Imagine Earth is like a cozy bedroom, and the atmosphere is like a fluffy blanket covering the bed. Now, just as a blanket keeps you warm by trapping your body heat, Earth's atmosphere keeps our planet cozy by trapping heat from the sun. This is what we call the greenhouse effect.

Here's how it works: sunlight reaches the Earth's surface, warming it up. Some of that warmth is then radiated back into the atmosphere as infrared radiation (heat energy). Just like the blanket traps your body heat, certain gases in the atmosphere, like carbon dioxide and methane act like a blanket that traps this infrared radiation, preventing it from escaping into space. This trapped heat keeps our planet at just the right temperature to support life as we know it.

But, just like adding extra blankets can make you too hot in bed, human activities like burning fossil fuels and deforestation are adding more of these heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere. This is like piling on extra blankets, causing Earth to get warmer than it should be. This is what we call global warming, and it leads to climate change, with effects like melting ice caps, rising sea levels, and more -extreme weather events.

So, while a blanket is cosy and comforting when used just right, too many blankets can make things uncomfortably hot. Similarly, while the greenhouse effect is essential for life on Earth, too many greenhouse gases can lead to problems for our planet.