The sun is the ultimate arbiter of the temperature of our world, which is largely a function of the amount of solar energy that arrives compared to that which finds its way back into space. Known as the planet’s energy balance, this should hover around zero. It is, however, now massively out of kilter, as the ever-thickening blanket of anthropogenic greenhouse gases allows the sun’s energy in but stops ever more of it leaving. This growing energy imbalance is – in a nutshell – what global heating is all about.
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