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Sometimes catch phrases and buzz words are bandied about and, since we hear them so often, we sometimes only think we know what they mean.  It's not such a bad thing if we have a minor mental misconception.  It can be misleading, though, when we spout out a mis-truth.  I did that a few hours ago in my post "Can G8 Reduce Greenhouse Effect?"  Oddly, something didn't ring true and I should have looked it up.  Equally odd, I looked it up after publishing the mistake.

It appears that greenhouse effect is, in fact, something we want to keep.  It's a good thing and is not the same as global warming.

The greenhouse effect (which is a misnomer; it acts nothing like a greenhouse) is necessary to the life we know on this planet.  It keeps the Earth's surface warmer than it would be if there was no atmosphere.  The atmosphere accounts for twice as much energy as we get from the Sun because that atmospheric energy is emitted from the whole sky, whereas the Sun can only cover a small part of the Earth at any given time.  With no atmosphere, with no greenhouse effect, the Earth's temperature would be an average of 30 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Farenheit) colder.

Global warming, on the other hand, increases the temperature of the surface of the Earth by increasing the magnitude of the greenhouse effect.  Global warming is a perfect example of too much of a good thing.