- #1
kashiark
- 210
- 0
I don't understand the green house effect. According to wikipedia, the green house effect is the result of non-directional re-emission of thermal radiation after being reflected from the ground from water vapor, methane, carbon dioxide etc., but shouldn't it cancel itself out? Shouldn't just as much thermal radiation be emitted away from Earth that was originally headed toward it as thermal radiation emitted toward it that was originally headed away from it? I just read that, and I can barely make sense of it, so let me try again: Shouldn't just as much radiation headed toward the Earth be absorbed by green house gases and emitted away from it as radiation headed away from the Earth (because it bounced off of the ground), and re-emitted toward it?