The Greenhouse Effect and Greenhouse Gases

Climate is the result, not only of complex sets of interactions within the atmosphere, but also between the atmosphere and the oceans, land surfaces and their vegetation, and snow and ice cover. The injection of dust and gas into the atmosphere from volcanic eruptions is another forcing factor as is change in the albedo of the Earth’s surface due to influences such as seasonal changes in snow and ice cover. The elements of the climate system have different response times to change. The atmosphere is the most variable element of the climate system, changing rapidly on time-scales of days and weeks. The ocean responds much more slowly to change; its surface layers vary on time-scales of months and years, but it may take centuries for changes to affect the ocean deeps. Examination of ice cores has shown that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have changed closely in step with temperature during the last 160,000 years.