You’ve probably heard that greenhouse gases play a vital role in global warming, and that certain human activities release large quantities of these gases into the atmosphere. While we’ve talked about each topic, we’ve never quite made the connection to how they matter.
So What are Greenhouse gases?
As a quick refresher, the first thing to get out of the way is that greenhouse gases aren’t all bad. For some time now, they’ve played the biggest role in regulating earth’s global temperature. Greenhouse gases (GHG's), in the right amounts, keep Earth at a temperature that is live-able for both plants and animals. So, if there were no greenhouse gases, the Earth would be too cold to live in. On the flip side, if too many of these gases enter the atmosphere, then Earth’s temperature could become absolutely unbearable.
This is what we call the greenhouse effect - the process that happens when a few atmospheric gases trap the Earth's heat. Trapped heat is caused by the excessive release of six main gases, that as we now know, help to regulate the Earth’s temperature.
These gases are:
Water vapor
Carbon dioxide
Methane
Nitrous oxide
Ozone
Synthetic greenhouse gases
Water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone are probably the most familiar of the greenhouse gases and they all have natural and human-driven causes. But, along with the naturally occurring gases, a handful of synthetic gases have been emitted directly due to human activity as well.
Most of these gases are called fluorinated gases and include:
Perfluorocarbons (PFCs)
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
Sulfur hexafluoride (F6S)
Nitrogen Trifluoride (NF3)
To put this in perspective, greenhouse gases are heavily responsible for many of the climate change concerns of our generation.
Cutting down forests (trees release large amounts of CO2), livestock farming/agriculture, landfills, fossil fuel production and burning, manufacturing and aerosols help to fuel the increase in these greenhouse gases and many of these activities are things we do everyday.
How do we help?
To decrease the number of greenhouse gases in the air, we must tailor our activity to help preserve our earth for the future. This can be assisted by carbon offsetting, which consists of programs designed to make equivalent reductions of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Even though reducing emissions of all GHG's is needed to fully address climate concerns, carbon dioxide is the most abundant greenhouse gas produced by human activity.
Planting trees or contributing to programs tailored to mitigating the effects of these greenhouse gasses are thus a great place to start making a difference.
Finding innovative solutions to lower our earth’s rising temperature is all on us, so make a commitment and fill out our feedback form here to let us know how you plan to help!
