Is Carbon dioxide like glass? Is it plant food?
BUT I LIKE CO2! It’s a plant food after all! Well, the headline isn’t actually all that accurate. Our metabolism requires oxygen. A plant requires carbon dioxide. To call carbon dioxide a food would be like telling us we could forego pizza. If we’re hungry, just breathe deeply. Carbon dioxide is just one of several greenhouse gasses (GHG). To understand how they may be responsible for warming the earth, we must understand the mechanism by which they operate. To explain, I’ll use one, very potent, greenhouse gas - water. First, let’s look at how the earth warms. The earth is warmed, primarily by the sun. The high-energy, short wave infrared energy radiated by the sun can penetrate the gasses in the atmosphere and warm the ground. At night, the heat absorbed by the earth during the day is radiated back out into space. After sunset, have you ever felt the warmth of a brick wall? Like the earth, the wall is radiating stored energy back into space. This re-radiated energy is low...