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Question Video: Assessing the Impact of an Atmosphere Free from Greenhouse Gases Science • Second Year of Preparatory School

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What would happen if all of the greenhouse gases were removed from the atmosphere?

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Video Transcript

What would happen if all of the greenhouse gases were removed from the atmosphere? (A) The average global temperature would become very hot. (B) The average global temperature would return to the temperature it was around 1750. (C) The average global temperature would stay the same. (D) The average global temperature would become very cold.

Some of the gases found in Earth’s atmosphere, both naturally and through human activity, are greenhouse gases. Some examples of greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, and nitrogen oxides. Greenhouse gases absorb and emit infrared or IR radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface, clouds, and the atmosphere. This contributes to the greenhouse effect.

The greenhouse effect is the process through which gases in the Earth’s troposphere trap the Sun’s heat in the form of IR radiation. Let’s take a closer look at this process. As ultraviolet or UV radiation and visible light from the Sun move through the atmosphere, some of the radiation is reflected back into space by the atmosphere and the Earth’s surface. In addition, some of the ultraviolet radiation is absorbed by the ozone layer in the stratosphere. Some of the ultraviolet radiation and visible light that reach the Earth’s surface are absorbed by the Earth. Some of the absorbed radiation is emitted as infrared or IR radiation. Most of this IR radiation is absorbed by greenhouse gases in the troposphere.

The energy is then released from the gas molecules as thermal energy that warms the Earth. The greenhouse effect is a natural process that is essential for maintaining a temperature in which life on Earth can be sustained. But a change in the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere can create an imbalance. An increase in the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere results in more heat being trapped, which in turn can cause global warming, an increase in the average global temperature. But if the greenhouse gases were removed from the atmosphere, the infrared radiation emitted from the Earth’s surface would not be trapped. The thermal energy would be lost in space, and the average global temperature would be considerably colder.

So, if all of the greenhouse gases were removed from the atmosphere, the average global temperature would become very cold, answer choice (D).

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