• Question: What would happen if earths atmosphere suddenly change?

    Asked by jabber8 to Aime, Akshat, Diana, Gemma, Judith on 21 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Akshat Rathi

      Akshat Rathi answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Depends on what the change is. If it suddenly heats up then we will see all our glaciers melt and we will lose all cities on coasts around the world. Whereas if it suddenly cools then we could plunge in to another ice age. A time when even the equator was covered in ice.

      Of course, this is just a simplified version of what could happen if temperature changes occur and there could be many more things that can change in the atmosphere apart from the temperature.

    • Photo: Gemma Sharp

      Gemma Sharp answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Good answer Akshat 🙂

      It also depends on to what degree the atmosphere changes. If the ozone layer in the atmosphere disappeared completely then the earth would heat up a ridiculous amount. I think everyhing would probably die. The ozone layer soaks up about 98% of the sun’s energy, so if it disappeared I think the earth would be too hot to support life.

    • Photo: Judith McCann

      Judith McCann answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      There are a lot of changes that could happen to the atmosphere so it depends on the change, but like askaht said temperature can have major impact not just on the water levels but the kinds of animals that can survive in each habitat around the world! And like Gemma said the changes in gas composition of the upper atmosphere can affect how well we are protected from UV radiation from the sun.

      Most changes that take place in the atmosphere tend to take a really long time (I’m not saying we could stop/reverse the change) but we could be long gone by the time its a problem 😉

Comments