How is it happening?
The gases that surround our planet make up the atmosphere. The earth’s atmosphere acts like a greenhouse with earth in the middle of it. It lets sunlight in and stops the warmth getting out. Without it the earth would be freezing and too cold for us to survive.
But you can have too much of a good thing. We are releasing too many gasses that are adding to the atmosphere and as the greenhouse gets thicker it is trapping more and more heat in. This is called The Greenhouse Effect.
So which gasses are causing a problem? The main one is Carbon Dioxide (CO²). This accounts for around 6
0% of all the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is released when we burn fossil fuels, like coal, oil and natural gas. We burn them to generate electricity and heat, and to fuel our cars and airplanes.
Then there’s Methane and Nitrous Oxide. These are the invisible gases that come from the rubbish we dump in landfill sites, and from cattle, and certain types of farming.
Finally there are artificial greenhouse gases – fluorinated gases. These are used to run fridges and air conditioning systems but are only a problem if they leak or are not dealt with properly when they’re thrown away.
