Global Warming VS. the Greenhouse Effect

Global warming posits the questions “will an increase in concentration of greenhouse gases lead to an increased global average temperature?” Whereas, the greenhouse effect is a fact that states that the average global temperature is warmer than it would be in the absence of an atmosphere due to greenhouse gases that are being absorbed and re-radiated.

Incoming shortwave (visible light and infrared) radiation gets absorbed by the Earth thus causing the ground to heat and emit longwave (infrared) radiation. The longwave radiation, then, gets absorbed by greenhouse gases (CO2, H2O, CH4) which, in turn, heats up and re-emits radiation out in every direction (some towards the Earth). Notably the cycle continues when some of that radiation, again, gets absorbed by the ground, heats the ground even more, emits even more radiation, and so on.