Gaia
The Gaia theory explains the Earths evolution with an ancient living being named Gaia. Gaia has occupied earth since its formation. Gaia started an ongoing process of transformation. The process begins with bacteria and photosynthetic algae extracting carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. This oxygen-rich atmosphere then set the stage for the evolution of multi cellular life. The atmosphere also started a process of influencing life and life evolving to influence the atmosphere.
To maintain a constant surface temperature for billions of years a decrease in atmospheric pressure would have to occur over time. Apparently there was more oxygen in the past. More oxygen creates more atmospheric pressure. The more oxygen lost from earth, the lower the pressure on earth. This relationship between pressure and temperature can be observed currently in different altitudes. The higher a person goes in altitude, the thinner the air is, and the colder the temperature becomes. If a person tries to hitch a ride on the wheel of an airplane they will freeze to death.
The clouds also regulate the temperature. If there are more clouds, more sunlight is reflected away from the earth, and the earth cools. If there are fewer clouds, more sunlight is able to reach the surface of the earth and the earth warms. Higher temperatures lead to greater evaporation and greater global cloud cover, cooling the planet.
More Earth Sciences
essays:
Measurement of the structure and composition of the Earth's atmosphere
... 21% Oxygen (O2) and the other 1% are divided within three other gases, argon (A), water (H2O) and Carbon Dioxide (CO2). With altitudes above 500km some molecules break free from the gravity and escape into space this part of the atmosphere ...
Degradation of the Coral Reefs
... preventing the heat of the sun to escape through our atmosphere. This is primarily due to fossil fuel burning and deforestation and many scientists believe that this causing sea surface temperatures to ...
Nature at it's finest; Natural causes of global temperature fluctuations.
... their photosynthetic processes. Upon their death and decay, plants will naturally give of the carbon dioxide that they have stored. The GCCIP also explains that through natural forest fires comes the emission of CO2 into the atmosphere(p ...
Planet Earth (SCI350 Astronomy)
... nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere that gives it a comfortable, livable surface temperature. The greenhouse effect does warm Earth, but not to a severe level. Without its effect, Earth's global temperature would be below freezing and unable to sustain life. What ...
Global Warming
... into the atmosphere, causing a great buildup and more warming. Higher temperatures cause a reduced ability of the oceans to effectively dissolve carbon dioxide (leading ...
What is Global Warming?
... unlike carbon dioxide, these pollutants fall back to the Earth after a couple of weeks or months. They also believe that because the aerosol inputs into the atmosphere have ... release the stored heat higher into the troposphere. The mixture of cool and hot produce EarthÂ’s surface temperature, which ...
Global Warming
... in temperature. In fact since the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric concentrations of all these greenhouse gasses have risen. For instance, carbon dioxide concentrations ...
Evironmentalism.
... of air pollution stemming from our personal lives. According to the EPA, furnaces, hot water heaters, and other fossil fuel burning appliances in American homes produce 20% of all U.S. carbon dioxide, 26 ...