How Greenhouse Gases Work

A small globe above a fire to illustrate global warming is seen during the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21/CMP11), in France, on Nov. 4, 2015. Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images

Commentary

Worried about climate change? Alternately, sick to death of prophets predicting apocalypse? Take an old chemist’s advice and start your personal evaluation of the “climate crisis” by dismissing this popular trope: Earth’s atmosphere acts like an insulating blanket.