The big picture in global warming has to do with a dynamic balance of energy input to the planet from outside against energy output back into space. The large majority of energy input (including heat) to the earth, almost all from our sun, ends up being re-radiated back out again, leaving only a small net increase in the earth's energy content (and hence average temperature). And many processes on earth trap the net gain. Some shows up immediately as increased heat energy which we observe as a temperature increase. Some gets trapped in items with mass - for example, plants trap visible and ultraviolet light energy in thier masses made from earth-bound materials, to be released later when they rot or are consumed for food. But at the release stage the energy is released as much-lower-energy heat, so that process effectively converts one energy form (light) into another (heat). In the MUCH longer term, for millions of years those dead plants were accumulating below the surface as coal, oil and gas, and now suddenly we are using up those million-years-of-input, releasing lots of waste heat rapidly.
The trouble is that all these energy conversion processes on earth'ssurface have one common thread. Energy is absorbed at high energy levels (short wavelengths) and part of it is used within the absorber and ultimately by people, animals, etc. But when that energy is released again it is always at a lower energy level (longer wavelengths). Now it happens that many atmospheric gases, like CO2, H2O, etc. are more transparent at higher frequency (shorter wavelengths) than at lower frequency. Hence they allow incoming energy radiation in many forms to penetrate our atmosphere down to the surface, but they absorb and keep the re-radiated lower frequency radiation. This effectively traps some heat on our planet. What we now understand is that, at an increasingly rapid rate, we are adding more of these heat-trapping gases to our atmosphere and improving its ability to trap the heat. So the old balance of energy input from space and re-radiation back out is being shifted to less re-radiation and more trapping of heat on the earth.
It's actually a double-whammy effect! Our dominant energy consumption mode is to burn up millions of years'worth of energy stores rapidly, releasing those millions of years of trappped energy in a form that cannot escape to space. And in doing so we add to the waste products , CO2 and H20, in our atmosphere that are shifting the balance to even more trapping! Even using up biofuel ony short-circuits the process by not releasing old energy reserves and using new recently-received energy.
Unfortunately the real root is how much energy we use to support our chosen lifestyles - plus, of course, the fact that there are more and more people on the planet doing the same thing! And we creatures of comfort are unlikely to choose MUCH simpler lifestyles that use less energy. There are even good arguments that suggest that, were we all to stop using oil reserves and go to burning wood in our houses for heat, we might be much worse off! After all, there are many more of us now than in the middle ages! And the wood-burning process tends to be less efficient in terms of converting mass into heat, so we get less heat and more undesirables like soot and toxic combustion by-products to contaminate our atmosphere in a different way.
So, do I have a solution to suggest? I'm nowhere near that good! But it is not found in biofuels or energy-efficient automobile engines, no mattter how helpful they are. And it certainly is not in accelerated oil exploration and development programs. Even nuclear generation systems only help somewhat - they still create waste heat, but they don't add CO2 and H2O to the atmosphere. They have their own waste product production and storage problems! The root is in persuading everyone to use MUCH less energy per person per day. That is, we ALL have to change human nature. Now, there's a challenge!
