Earths natural greenhouse effect makes life as we know it possible and carbon dioxide plays a significant role in providing for the relatively high temperature on Earth. The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary atmosphere warms the planets surface beyond the temperature it would have in the absence of its atmosphere. Without the greenhouse effect, the Earths average surface temperature would be about  compared to Earths actual average surface temperature of approximately 14 °C (57.2 °F).
Water is responsible for most (about 36–70%) of the total greenhouse effect, and the role of water vapor as a greenhouse gas depends on temperature. On Earth, carbon dioxide is the most relevant, direct anthropologically influenced greenhouse gas. Carbon dioxide is often mentioned in the context of its increased influence as a greenhouse gas since the pre-industrial (1750) era. In 2013, the increase in CO was estimated to be responsible for 1.82 W m of the 2.63 W m change in radiative forcing on Earth (about 70%).
The concept of atmospheric CO increasing ground temperature was first published by Svante Arrhenius in 1896. The increased radiative forcing due to increased CO in the Earths atmosphere is based on the physical properties of CO and the non-saturated absorption windows where CO absorbs outgoing long-wave energy.  The increased forcing drives further changes in Earths energy balance and, over the longer term, in Earth's climate.