, and heat from the Earth then travels back into the atmosphere. The gases in the
atmosphere stop some of the heat from escaping into space. These gases are called greenhouse
gases and the natural process between the sun, the atmosphere and the Earth is called the
Greenhouse Effect, because it works the same way as a greenhouse. The windows of a
greenhouse play the same role as the gases in the atmosphere, keeping some of the heat inside
the greenhouse. The question is how greenhouse gases trap energy from the Sun?

The diagram above shows which activities produce the most greenhouse gases.
Greenhouse gases come from all sorts of everyday activities, such as using electricity, heating
our homes, and driving around town. There are three main factors that directly influence the
greenhouse effect. The first and foremost is the total energy influx from the sun, which depends
on the earth's distance from the sun and on solar activity. Next, the chemical composition of the
atmosphere (what gases are present and in what concentrations), and lastly albedo, the ability of
the earth's surface to reflect light back into space. The only factor that has changed significantly
in the last 100 years is the chemical composition of the atmosphere and that is because of human
activity.

Besides that, many other chemical compounds found in the Earths atmosphere act as
greenhouse gases. These gases allow sunlight to enter the atmosphere freely. When sunlight
strikes the Earths surface, some of it is reflected back towards space as infrared radiation (heat).
Greenhouse gases absorb this infrared radiation and trap the heat in the atmosphere. Over time,
the amount of energy sent from the sun to the Earths surface should be about the same as the
amount of energy radiated back into space, leaving the temperature of the Earths surface roughly
constant.

The Earth gets energy from the sun in the form of sunlight. The Earth's surface absorbs
some of this energy and heats up. That is why the surface of a road can feel hot even after the sun
has gone down because it has absorbed a lot of energy from the sun. The Earth cools down by
giving off a different form of energy, called infrared radiation. But before all this radiation can
escape to outer space, greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb some of it, which makes the
atmosphere warmer. As the atmosphere gets warmer, it makes the Earth's surface warmer, too.

In conclusion, these greenhouse gases do not just stay in one place after they are added to
the atmosphere. As air moves around the world, greenhouse gases become globally mixed, which
means the concentration of a greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide is roughly the same no matter
where you measure it. Even though some countries produce more greenhouse gases than others,
emissions from every country contribute to the problem. That is one reason why climate change
requires global action.

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