The Greenhouse Effect

Global warming is caused by an increase in the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is not a bad thing by itself — it’s what allows Earth to stay warm enough for life to survive.

Although it’s not a perfect analogy, you can think of the Earth sort of like your car sitting out in a parking lot on a sunny day. You’ve probably noticed that your car is always much hotter inside than the outside temperature if it’s been sitting there for a while. The sun’s rays enter through your car’s windows. Some of the heat from the sun is absorbed by the seats, the dashboard and the carpeting and floor mats. When those objects release this heat, it doesn’t all get out through the windows. Some is reflected back in. The heat radiated by the seats is a different wavelength than the light of the sun that made it through the windows in the first place. So a certain amount of energy is going in, and less energy is going out. The result is a gradual increase in the temperature inside your car.

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