What is Climate Change and Global Warming?

What is the Kyoto Protocol?

WHAT ARE CDM AND JI PROJECTS?

WHAT ARE CER's AND ERU's?

The earth's atmosphere acts as a filter for solar rays; approximately half of the visible light and ultraviolet radiation given off by the sun is either absorbed by the various layers or reflected back into space. Most of the 50% that does get through heats the earth's surface and is eventually reflected back into space as infrared radiation. The 'greenhouse effect' is the atmospheric trapping of that infrared radiation; a natural phenomenon without which the Earth would be uninhabitably cold for humans.

During the combustion of carbon-based fossil fuels, greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are emitted. These gases add to that atmospheric layer that is permeable to ultraviolet, but not infrared radiation. As more fossil fuels are burned, the layer of greenhouse gases thickens; solar radiation continues to pass through unimpeded, while heat reflected from the earth finds it harder and harder to escape into space. In the medium to long term, this results in the gradual increase in the Earth's temperature known classically as 'global warming'.

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