Environmental
Climate literacy
A long read
A blanket on a cold night
Pull a blanket over you on a cold night.
The blanket makes no heat of its own. It just slows your warmth from leaving. Some gases in the air do the same job. They sit around our whole planet like a blanket.
Scientists call this the greenhouse effect.
greenhouse effect
How certain gases in the air trap heat near Earth, keeping it warm. Like a blanket holding in warmth.
Sources
- NOAA
- NASA Science, The Carbon Cycle
- NOAA Climate.gov, on Eunice Foote's 1856 experiment
- NOAA Climate.gov
- UCAR/NCAR News (news.ucar.edu)
- NASA Earth Observatory, "Earth's Big Heat Bucket"