Why is global warming happening?
The Earth naturally traps some heat to keep us warm. But by burning coal, oil, and gas, humans have added extra greenhouse gases that trap too much heat. It's like putting ten blankets on the planet instead of one. The result: rising temperatures, extreme weather, and a changing climate.

The Earth has a natural "blanket" of gases in the atmosphere that traps some of the sun's heat. This is called the greenhouse effect, and without it, Earth would be about 33°C colder—a frozen ball of ice. So the greenhouse effect itself is a good thing. The problem is we've made that blanket too thick.

Sunlight comes in: Energy from the sun travels to Earth as light. Some is reflected back to space, but most is absorbed by the land and oceans, warming the planet.

The Earth radiates heat back out: The warmed Earth releases that energy back toward space as infrared (heat) radiation.

Greenhouse gases trap the heat: Gases like carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide (N₂O) absorb that outgoing heat and re-radiate it in all directions—including back down to Earth. That's the greenhouse effect.

Humans thickened the blanket: Since the Industrial Revolution (~1850), burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) has released huge amounts of CO₂ that were buried underground for millions of years. We also added methane from agriculture and landfills, and nitrous oxide from fertilizers.

The balance tipped: More greenhouse gases = more heat trapped = the planet warms. That's global warming. Climate change is the knock-on effect: shifting weather patterns, rising seas, extreme events.