The sun is the Earth’s primary energy source, a burning star so hot that we can feel its heat from over 150 million kilometers away. Its rays enter our atmosphere and shower upon on our planet. About one third of this solar energy is reflected back into the universe by shimmering glaciers, water and other bright surfaces. Two thirds, however, are absorbed by the Earth, warming land, oceans, and atmosphere. Much of this heat radiates back out into space, but some of it is being stored in the atmosphere. This is process is what is called the greenhouse effect. Without it, the Earth’s average temperature would be a chilling -18 degrees Celsius, even despite the sun’s constant energy supply. In a world like this life on Earth would probably have never emerged from the sea. Thanks to the greenhouse effect, however, heat emitted from the Earth is trapped in the atmosphere, providing us with a comfortable average temperature of 14 degrees.  The Blanket Effect Why Does an Insurance Company Care about Climate Change? Sunrays enter the glass roof and walls of a greenhouse. But once they heat up the ground, which in turn heats up the air inside the greenhouse, the glass panels trap that warm air and temperatures increase. But our planet has no glass walls; the only thing that comes close to acting as such is our atmosphere. But unfortunately, in here, processes are way more complicated. Only about half of all solar energy that reaches the Earth is infrared radiation and causes immediate warming when passing the atmosphere. The other half is of a higher frequency, and only translates into heat once it hits Earth and is later reflected back into space as waves of infrared radiation.