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Article: Global Climate Change
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- Biology
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Global Climate Change
Energy from the Sun passes through the atmosphere as light and is absorbed by soil, rock, and water at the surface of Earth. The energy is reradiated as heat and absorbed in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO
2
), water vapor, methane, ozone, nitrous oxide, and the
human-made chemicals chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). This atmospheric warming is called the greenhouse effect; without it Earth's average global temperature would be about
–
18 degrees Celsius (0 degrees Fahrenheit). Greenhouse gases are added to the atmosphere by natural events including volcanic eruptions, the decay and burning of
organic
matter, and respiration by ...