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Natural Causes & Effects of Greenhouse Gases

The "greenhouse" effect on the earth's environment is a naturally occurring phenomenon that would occur with or without human intervention. This effect is one of many process that eventually led to the formation of the earth's atmosphere to begin with. Usually when greenhouse gases are referred to in the pejorative sense, this refers to the abnormally elevated emissions that human civilization is responsible for.

Volcanic Activity
- A volcano eruption has many dramatic effects on the environment, both in the short and long term. The type that cause huge amounts of particulate matter to be released into the environment are of the Vesuvian type, named for Mount Vesuvius. Usually these eruptions release many megatons of gases like sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide into the environment. The Krakatoan eruption is a great example of the effects of a powerful eruption. For a year afterward, ash lingered in the upper atmosphere, long enough to lower the albedo of the earth and reflect enough sunlight to lower average temperatures as much as 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Decaying Organic Matter
- Deforestation, animal waste, algae and masses of dead organic matter, such as in peat, contribute to the production of methane, which accounts for 20 percent of all greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Some of these are exacerbated by human activity, chiefly, agriculture and its great surpluses, but all of these occur normally. Fossil fuels are actually the distillation of millions of years of decaying organic material, locked away in the rock that forms the earth's crust.
Evaporation
- Water vapor itself is the most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, most noticeably accounting for the formation of clouds and humidity. This water vapor is readily formed by the heating effect of the sun on the earth, which is 70 percent water on the surface. The water vapor in the atmosphere amplifies the effects of the other, more harmful greenhouse gases, which is why we observe phenomena like acid rain.
Global Warming
- Global warming is the most pronounced effect that greenhouse gases have on the environment, and there are reasonable fears that this will lead to the melting of the polar caps and raising of ocean levels which would threaten human coastal settlements and cause, potentially, more natural disasters. The earth has gone through global cooling and warming cycles, which is usually regulated by plants and their ability to absorb carbon dioxide and emit dioxygen.

Nature