What is the Greenhouse Effect? - The Environment for Kids (Updated Version)

[bright music] - [Announcer] Smile and Learn. - [Narrator] Hello, friends. Today we're going to learn what is the greenhouse effect?

Have you ever heard of it? The greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon which makes life possible on our planet. But why do we talk about the greenhouse effect?

Do you know how it works? Now you're going to understand it better. A greenhouse is an enclosed structure made of plastic or glass used to grow crops, flowers or plants.

The walls in the ceiling allow sunlight to come through inside the greenhouse to warm it up. This way, we manage to maintain temperature and humidity and optimum conditions for plants to grow. The same effect is produced on our planet.

How interesting. The Earth is surrounded by the atmosphere, a thin gaseous layer, which allows part of the solar radiation to penetrate. To do that, this layer contains gasses called greenhouse effect gases, whose mission is to absorb part of the energy received and maintain the temperature of the planet.

One of the main greenhouse effect gases is CO2, also known as carbon dioxide. Over the past centuries, gases like CO2 in the atmosphere became more abundant, and for this reason, it's capacity to retain solar radiation has increased, resulting in the rising of the planet's temperature. Same as in the greenhouse.

But the increase of these gases is very bad for the Earth. Why have they become more abundant in the atmosphere? With the industrial revolution, CO2 emissions started to rise owing to the use of fossil fuels like coal or oil.

Nowadays, traffic in the cities, cars or airplanes produce great amounts of CO2 emissions. Similarly, a great part of the energy we consume is generated by using fossil fuels. Every time you leave the lights on or any electronic device, you're sending more CO2 to the atmosphere.

Factories are another source of CO2 emissions. To produce plastic, for example, we use fossil fuels and we need a large amount of electrical energy to do so. Did you know that the textile industry is highly pollutant?

Intensive farming is also responsible for greenhouse effect gas emissions. Wildfires emit large amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere. As a consequence of the greenhouse effect and the rise in global temperature, the Earth is changing.

For this reason, water shortage, desertification, the disappearing of lakes, even sea level rise are becoming more and more common. Worst consequences are predicted in the future if we don't take measures urgently. Currently, there are some viable solutions at hand like recycling, using renewable energies, electric transportation or reducing plastic waste.

Would you like to find out more? We tell you all about them in our video "Climate Change". We're counting with you!

Remember, it's in your hands to look after the planet. Want to join us in our mission?