What excactly does CO2 do to the atmosphere?

Question

What excactly does CO2 do to the atmosphere?

Answer 1

It is a greenhouse gas that traps the suns heat in the atmosphere heating up the atmosphere

Answer 2

CO2 holds heat well. You can think of the C-O bonds as springy and when heat energy pulls on those bonds the CO2 molecule stretches and retains the energy.

In that way lots of CO2 molecules together hold on to a lot of heat energy and therefore atmospheric CO2 increases the temperature of the air.