The Natural Greenhouse Effect

1. The Natural Greenhouse Effect • the warming caused when gases in Earth’s atmosphere trap heat energy radiated by Earth occurs in 3 steps: • ultraviolet (UV) light from the Sun strikes the Earth • UV light reflects off Earth’s surface and is re-radiated as infrared (IR) light • IR light has difficulty passing through greenhouse gases in the atmosphere so become trapped leading to higher temperatures on Earth

2. The Carbon Cycle - the Carbon Cycle is the movement of carbon between the biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere • changes in the balance of carbon in the atmosphere can result in climate change

3. The Carbon Cycle 1) Photosynthesis – plants remove carbon dioxide C02 from air and the carbon goes into plants 2) Respiration – animals breath out CO2 3) Biomass – organisms contain carbon and pass it through food chains 4) Oceans - C02 dissolves into oceans 5) Decomposition – adds methane CH4 to air and carbon to soil 6) Combustion – burning fossils fuels adds C02 to the air