Plants & the Green House Effect

Every organism on the planet plays a role in the greenhouse effect, with plants playing a very dominant one. In fact, unlike most other organisms on the plant, especially humans, plants play a critical role in reversing damage caused by the greenhouse effect.

Basics of the Greenhouse Effect

• The basic premise of the greenhouse effect is this: light comes to an object (be it a car, greenhouse or the earth) and must pass through a medium (like a windshield, greenhouse glass or the atmosphere) before it can enter the object. Once the light enters the object it is then reflected back out of the object unless it is blocked, in which case it again reflects back to the original object, causing an increase in temperature.

The Greenhouse Effect Applied to Global Warming

• The greenhouse effect has been very influential in how scientists approach global warming. Simply put, the light from the sun passes through our atmosphere, which is comprised of a number of gases. Once the light reaches the surface of the earth it is reflected back out to space. However, due to the abundance of certain gases in the earth's atmosphere (namely carbon dioxide), the light from the sun is again reflected back to the earth's surface. As this process continues, the increased energy causes the temperature of the earth to rise.

The Role of Plants

• Plants play a vital role in the greenhouse effect because they are capable of a process known as photosynthesis. In this process, carbon dioxide is taken into the plant's leaves and, after numerous chemical changes, is turned into oxygen and released back into the atmosphere. Thus, the role of plants in the greenhouse effect is that they take trapped carbon dioxide, which reflects sunlight back toward earth's surface and away from space, and turn it into oxygen, which is a gas that allows the light to escape back into space.

Photosynthesis

• Photosynthesis is the plant process that essentially transforms carbon dioxide into oxygen. On the molecular level the process can be quite complex, but in a very simplistic way it can be explained as the use of light to basically split the carbon dioxide into its carbon and oxygen sub parts. The plant then uses the carbon part of the reaction and the oxygen portion is released back into the atmosphere.

Other Considerations

• The greenhouse effect is not all bad. In fact, the greenhouse effect is one of the main reasons why we as humans are able to live on a planet that does not fluctuate dramatically in temperature.