The greenhouse effect is the radiative process by which certain atmospheric gases (notably water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone) absorb and re-emit longwave (infrared) radiation emitted by Earth’s surface and lower atmosphere, thereby reducing the net outgoing longwave flux to space and warming the lower troposphere and surface. It arises from molecular vibrational and rotational absorption bands that are transparent to most incoming shortwave solar radiation but partially opaque to outgoing terrestrial radiation. In climate science, the greenhouse effect is quantified via radiative forcing, feedbacks (e.g., water vapor and cloud feedbacks), and its role in establishing Earth’s energy balance and global mean temperature.
The Trump administration took a major step in its efforts to unravel America's climate policies on Feb. 12, 2026, when it moved to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding—a formal determination that six greenhouse gases that ...
Environment
Feb 13, 2026
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The Trump administration on Thursday revoked a scientific finding that long has been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change, the most aggressive move by the president ...
Environment
Feb 12, 2026
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The Earth is warming more rapidly than before, and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more intense. While global warming is mainly driven by carbon dioxide emissions, it is also influenced by air pollution. ...
Environment
Feb 12, 2026
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UK winters are becoming significantly wetter mainly due to warming driven by human burning of fossil fuels releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, a Newcastle University study reveals. The research shows that for ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 11, 2026
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Scientists say that multiple Earth system components appear closer to destabilization than previously believed, putting the planet in increased danger of following a "hothouse" path driven by feedback loops that can amplify ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 11, 2026
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Human-caused climate change had an important impact on the recent ferocious wildfires that engulfed parts of Chile and Argentina's Patagonia region, making the extremely high-risk conditions that led to widespread burning ...
Environment
Feb 11, 2026
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China's sweeping efforts to clean up its air have delivered one of the biggest public health success stories of recent decades. Since the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan was launched in 2013, coal-fired power ...
The world is warming. This fact is most often discussed for Earth's surface, where we live. But the climate is also changing from the top of the atmosphere to the bottom of the ocean. And there is a clear fingerprint of humanity's ...
Environment
Feb 7, 2026
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Water vapor (H2Ov) is an essential component of Earth's atmosphere, playing critical roles in climate regulation, weather patterns, and the water cycle. Its sources primarily come from natural processes such as ocean evaporation ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 2, 2026
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Some tropical land regions may warm more dramatically than previously predicted, as climate change progresses, according to a new CU Boulder study that looks millions of years into Earth's past. Using lake sediments from ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 2, 2026
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