How Does the Greenhouse Effect Actually Work?

The Earth is like a cozy house that keeps warm by letting sunlight in and trapping some heat.

Imagine you're wearing a blanket on a cold night, it lets the warmth from your body escape, but it also keeps some of that warmth close to you so you don’t get too chilly. The greenhouse effect works kind of like that blanket.

When sunlight comes to Earth, it passes through the atmosphere and warms up the ground and oceans. Then the Earth sends out heat, just like your body sends out warmth. Some of this heat goes straight back into space, but part of it is caught by gases in the air, like carbon dioxide and methane, which act like a blanket around the planet.

If you wear two blankets instead of one on that cold night, you’ll stay warmer. Similarly, when we add more greenhouse gases, it’s like adding more blankets, the Earth gets warmer because more heat is being trapped. That’s why scientists are watching how many "blankets" we're putting on our planet.