Global Warming The greenhouse effect, in environmental science, is a popular term for the effect that certain variable constituents of the Earth's lower atmosphere have on surface temperatures. It has been known since 1896 that Earth has been warmed by a blanket of gasses (This is called the “greenhouse effect.”). The gases--water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane (CH4)--keep ground temperatures at a global average of about 15 degrees C (60 degrees F). Without them the average would be below the freezing point of water. The gases have this effect because as incoming solar radiation strikes the surface, the surface gives off infrared radiation, or heat, that