What is the greenhouse effect?

Is it a decrease in outgoing longwave radiation?

Is it an increase in downwelling IR radiation from the atmosphere?

Is it an increase in the R-value of the atmosphere, i.e., greenhouse gases act like insulation?

Is it a decrease in upper atmospheric temperatures which forces an increase in lower atmospheric temperatures? 

Is it an increase in the atmosphere’s temperature lapse rate?

Is it a warming of the entire atmosphere while the temperature lapse rate remains unchanged?

Is it simply the difference between the Earth’s “effective radiating temperature” and surface level air temperatures?

Is it when greenhouse gases force heat to move back towards the Earth’s surface against the temperature gradient?

Is it simply when greenhouse gases slow the rate at which the surface cools?

Is it when greenhouse gases cause the outgoing longwave radiation to be emitted from progressively higher and higher altitudes?

Is it when greenhouse gases essentially turn the many mile thick, fluid, compressible, gaseous atmosphere into a solid piece of glass?

Does it only exist at night like John Tyndall said?

Is it “when carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere [and] it acts like the ceiling of a greenhouse, trapping solar energy and 

         retarding the escape of reflected heat.” Mass vs EPA 2007 (This is this definition that got carbon dioxide classified as a “pollutant”.)

Is it the effect without which the surface of the Earth would be the same temperature as if there were no atmosphere at all?

Is it the effect without which the surface of the Earth would be the same temperature as Mars?

Is it the effect that is assumed to have caused the Earth to come out of the Little Ice Age in the mid 1800’s simply because carbon dioxide levels 

        have increased since then as well?

Is it the effect that threatens to “runaway” causing the oceans to boil, convert to steam and kill everything?

 

Or:

 

Is it the mechanism by which carbon dioxide and water vapor are going to kill almost everything on Earth if we don’t abandon the use of fire as an energy source?

 

Or:

 

Is it a boogyman that is being used to frighten humanity into willingly submitting to a global carbon tax?

Is it a boogyman that is being used to frighten humanity into willingly submitting to a draconian global energy policy?

Is it a boogyman that is being used to frighten Western nations into willingly submitting to deindustrialization?

Is it a boogyman that is being used to prevent third-world economic development?

Is it a boogyman that is being used by “renewable energy” companies to fleece the government of billions of dollars in subsidies?

Is it a boogyman that is being used to frighten humanity into willingly submitting to a restructuring of the global political order?

Is it a boogyman that is being used to frighten humanity into willingly submitting to population reduction?

Is it a boogyman that is being used to frighten humanity into willingly submitting to a global system under which every 

        human being and every resource is inventoried and controlled by a central global authority?

Is it a boogyman that is being used to frighten humanity into willingly submitting a massive wealth redistribution scheme?

Is it a boogyman that is being used to frighten humanity into willingly submitting to global fascism?

 

Or:

 

Is catastrophic anthropogenic global warming (CAGW) which is presumably being caused by the greenhouse effect a moral yardstick?

If you believe in CAGW are you a moral person?

If you don’t believe in CAGW are you an immoral person?

 

I’m just asking because I know what the “greenhouse effect” isn’t.  It isn’t science, because scientific laws have a singular, succinct definition that is quantified by a singular succinct mathematical formula, they don’t conflict with the other known laws of physics and they cannot be falsified by empirical observation.  Beyond that, science does not have a political agenda nor does it make moral judgments.