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Don’t be confused, don’t be mislead!

cross-section of our atmostphere

Cross-section of our atmostphere

What is different between greenhouse effect and ozone depletion?

  • The greenhouse effect consists of some gases in the lower atmosphere that can hold more heat than oxygen and nitrogen. Large quantities of greenhouse gases will increase the temperature of the world’s climates.
  • Ozone depletion occurs in the upper atmosphere where the gas is so thin we could not breathe. Normally a chemical called ozone is naturally made in the upper atmosphere. Ozone filters out most of the UV (ultraviolet) radiation. High doses of UV radiation are harmful to most animals and plants including ourselves. Chloro-fluro carbon gases are chemicals that have been used in the past in spray cans, air conditioners and fridges. When these chemicals reach the upper atmosphere they can destroy the ozone chemicals allowing UV radiation to reach the ground.

What is different between climate and weather?

  • Climate is the average weather over a number of years and shows what the average trend in weather is over all the seasons.
  • Weather describes the changes in rain, sun, cloud, wind, temperature etc. form hour to hour, day to day and month to month.

Ozone Element

Ozone element

Science use of a theory and evidence vs non-science.

Scientists pose a theory and then accumulate evidence that supports or does not support the theory. There is a lot of evidence to support climate change resulting from greenhouse gases that includes:

  • from the past, it has been shown that greenhouse gases change when climate changes.
  • there is a lot of evidence that gases like carbon dioxide and methane hold onto energy more than oxygen and nitrogen. Some non-science people form a view that a theory can be questioned by opinion alone without any new evidence. Or sometimes they try and convince others that the evidence is not strong enough without actually understanding the evidence.

What will happen in the future?

  • Scientist have not been able predict exactly how much the climate will change or what its full impact will be.
  • However the smallest predicted change in temperature will be enough to cause coral bleaching to most of the world’s coral reefs.

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