The Earth has a natural temperature control system. Earth’s atmosphere is primarily composed of nitrogen which is 78 percent% and oxygen is 21%. These atmospheric gases restrict the absorption of infrared energy. Only greenhouse gases, which make up less than 1 percent of the atmosphere, offer Earth insulation. The greenhouse effect is a naturally occurring process that aids in heating the Earth’s surface and atmosphere. The greenhouse effect causes the surface of the Earth to be warmer than it would have been in the absence of an atmosphere. The greenhouse effect has warmed Earth for over 4 billion years. The greenhouse effect, first discovered by Joseph Fourier in 1824, and first investigated quantitatively by Svante Arrhenius in 1896, is the process by which an atmosphere warms a planet.
Read More