The two major processes that play a role in climate change are global warming and global cooling. 

Global Warming / Greenhouse Gases

The Earth’s atmosphere is all around us. It is the air that we breathe. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere behave much like the glass panes in a greenhouse. Sunlight enters the Earth's atmosphere, passing through the blanket of greenhouse gases. As it reaches the Earth's surface, land, water, and biosphere absorb the sunlight’s energy. Once absorbed, this energy is sent back into the atmosphere. Some of the energy passes back into space, but much of it remains trapped in the atmosphere by the greenhouse gases, causing our world to heat up.

The greenhouse effect is important. Without the greenhouse effect, the Earth would not be warm enough for humans to live. But if the greenhouse effect becomes stronger, it could make the Earth warmer than usual. Even a little extra warming may cause problems for humans, plants, and animals. The greenhouse effect is important. Without the greenhouse effect, the Earth would not be warm enough for humans to live. But if the greenhouse effect becomes stronger, it could make the Earth warmer than usual. Even a little extra warming may cause problems for humans, plants, and animals.

Global Cooling (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Aerosols/)

Aerosols are tiny particles suspended in the air. Some occur naturally, originating from volcanoes, dust storms, forest and grassland fires, living vegetation, and sea spray. Human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels and the alteration of natural surface cover, also generate aerosols. Averaged over the globe, aerosols made by human activities currently account for about 10 percent of the total amount of aerosols in our atmosphere. Most of that 10 percent is concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere, especially downwind of industrial sites, slash-and-burn agricultural regions, and overgrazed grasslands.

Scientists have much to learn about the way aerosols affect regional and global climate. We have yet to accurately quantify the relative impacts on climate of natural aerosols and those of human origin. Moreover, we do not know in what regions of the planet the amount of atmospheric aerosol is increasing, is diminishing, and is remaining roughly constant. Overall, we are even unsure whether aerosols are warming or cooling our planet.

   Figure 1. Aerosol particles larger than about 1 micrometer in size are produced by windblown dust and sea salt from sea spray and bursting bubbles. Aerosols smaller than 1 micrometer are mostly formed by condensation processes such as conversion of sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas (released from volcanic eruptions) to sulfate particles and by formation of soot and smoke during burning processes. After formation, the aerosols are mixed and transported by atmospheric motions and are primarily removed by cloud and precipitation processes.      

Aerosols tend to cause cooling of the Earth's surface immediately below them. Because most aerosols reflect sunlight back into space, they have a "direct" cooling effect by reducing the amount of solar radiation that reaches the surface. The magnitude of this cooling effect depends on the size and composition of the aerosol particles, as well as the reflective properties of the underlying surface. It is thought that aerosol cooling may partially offset expected global warming that is attributed to increases in the amount of carbon dioxide from human activity.  

Figure 2a. (left) Clouds with low aerosol concentration and a few large droplets do not scatter light well, and allow much of the Sun's light to pass through and reach the surface.

Figure 2b. (right) The high aerosol concentrations in these clouds provide the nucleation points necessary for the formation of many small liquid water droplets. Up to 90% of visible radiation (light) is reflected back to space by such clouds without reaching Earth's surface.  

Aerosols are also believed to have an "indirect" effect on climate by changing properties of clouds. Indeed, if there were no aerosols in the atmosphere, there would be no clouds. It is very difficult to form clouds without small aerosol particles acting as "seeds" to start the formation of cloud droplets. As aerosol concentration increases within a cloud, the water in the cloud gets spread over many more particles, each of which is correspondingly smaller. Smaller particles fall more slowly in the atmosphere and decrease the amount of rainfall. In this way, changing aerosols in the atmosphere can change the frequency of cloud occurrence, cloud thickness, and rainfall amounts.

If there are more aerosols, scientists expect more cloud drops to form. Since the total amount of condensed water in the cloud is not expected to change much, the average drop must become smaller. This has two consequences -- clouds with smaller drops reflect more sunlight (as explained in Figure 2a & b), and such clouds last longer, because it takes more time for small drops to coalesce into drops that are large enough to fall to the ground. Both effects increase the amount of sunlight that is reflected to space without reaching the surface.