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How does carbon dioxide from coal burning warm Earth’s lower atmosphere?

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coal utilization Cross-regenerative coke oven. (A) Cross section, showing the alternating arrangement of flue walls and ovens; (B) longitudinal section, showing (left) a series of combustion flues in a single flue wall and (right) part of a long, slotlike oven.

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) released from burning coal warms Earth’s lower atmosphere through the greenhouse effect. This process occurs because CO₂ molecules possess specific chemical properties that allow them to interact with infrared radiation.312

While the atmosphere is largely transparent to incoming short-wavelength solar radiation, which warms the Earth's surface, the surface subsequently emits this energy back toward space as long-wavelength infrared radiation. Carbon dioxide molecules absorb this upward-propagating infrared radiation and reemit a portion of it back downward toward the surface and the lower atmosphere.324

Because this radiation is emitted in all directions, the net effect is an increase in the total energy directed toward the lower atmosphere. This trapped energy causes the lower atmosphere to remain warmer than it would be otherwise. By increasing the concentration of CO₂ through the combustion of fossil fuels, human activity enhances this natural process, leading to a rise in global mean temperatures.2435