Essays on the Main/On the “Greenhouse Effect”

On the “Greenhouse Effect”

All readers probably know what a greenhouse is. It is a structure made of solid frames and transparent roof and walls, which freely let in sunlight and, at the same time, prevent heat’s dissipation outside, accumulating it inside the greenhouse.

Greenhouses are used for early spring growing of both seedlings and fully grown plants. For example, in greenhouses, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchinies, garden greens are harvested.

Previously, glass was used to make greenhouses, now — polyethylene film.

(By the same principle, much larger buildings are done — those are hothouses).

So, the main essence of the greenhouse is its transparent top.

All that was said could be taken as a matter of course and understood by everyone; what else could there be to discuss? But…

We hear a lot of loud speeches about the “global warming” of the climate on our planet, which is caused by “greenhouse gases”. And the main such gas is called carbon dioxide…

… All observant people know that to a certain extent a similar phenomenon actually exists in nature. The fact is that if at night the sky has been clear, cloudless — then by morning the air temperature is usually much lower than in the cloudy sky during the night. That is, dense accumulations of droplets of water, forming clouds and black clouds, prevent the “outflow” of heat, accumulated by day from the Sun, — to higher layers of the atmosphere.

That is, clouds and black clouds at night play as if the role of a greenhouse roof.

But it is important to take into account that in the daytime — they also prevent the contact of Sun light and warmth with the Earth’s surface. That is, such a natural “greenhouse” for twenty-four hours, not only at night, — does not help to raise the temperature of the lower layers of the atmosphere, where we all usually live.

What other phenomena can have the same effect? Dust from sandstorms, ashes ordinary and volcanic, risen abundantly into the atmosphere. Forest, peat, and oil fires, burning of coal, oil and products from it — no doubt, harm our well-being.

But, I stress once again that black clouds, formed from water vapor, as well as from atmospheric pollution by other particles, unlike a polyethylene film, are not transparent, and they, among other things, prevent the heating of the planet’s surface from the Sun.

As for carbon dioxide, first of all, one must take into account that in the atmosphere, its content is less than one-half (0.5) percent! That is — it’s negligible in comparison with the dominant nitrogen and oxygen.

It is transparent, that is, the light freely passes through it. And it does not create a “roof”, which prevents the vertical movements of heat.

There are observations of scientists that carbon dioxide slightly more, than other atmospheric gases, accumulates the infrared component of light. So what? Let’s remember that it is negligible in the atmosphere!

Therefore, to assert, basing on the foregoing, about its “greenhouse” properties — there is no reason!

… But carbon dioxide is food for plants; without it, plants cannot live. And plants — give us oxygen, without which we and all animals cannot exist on the Earth…

And even if it is able to heat up slightly faster than nitrogen and oxygen, this cannot have a significant effect on the temperature in the atmosphere and on the surface of the Earth!