Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG or GHG'sare the main cause of human-induced global warming. These substances trap the sun's heat (the greenhouse effect) and increase the heat of the earth. The main greenhouse gases of concern are carbon dioxide and methane, but other gas emissions are of concern, notable CFCs.

They can be reduced through:

  • Addressing energy use:
    • reducing the amount of energy used (though energy efficiency and/or simple living)
    • Using more renewable energy
    • Using fossil fuels, and practicing carbon sequestration (see carbon sequestrationW), i.e. putting the CO2 underground.
    • Using fossil fuels, and practicing carbon offset (see carbon offsetW). (On a large scale, this requires
    • Using nuclear energy, which released much less carbon dioxide - while there are enormous safety, security and environmental hazards from nuclear energy, it has been proposed by some as part of the solution to global warming. Also the availability of the ore to extract nuclear material from is of course available only in limited numbers on our planet. Estimations of availability compared to the (growth) requirements of energy indicate this will only buy not even a decade of additional power. It is questionable wether the further dispersing of this material, its waste problematic in a more and more destabilizing world due to the global climate destabilization is a smart thing to do.
  • Addressing agriculture and any other source of greenhouse gases, especially methane. Methane contributes 23 times as much to the greenhouse effect as the same amount of CO2, in spite of having the same amount of carbon per molecule, or per unit volume. For this reason, removing, preventing or capturing 1 ton of CH3, earns 23 CO2e-certificates under the UNFCCC emissions trading system.

Greenhouse gases include methane, carbon dioxide, CFCs and water vapour. They are called green house gases because they trap the infrared radiation coming from sun and doesn't let it go outside the earth, thereby creating a greenhouse effect. To the surprise of many, methane is the most dangerous greenhouse gas. Livestock farming is one of the major causes of its emission. This contributes around 20% more than transport and power sector towards global warming.

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Authors Chris Watkins, Sven AERTS
License CC-BY-SA-3.0
Language English (en)
Translations Sinhala
Related 1 subpages, 22 pages link here
Aliases Greenhouse gas, Greenhouse gases, GHG
Impact 286 page views (more)
Created March 18, 2007 by Chris Watkins
Last modified June 10, 2024 by Irene Delgado
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