The greenhouse effect and climate change

Abstract. The presence of radiatively active gases in the Earth's atmosphere (water vapor, carbon dioxide, and ozone) raises its global mean surface temperature by 30 K, making our planet habitable by life as we know it. There has been an increase in carbon dioxide and other trace gases ince the Industrial Revolution, largely as a result of man's activities, increasing the radiative heating of the troposphere andsurface by about 2 W m-2. This heating is likely to be enhanced by resulting changes in water vapor, snow and sea ice, and cloud. The associated equilibrium temperature rise is estimated to be between 1 and 2 K, there being uncertainties in the strength of climate feedbacks, particularly those due to cloud. The large thermal inertia of the oceans will slow the rate of warming, so that the expected temperature rise will be smaller tha