What will a runaway greenhouse effect do to the Earth?

Answer 1

the greenhouse effect is an increase in the average temperature of the earth

"Greenhouse gases" such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone and methane, slow the escape of heat from earth's atmosphere.

Answer 2

A runaway greenhouse effect (sometimes called an abrupt greenhouse effect) happened on Venus, where positive feedbacks caused the atmosphere to grow warmer and warmer until the oceans boiled away. All the oceans boiled into steam in the atmosphere and the water vapor (H2O) broke into hydrogen (H) and oxygen O2). The hydrogen escaped into space and the oxygen recombined, usually forming carbon dioxide. Venus' atmosphere is now 96% carbon dioxide and the temperature at its surface is 467°C (872°F).

A positive feedback occurs on earth with the ice caps. White ice caps reflect the sun's heat, so the earth stays a bit cooler. This is called the albedo effect. But if other things happen and the ice melts, then the land underneath is dark and does NOT reflect the sun's heat. Instead it absorbs it, and the earth gets hotter. (The earth getting hotter makes the earth get hotter still!)

Another positive feedback on earth is the frozen tundra. As the earth warms, the frozen tundra thaws. As the tundra thaws it releases methane gas, a powerful greenhouse gas. The methane gas adds to the greenhouse gases and makes the earth warmer. (The earth getting hotter releases methane making the earth hotter still!)

Earth does not have a runaway greenhouse effect. Earth has an enhanced, or accelerated greenhouse effect, but scientists are fairly confident that our positive feedbacks will never be strong enough to cause a runaway greenhouse effect.

Answer 3

A runaway greenhouse effect has not been clearly defined. There was a runaway greenhouse effect on Venus, where positive feedback increased its greenhouse effect till the oceans boiled dry.

A runaway greenhouse effect like that would mean the end of all life on the planet.

The InterGovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) hardly mentions it. One of the few times it does, it says, in Session 31, "a runaway greenhouse effect" - analogous to Venus - appears to have virtually no chance of being induced by anthropogenic activities."

There is no runaway greenhouse effect on earth. There is an "accelerated" greenhouse effect, which we are trying to slow, stop and reverse.

Answer 4

Acidic and carbon dioxide in atmosphere trap sunlight and make the planet's surface very hot.

Answer 5

Venus