Select the processes that are impacted by greenhouse gases. Select all that apply.?

Greenhouse gases .....

X Depletion of fossil fuels

√ Melting or formation of glaciers and polar ice sheets

X Increasing levels of pollutants in rainwater

√ Variations in global temperature

√ Increasing sea levels

"Greenhouse" is actually incorrect, in that the process is not really like a greenhouse, but the end result is an increase in temperature, like a greenhouse.(*)

The most prevalent greenhouse gas by far is water vapor. The one we hear about most often is carbon dioxide and the one which will make a significant impact as permafrost melts is methane.

The effects of greenhouse gases will be the increase of air temperature, melting of ice-packs and glaciers, increase in ocean temperature, sea-level rise, acidification of the oceans and changes in the balance of calcium ions and calcium carbonate, and the amount of dissolved oxygen.

We've already seen the melting of great bodies of ice, and of average air temperature increase, plus the thermal expansion of sea-water and sea-level rise. Plus there is the obvious damage to corals as temperature and ocean pH change, other sea-life is beginning to feel the pinch. Recently sargassum (a type of floating sea-weed) has spread from Africa to Mexico and washed up on beaches, producing foul smelling gases and a giant mess to clean up. On land, temperatures are rising, humidity is increasing, storms are becoming more erratic and more severe, and in general weather has become more extreme.

These consequences of climate change are obvious, yet some world leaders continue to put their heads in the sand and ignore the obvious, while inertia keeps us from doing much about it.

(*) A greenhouse allows light to pass through the transparent roof, but traps the heated air. Greenhouse gases absorb long-wave electromagnetic energy (infra-red, mostly) which would otherwise be radiated into space and then re-emit that energy, heating the atmosphere and the Earth's surface.