Greenhouse gases are gases—like carbon dioxide , methane, and nitrous oxide—that keep the Earth warmer than it would be without them. When energy from the sun first reaches us, it does so mainly as light. But when that same energy leaves the Earth, it does so as infrared radiation, which we experience as heat. Greenhouse gases reflect infrared radiation, so some of the heat leaving the Earth bounces off the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere and comes back to the Earth’s surface. This is called the “greenhouse effect,” in a comparison to the heat-trapping glass on a greenhouse.
For climate change, the most important greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide, which is why you hear so many references to “carbon” when people talk about climate change. There are three main reasons CO2 is so central to the global warming happening today. First, there is just so much of it: we now add over 35 billion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere every year, mostly by burning carbon-rich fuel like coal and oil that had previously been trapped in the ground. Second, it lasts a long time in the atmosphere. The CO2 we emit today will stay above us reflecting heat for hundreds of years. This means that, even if we stop all new CO2 emissions tomorrow, it will take many lifetimes before the warming effect of our past emissions fades away.
Finally, many different industries rely on carbon-rich fuels or other processes that give off CO2. That includes burning fossil fuels for electricity and heat and to power our vehicles, but it also includes manufacturing concrete and steel, the refining process for raw oil and gas, fermentation (for instance, to make alcohol or pharmaceuticals), and the decay of plant matter (like after trees are cut down ). All of these sectors can make changes to emit less CO2, but the same solutions won’t work for all of them.
tag:carbon, green house,
Sales are activity related to selling or the number of goods or services sold in a given time period.
© 2024 arsd. All Rights Reserved
