Planet warming

This might be said to be the most important reaction in the solar system because energy from this reaction powers the Sun, lights up the planets, warms the Earth s surface, and nourishes life on the Earth. This is a complicated reaction, with several pathways to accomplish it, and each pathway involving several steps. 

FIGURE 2.1 Graphic of planet warming with a blanket of greenhouse gases. Artwork courtesy of Ms. Vanessa Vaquera of Chico, CA. 

Burning of any hydrocarbon (fossil fuel) or, for that matter, any organic material converts its carbon content to carbon dioxide and its hydrogen to water. Because power plants and other industries emit large amounts of carbon dioxide, they contribute to the so-called greenhouse warming effect on our planet, which causes significant en-... 

Allen Kani Associates, 1999. The Big Chill How to Cool the Downtown Without Warming the Planet, 4 pp. 

The Planetary Energy Balance [3] of Incoming Solar (340 W/m2) minus Reflected (101 W/m2) minus Radiated (238 W/m2) = 1 W/m2. This excess energy warms the oceans and melts glaciers and ice sheets. The GHG component is 2 W/m2. The amount of heat required to melt enough ice to raise sea level 1 m is about 12 Watt-years (averaged over the planet)—energy that could be accumulated in 12 years if the planet is out of balance by 1 W/m2 per year. 

Nordell, B., 2005a. Response on comments given by J. Gumbel and H. Rodhe on my paper Thermal pollution causes global warming , Global Planet. Change, 47, 77-78. 

Extraterrestrial origins of life Terrestrial origins of life Life was delivered to the Earth (or any planet) by meteorites of cometary material, leading to the idea of panspermia The molecules of life were built on Earth, perhaps in the primordial soup or little warm pool... 

The calculated surface temperature of the Earth can be compared with a mean surface temperature of 288 K. The difference in these temperatures is attributed to global warming mechanisms in the atmosphere. Similar calculations can be performed for any object at any distance from a star of known temperature. The calculations for the other objects in the solar system are presented for the other planets in Table 7.2. 

The radiative heading of a planet from the local start to produce a surface temperature on the planet that will allow liquid water. From these calculations, estimates of global warming contributions can be made. A continually habitable zone allows for the variations in stellar flux as it evolves... 

Terraforming Adding chemicals to the atmosphere of a planet such as Mars to initiate a global warming process, raising the surface temperature to a habitable level. 

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