Global warming is a term that is used to refer to an increase in
Earth’s average surface temperature. It is due mostly to the release of
greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere by human-fuelled activities such as
increased fossil fuel consumption leading to the release of carbon dioxide (CO2),
the increasing use of automobiles, the use of nitrogen base fertilizers,and
rearing and breeding large methane-belching cattle. Greenhouse gases such as
carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, water vapor, halocarbons (chlorofluorocarbons and
hydrofluorocarbons), methane, and ozone have the capability of absorbing
infrared radiation
The gases later warm the Earth’s
surface by emitting trapped energy. When GHGs absorb radiation, the stratosphere
becomes warm and then re-emits infrared radiation back to the Earth’s surface.
This warming of the Earth’s troposphere is commonly known as the greenhouse
effect. Global warming potential (GWP) is usually expressed in relation to
carbon dioxide, which is given a relative global warming potential of one.
Methane, nitrous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbons are assigned a GWP of 23, 296,
and 12,000 respectively. This means that methane is 23 times as potent a GHG as
carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide is 296 times as potent as carbon dioxide.
Many human processes ranging from
industry, transportation, power stations, agriculture, fossil fuel development
and usage, to residential and commercial activities have variously led to the
production of high amounts of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane
(CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), water vapor, and chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs). Of these activities, agriculture contributes the largest amount of
methane (40 percent) and nitrous oxide (62 percent), while the combination of
industrial processes, power stations, fossil fuel processing and development,
with residential and commercial activities contributing over 82 percent
of the total carbon dioxide produced by the entire human activities.
Source: Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change (Click Here)
Source: Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change (Click Here)
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