The carbon footprint refers to the build-up of carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere. It’s building up in because humanity is producing CO2 emissions at a rate 44 percent greater than what nature can reabsorb, so it just hangs around in the air like a loitering school kid at a void deck.
However, greenhouse gases were good kids once. The sun’s light and warmth travels to the Earth in the form of solar radiation. Then, it gets emitted back into space as infrared radiation. Greenhouse gases help reflect some of this infrared radiation back to Earth, thus keeping it warm.
However, when greenhouse gases started increasing, so did the amount of warmth retained. This is the Greenhouse effect. This is why near-surface temperatures have been increasing markedly since 1970s. 1981-2010 was very likely the warmest three decades in the last 800 years. This marks global warming.
The warming of the atmosphere melts ice caps. It causes changes in land temperature, leading to more warmer weather and large scale precipitation changes. Also, air isn’t the only place that has carbon - the ocean also absorbs all this carbon too, and it’s damaging the ecosystem.
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However, when greenhouse gases started increasing, so did the amount of warmth retained. This is the Greenhouse effect. This is why near-surface temperatures have been increasing markedly since 1970s. 1981-2010 was very likely the warmest three decades in the last 800 years. This marks global warming.
The warming of the atmosphere melts ice caps. It causes changes in land temperature, leading to more warmer weather and large scale precipitation changes. Also, air isn’t the only place that has carbon - the ocean also absorbs all this carbon too, and it’s damaging the ecosystem.
Back
