Forests absorb solar radiation and CO₂ without heating._.

It would seem that the debate on global warming should take the proven anthropogenic Q component into consideration first. There is, rather, much argument about the greenhouse effects of gasses in the atmosphere and influences of sunspots. It is thus relevant to examine how the energy received by the earth from outer space warms the earth.

Radiant energy can travel through empty space. Heat energy (more precisely enthalpy) is a property of mass. A material body contains more enthalpy when its molecules move faster, further and vibrate internally with greater force or speed.

Radiant energy is usually converted into enthalpy, or vice versa, when radiation interacts with matter. Radiation can go right through matter or be modified by it. Sunlight can be focussed through a lens onto a piece of paper to set that paper on fire. Sunlight can fall on a material and be absorbed by it without warming it if the sunlight is stored chemically in that material - as is the case with photosynthesis in plants. Plants cannot store Q in ambient air chemically; a plant left in a warm room with no sunlight dies.

A hot (ex: black metal solar water heater) surface can be heated further by sunlight, regardless of its initial T. Heat (SQ or LQ) cannot flow from a material at a given T to a body with a higher T unless some substance evaporates off the colder body into the warmer body. Some sunlight is converted into enthalpy as it passes through greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Microwave energy is readily absorbed by _L.H₂O- for instance, in a cup of coffee.

Much of the solar energy falling on the earth is not converted into Q. Sunlight falling on a forest does not warm that forest. The leaves in a dense forest have a huge surface area. Solar radiation falling on them is partly stored photo-chemically as sugars, cellulose and other carbohydrates. On hot, dry days, huge quantities of _L.H₂O evaporate off those leaves carrying off much LQ with it so that there is little T increase- and possibly some cooling. When sunlight falls on dark, dry rock, it is converted into Q that heats the air above that rock and dries it further. Such hot, dry air blowing through a forest turns it to tinder. This results in huge forest fires that kill the land so it remains dry and very difficult to reforest. Fossil fuels store solar radiation that fell on the earth millions of years. When they are burnt, Q is released into the environment which was never on the planet before.