What do greenhouse gases do?
As a car with its windows rolled up on a sunny day keeps the sun’s warmth inside the car, carbon dioxide or any other greenhouse gas has the ability to prevent the reflection of solar radiation back out into space. The greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon. It is the reason our day and night temperature differences are so narrow.
One of the primary impacts of CO2 is its contribution to the “greenhouse effect”. In that role of establishing and maintaining the radiative equilibrium of Earth it assists considerably in creating the very conditions of life. All planets are exposed to the same electromagnetic radiation of the sun, but the fact that the Earth supports living organisms (at least, in a form that we can recognize) has much to do with CO2. Another impact of CO2 is its fundamental role in all the trophic relationships (food webs) on Earth — including those of humans — since it is used by green plants in photosynthesis. As such, without the use of CO2 by plants in converting solar energy directly into matter, we could not exist. In that context, CO2 is not only responsible for the conditions that support life on the planet, it is fundamental to life itself, since all organic material is carbon based. The whole idea of being “carbon neutral”, “post-carbon society”, etc., are simple buzz words that are misl
