Have you ever parked your car outside on a sunny day, and then,
when you got in the car you find it is hotter than the outside air? The
steering wheel is burning to the touch? You do know it is true that you car
gets hotter, because we can't keep our pets in the car on a hot day because the
car's interior will quickly overheat. This is because light energy from the sun
gets into the car, and the interior car surfaces absorb this energy, which
heats the car's seat, dashboard, floor, etc. The car's roof and windows then
trap the heat, and the whole inside of the car gets hotter.
You and I and all the animals and all the plants - are the dog
trapped inside the car. The earth's layer of gases in our atmosphere is our car
windows and roof, trapping heat inside.
The earth has a layer of trapped gases that keep heat from
escaping. With extra gases from all of our human-caused activities - factories,
cars and cows and sheep spewing CO2 and/or methane, the gases become thicker
and less heat energy can escape back into space, so our planet continues to
warm. This results in climate change - an alteration in the patterns of
temperature, wind, rainfall, and major weather-related events over the planet.
Okay, this really wasn't about the heat in your car - this was a post about climate change, but who would have read it with "climate change" in the title?!
- I took a good share of this from Janice Stanger, "Climate
Change Simplified."
