Greenhouse effect is a warming of the lower atmosphere and surface of the planet by a complex process involving sunlight, gases, and particles in the atmosphere. The amount of heat-trapping atmospheric gases, called greenhouse gases, have greatly increased since the mid-1800's, when modern industry became widespread. Since the late 1800's, the temperature of the earth's surface has also risen. The greenhouse effect is so named because the atmosphere acts much like the glass roof and walls of a greenhouse, trapping in the heat from the sun.
The natural greenhouse effect. The atmosphere reflects toward space about 30 percent of the energy in incoming sunlight. The atmosphere absorbs about another 30 percent and the remaining 40 percent or so reaches the earth's surface. The earth's surface reflects about 15 percent of the solar energy that reaches it, back toward space.…
