greenhouse effect

noun

Etymology: First attested in 1901 by Swedish meteorologist Nils Gustaf Ekholm.

1. The process by which a planet is heated by solar radiation which is retained by its atmosphere.

   “Firstly, the atmosphere may act like the glass of a green-house, letting through the light rays of the sun relatively easy, and absorbing a great part of the dark rays emitted from the ground, and it thereby may raise the mean temperature of the earth's surface.”

   “It is time to stop waffling so much and say that the evidence is pretty strong that the greenhouse effect is here.”