Global Warming in a Nutshell Occasionally it's good to step back
from the details of global warming science and offer non-
technical visitors a "Global Warming 101" perspective, sort of
like The Big Picture, but starting from the very beginning and
touching on many aspects of this broad topic. This article was
revised and re-posted from Larry's website. The figures
supplement the main text with key data, but they are mostly
independent and reading the figures is not necessary for
understanding the text, and vice versa. The Greenhouse Effect
The Earth is a giant rock, hurtling through space in its orbit
around the sun. It would be a frozen lifeless rock like the moon
if not for the thin layer of atmosphere that traps solar energy
and insulates the Earth's surface, like a transparent blanket.
The way the atmosphere traps solar energy is called (somewhat
inaccurately) the Greenhouse Effect, because the effect is
similar to a greenhouse or a closed car heating up in the sun.
Sunlight comes in through a transparent