The Silestone countertop I purchased is actually a composite of natural and man-made materials as opposed to granite which is strictly a natural stone product.
A greenhouse gas (GHG) is any gas in the atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation in the thermal infrared range. These are the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect, which results in increased temperatures on Earth. The greenhouse effect occurs as the gases reach Earthâs surface. As the short wave energy heats the surface, some of the longer wave energy radiates back into the atmosphere and back into space. Greenhouse gases absorb some of the energy and trap it in the lower atmosphere.
But the [climate] models are getting a lot stronger, said Jay Gulledge, a senior research at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change in Arlington, Virginia. Gulledge says some current projections point to a rise in average global temperature of 0.5Â°C (slightly less than 1Â°F) by the year 2030. The estimates are based on greenhouse gasses already in the atmosphere. While the temperature increase is small, it would be significant. Over the past century Earth has warmed about 1Â°F (0.6Â°C). (See our fast facts on global warming.) Gulledge cautions, however, that warming rates depend on many factors, some of which have yet to be discovered.