Summary and Introduction

The global environment has become a very important issue in the last few years. In te past decade all over the world the belief and fear have increased that life on earth, as we know it, is threatened by the activities of mankind. The greenhouse effect is essential for life on earth. For million of years this effect has made life on earth possible. Carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and water vapour in the atmosphere allow the short wave radiation of the sun’s spectrum to pass through to the earth. The re-radiated long light waves in the infrared domain, however, are absorbed on their way back from the earth. This way the absorbing gases hold back the heat which would otherwise be lost into space. The warming of the atmosphere produces an average temperature of the earth’s surface of +15°C instead of the −18°C it would have if the earth’s atmosphere would only contain nitrogen (N2 ) and oxygen (O2 ). Through this process of transmission and absorption greenhouse gases have an important function in the regulation of the temperature on earth.