Responsible for trapping heat in the atmosphere and causing record rates of global warming across the planet, Greenhouse gases are often portrayed as the big villains of the story. However, they are a natural and essential part of the Earth's climate system.
Without the natural greenhouse effect, the ideal temperature to keep the Earth habitable (around 15 °C) would fall to -18 °C. However, by artificially increasing the concentrations of some of these gases in the atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide, human activities have enhanced the natural greenhouse effect, causing unprecedented global warming.
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