Množina: greenhouses

A building with glass walls and roof; for the cultivation and exhibition of plants under controlled conditions; SYN. nursery, glasshouse.

Množina: greenhouse effects

Warming that results when solar radiation is trapped by the atmosphere; caused by atmospheric gases that allow sunshine to pass through but absorb heat that is radiated back from the warmed surface of the earth.
Phenomenon of the Earth's atmosphere by which solar radiation, trapped by the Earth and re-emitted from the surface, is prevented from escaping by various gases in the air. The result is a rise in the Earth's temperature. The main greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Fossil-fuel consumption and forest fires are the main causes of carbon dioxide buildup; methane is a byproduct of agriculture (rice, cattle, sheep). Water vapor is another greenhouse gas.
The United Nations Environment Program estimates that by 2025, average world temperatures will have risen by 1.5ºC with a consequent rise of 20 cm in sea level. Low-lying areas and entire countries would be threatened by flooding and crops would be affected by the change in climate. However, predictions about global warming and its possible climatic effects are tentative and often conflict with each other.
At the 1992 Earth Summit it was agreed that by 2000 countries would stabilize carbon dioxide emissions at 1990 levels, but to halt global warming, emissions would probably need to be cut by 60%. Any increases in carbon dioxide emissions are expected to come from transport. The Berlin Mandate, agreed unanimously at the climate conference in Berlin April 1995, committed industrial nations to the continuing reduction of greenhouse gas emissions after 2000, when the existing pact to stabilize emissions runs out.
Dubbed the “greenhouse effect” by Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius, it was first predicted 1827 by French mathematician Joseph Fourier.
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is estimated to have risen by 25% since the Industrial Revolution, and 10% since 1950; the rate of increase is now 0.5% a year. Chlorofluorocarbon levels are rising by 5% a year, and nitrous oxide levels by 0.4% a year, resulting in a global warming effect of 0.5% since 1900, and a rise of about 0.1ºC/3º F a year in the temperature of the world's oceans during the 1980s. Arctic ice was 6–7 m/20–23 ft thick in 1976 and had reduced to 4–5 m/13–17 ft by 1987.
A medium-sized power station, generating around 500 megawatts, produces 500 metric tons of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide, every hour. It is possible to remove the gas from flue emissions and store it under pressure, though the energy needed to do so would amount to a fifth of the plant's electricity. In addition, the waste is bulky and must be disposed of safely. See carbon sequestration.