Let's understand this first
Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is a key greenhouse gas that causes climate change on a global scale, and its levels keep going up every month.
Now, the question is: Is carbon dioxide the worst greenhouse gas? This is what you need to know:
By trapping heat from the sun, greenhouse gases keep temperatures and climate conditions stable for humans and millions of other species. But these gases are now out of balance and threaten to make a big difference in how and where living things can survive on our planet.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is the most dangerous and common greenhouse gas, is at the highest level ever recorded. The main reason there are so many greenhouse gases in the air is that people have put them there by burning fossil fuels. These gasses absorb energy from the sun and keep the heat close to the surface of the Earth, so a significant amount of this heat or energy doesn’t go back into space. The effect of the heat being retained in the atmosphere is called the greenhouse effect.
In 1824, a French mathematician named Joseph Fourier found that if the Earth didn’t have an atmosphere, it would be a lot colder. This is where the idea of the greenhouse effect comes from. Then, in 1896, a Swedish scientist became the first to notice that burning fossil fuels increased the amount of carbon dioxide gas in the air. Nearly a century later, American climate scientist James E. Hansen told the U.S. Congress, “We have discovered the greenhouse effect, and the actions we take from now on are going to change our climate.”
Today, scientists use the term “climate change” to describe the complex changes in our planet’s weather and climate systems that are being caused by the amount of greenhouse gases in the air. Climate change is more than just rising average temperatures, which we call “global warming.” It also includes extreme weather events, changes in wildlife populations and habitats, rising sea levels, and many other effects.
Governments and organizations all over the planet, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations institution that keeps up with the latest science on climate change, are measuring greenhouse gases, keeping track of how they affect the environment, and coming up with solutions.
Now let’s take a closer look at the main greenhouse gases and all the sources that produce them:
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
About three-quarters of all emissions come from carbon dioxide, which is the main greenhouse gas. It can stay in the air for a long time, even thousands of years. In 2018, the average amount of carbon dioxide found in one of Hawaii’s Baseline Observatories was 411 parts per million. This was the highest monthly average ever measured. Most carbon dioxide comes from the burning of coal, oil, gas, wood, and other organic materials.
Methane (CH4)
Methane is the main part or component of natural gas. It is mainly released by landfills, the gas and oil industries, and farms (produced by the fermentation of feed within the animal’s digestive system). A molecule of methane doesn’t stay in the air as long as a molecule of carbon dioxide—about 12 years—but it is at least 84 times more powerful over that time. About 16% of all greenhouse gas emissions come from methane.
Nitrous Oxide (N2O)
According to the IPCC, nitrous oxide only makes up about 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but it is 264 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over 20 years, and it can stay in the atmosphere for more than 100 years. The biggest sources of nitrous oxide emissions are agriculture and livestock, such as fertilizer, manure, and the burning of agricultural waste, as well as the burning of fuel.
Water vapor and ozone (O3) are two other greenhouse gases. Water vapor is the most common greenhouse gas in the world, but it is not being tracked in the same way as other greenhouse gasses because humans do not directly release it and its effects are not well understood.
Effects of greenhouse gases
Greenhouse gases have many effects on the environment and people’s health. They change the climate because they trap heat, and they also make smog and air pollution worse, which can cause respiratory illnesses or complications. Climate change, which is caused by greenhouse gases, also leads to extreme weather, problems with food supplies, and more wildfires. The weather patterns we’re used to will change, and some species will go extinct while others will move to different places.
Almost every part of the global economy, from manufacturing to agriculture to transportation to power production, puts greenhouse gases into the air. If we want to avoid the worst effects of climate change, we need to move away from fossil fuels in all of these areas. The Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 showed that countries around the world were aware of this fact. Changes will be most important for the biggest emitters. At least three-quarters of all greenhouse gas emissions come from 20 countries, with China, the U.S., and India at the top of the list.
Most of the technology needed to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions is already out there. They include switching from fossil fuels to renewable sources, making energy use more efficient, and putting a price on carbon emissions to make them less likely to happen.
Technically, we only have one-fifth of the “carbon budget,” which is 2.8 trillion metric tons, left if we want to keep the Earth from getting warmer than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Stopping the current trends will take more than just getting rid of fossil fuels. The only way to stop global temperatures from rising by 1.5 or 2 degrees C is to find ways to pull CO2 out of the air. Some of the alternative solutions are planting trees, preserving forests and grasslands that are already there, and capturing CO2 from power plants and factories.