Climate Change Causes The Greenhouse Effect

Carbon dioxide emissions make our atmosphere act more like a blanket around the earth or like a greenhouse (Leggett 2007; DOE EIA 2004; IPCC 2007). This blanket or greenhouse traps extra heat from the sun as a greenhouse traps and holds heat from the sun. The trapped heat then warms the earth, including its land and oceans. The more carbon dioxide is released, the more heat is trapped.  The atmospheric model below shows the blanket effect.

This picture shows how sunlight enters our atmosphere and gets trapped by an atmosphere building up
more and more greenhouse gas emissions, leading to the heating up of the atmosphere and earth over time.
(Image: Courtesy of Department of Energy/NREL and Washington State Dept. of Ecology. Used with permission.)