So I had already written out my post and published it, but not even a whole minute later, I deleted it. :(

This one will probably be a little short because of that. Sorry.

I decided to learn about the greenhouse effect. I have heard a lot about global warming and the greenhouse effect lately (as I'm sure many of you have too) and wanted to get the facts, specifically concerning the greenhouse effect.

There are two types of the greenhouse effect that can be observed: the natural greenhouse effect and the enhanced greenhouse effect.

The natural greenhouse effect the the process of the sun heating the earth and the earth trapping some of that heat with the aid of different gases (the most important being carbon dioxide) and water vapor in the atmosphere. This is a good thing. If it didn't happen our planet's average temperature would be a lot lower (Mars, for example, doesn't have a very effective greenhouse effect which makes Mars very cold (on average)). As it is, the natural greenhouse effect maintains the status quo.

Then there is the dreaded enhanced greenhouse effect. This is the same effect (sun heats earth, earth saves sun's heat) only it is enhanced. :) Increases in greenhouse gases (once again the most important being carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere are causing the earth to trap more and more of the suns energy resulting in the earths average temperature increasing, but this time it is a "problem" because we (humans) are the ones producing more of this gas and the temperature of the earth is getting out of control.

OK, so according to once source I read, this enhanced greenhouse effect is responsible for increasing the earth's average temperature by a whole 1°C in the past 100 years. Holy melarky, Batman! That is a lot of degrees. Well, like I said, that was only one source. Another source indicated that if the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere was to suddenly double (assuming that everything else stayed the same, no increase in other gases or water vapor) we would experience an average increase of 1.2°C. And since other things would change with the rising temps (more water vapor and stuff) we could even experience an average increase of around 3°C.

I don't know about you, but that doesn't bother me. Sure I am going to do my part, maybe ride the bus more, maybe walk a little more, but I don't see why we are all panicking over this. Am I missing something? Were my sources off? Please let me know if I've got it wrong, I just want to learn.

P.S. I probably wont be doing this on a weekly basis as previously indicated. ;)