CHEMICAL REACTIONS INVOLVED IN GLOBAL WARMING - ENVIRONMENT - 2025

There are not a few chemical reactions involved in the so-called global warming, the famous greenhouse effect being an example. Global warming is a phenomenon that, although it is questioned by some, is considered responsible for many atmospheric and climatic changes that the planet is experiencing today.

In a World Bank report titled "Lower the Temperature: Why a 4 ° C Warmer Planet Should Be Avoided", it is noted that rising temperatures on the Earth threaten the health and livelihoods of living things, at the same time that makes it possible for major natural disasters to occur more frequently.

Indeed, it has been proven that today we suffer the effects of extreme weather events that have increased, in some cases, as a result of climate change.

What is the chemical and physical explanation of global warming?

The sun heats the earth thanks to heat waves that, when colliding with the atmosphere, transform into particles called thermal photons, which transmit heat but not temperature.

By clumping together, thermal photons form a kind of superparticles that house temperature and are called thermions.

In fact, the temperature of a body depends on the number of thermions it contains, and thermions tend to form in the Earth's atmosphere by the penetration of thermal photons into CO2 molecules.

Again, the presence of a type of gas enhances a reaction that affects the increase in the earth's temperature.

Greenhouse gases

Greenhouse effect scheme. Source: Robert A. Rohde (Dragons flight at English Wikipedia), Translation into Spanish felix, adaptation layout Basquetteur

They are those gases that absorb and emit radiation within the infrared range and are decisive in the greenhouse effect.

China is the country with the highest level of emissions of this type of gases in terms of volume: 7.2 metric tons of CO2 per capita. This is comparable to the level of emissions of the countries of the European Union put together.

CO2 gases, water vapor and methane in the atmosphere

The main gases of this type present in the Earth's atmosphere are:

• Carbon dioxide (CO2): it is a gas whose molecules are made up of two oxygen atoms and one carbon. Its chemical formula is CO2. It is naturally present in the atmosphere, biomass, and the oceans.

In adequate concentrations, it participates in the balance of the biogeochemical cycle and maintains the greenhouse effect at levels that make life on the planet possible.

When it exceeds these levels, it increases the greenhouse effect to dangerous levels for living beings.

Human activity has generated new sources of CO2 production, with the combustion of fossil fuels and the deforestation of tropical areas.

• Water vapor: it is a gas that occurs naturally in the air and is obtained by evaporation or boiling of liquid water. It can also be obtained by sublimation of ice.

This gas is involved in all chemical reactions that take place in the atmosphere and from which the so-called free radicals are released. Absorbs infrared rays.

• Methane: is a colorless, flavorless alkane hydrocarbon that occurs naturally in lakes and swamps. Its chemical formula is CH4.

It emerges from the leaks from mining operations and natural deposits. It can also be released in the natural gas distribution process, in addition to being at the end of the anaerobic decomposition process in plants, which is why it constitutes up to 97% of natural gas.

It is a flammable gas that intervenes in the ozone destruction processes, and although it heats the earth 25 times more than CO2, it is 220 times less present in the atmosphere than CO2, so its contribution to the greenhouse effect is less.

• Carbon monoxide: is a gas that is released during the decomposition of organic matter and when the combustion of hydrocarbons is not completed.

Its harmful effects are usually detected in the lower atmosphere, where the ideal is that it is at a maximum of 10 ppm, so that it does not cause damage to health.

In other words, these damages become more probable when the exposure to the gas exceeds 8 hours a day.

• Nitrogen oxides - This term refers to various gaseous chemical compounds that are formed by combining oxygen and nitrogen.

It is generated during combustion at very high temperatures and its presence in low areas of the atmosphere is due to industrial pollution and forest fires.

It intervenes in acid rain, the formation of smog and the destruction of ozone.

• Ozone: it is a substance that prevents the direct passage of solar radiation to the earth's surface and its molecule is made up of three oxygen atoms. It forms in the stratosphere, becoming a kind of protective shield for the planet.
• Chlorofluorocarbons: are the derivatives of saturated hydrocarbons that are obtained by substituting hydrogen atoms for fluorine and / or chlorine atoms.

It is a physio-chemically stable gas, generated in industrial activities, which is commonly found among the gaseous components of refrigerants and extinguishing agents.

Although it is not toxic, it participates in the destruction of stratospheric ozone.

• Sulfur dioxide: it is a gas that occurs naturally during the oxidation process of organic sulfides generated in the oceans. It is also possible to find it in active volcanoes. Intervenes in acid rain.

What exactly is the greenhouse effect?

Based on the fact that greenhouses are closed spaces whose walls and roof are made of glass or of any material that allows solar energy to penetrate inside without it being able to leave it, the greenhouse effect refers to the phenomenon in which solar radiation enters to the ground but does not come out.

So, from the point of view of chemistry, this phenomenon implies that the glass molecules (or the material from which the walls and roof of the greenhouse are made) form activated complexes with the thermions that collide with them.

Those thermions that are produced when the activated complexes break, remain inside the greenhouse and their quantity seems to be regulated because more never enter than were previously inside that space.

In this way, the amount of internal energy remains stable, thus regulating the temperature of the greenhouse.

Now, if in the same greenhouse as the example, carbon dioxide (CO2) is introduced and the pressure, temperature and volume of the space are kept constant, the temperature of the floor rises.

The more CO2 is introduced, the greater the heating of the floor of that greenhouse. In global terms, the more CO2 there is in the atmosphere, the greater the warming of the earth's surface.

And this is so, even when the oceans absorb most of the heat, according to researchers from the universities of Liverpool, Southampton and Bristol in the United Kingdom, who demonstrated the direct relationship between the amount of CO2 and global warming as well as the regulatory role and even slower of the oceans in this process.

That is to say, there are certain molecules (gaseous) that intervene in the heating process.

References

1. April, Eduardo R. (2007). The greenhouse effect produced by atmospheric CO2: a new thermodynamic interpretation. Southern Ecology, 17 (2), 299-304. Recovered from: scielo.org.ar.
2. ABC Disasters (s / f). Greenhouse Gases. Recovered from: eird.org.
3. BBC (s / f). Global warming. The greenhouse effect. Recovered from: bbc.co.uk.
4. China Daily (2013). China a vital partner in combating climate change. Recovered from: www.bancomundial.org.
5. IPCC (s / f). Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007. Retrieved from: www.ipcc.ch.