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Shindell, D., 2007: Climate change is all about energy. APS News, 16, no. 5 (May), 8.
Climate change is all about energy, a subject familiar to any physicist. Climate changes are driven by changes in the Earth's energy balance with space, either as the result of variations in the distribution or intensity of incoming solar radiation reaching the Earth, the fraction of that radiation that is reflected, or the emission of thermal radiation back to space. The greenhouse effect alters the latter, trapping outgoing terrestrial radiation. A reduction in emissions during recent decades at exactly the wavelengths where greenhouse gases (GHGs) absorb has been directly measured from space, so there is no question about this effect. Thus the relevant question is how sensitive is the Earth's climate to changes in the planetary energy balance?
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