How can greenhouse gases harm us

How much of U. What are the energy-related carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels for the United States and the world? Why do carbon dioxide emissions weigh more than the original fuel?

Is ozone a greenhouse gas? How much carbon dioxide is produced from U. Does EIA have forecasts or projections for energy production, consumption, and prices for individual states? You might hear people talking about the greenhouse effect as if it is a bad thing. This is happening because we are currently adding more greenhouse gases to our atmosphere, causing an increased greenhouse effect. The increased greenhouse effect is causing changes in our planet that can affect our lives.

The major Greenhouse Gas, carbon dioxide, emitted naturally and by the burning of fossil fuels, stays in the atmosphere a long time. There are also indirect ways in which global warming will harm humans. For example, species will go extinct that may have been useful to humans or were critical to an ecosystem.

Other species may spread to areas that were previously not suited for them and may act as pests, destroying crops or spreading disease. How can greenhouse gases harm us? Mar 23, Related questions How do oceans absorb CO2? It is estimated that between and , atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide increased by 40 percent, methane by percent, and nitrous oxide by 20 percent.

In the late s, we started adding man-made fluorinated gases like chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, to the mix. Of all the man-made emissions of carbon dioxide—the most abundant greenhouse gas released by human activities, and one of the longest-lasting—from to , approximately half were generated in the last 40 years alone, in large part due to fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes.

In , carbon emissions rose by 1. The most significant gases that cause global warming via the greenhouse effect are the following:. Carbon Dioxide Accounting for about 76 percent of global human-caused emissions, carbon dioxide CO 2 sticks around for quite a while. Methane Although methane CH 4 persists in the atmosphere for far less time than carbon dioxide about a decade , it is much more potent in terms of the greenhouse effect.

In fact, pound for pound, its global warming impact is 25 times greater than that of carbon dioxide over a year period. Globally it accounts for approximately 16 percent of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. Nitrous Oxide Nitrous oxide N 2 O is a powerful greenhouse gas: It has a GWP times that of carbon dioxide on a year time scale, and it remains in the atmosphere, on average, a little more than a century. It accounts for about 6 percent of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

Fluorinated Gases Emitted from a variety of manufacturing and industrial processes, fluorinated gases are man-made. Although fluorinated gases are emitted in smaller quantities than other greenhouse gases they account for just 2 percent of man-made global greenhouse gas emissions , they trap substantially more heat.

Indeed, the GWP for these gases can be in the thousands to tens of thousands, and they have long atmospheric lifetimes, in some cases lasting tens of thousands of years. Replacing these HFCs and properly disposing of them is considered to be one of the most import ant climate actions the world can take. Water Vapor The most abundant greenhouse gas overall, water vapor differs from other greenhouse gases in that changes in its atmospheric concentrations are linked not to human activities directly, but rather to the warming that results from the other greenhouse gases we emit.

Warmer air holds more water. And since water vapor is a greenhouse gas, more water absorbs more heat, inducing even greater warming and perpetuating a positive feedback loop. Population size, economic activity, lifestyle, energy use, land use patterns, technology, and climate policy: According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC , these are the broad forcing s that drive nearly all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Electricity and Heat Production The burning of coal, oil, and natural gas to produce electricity and heat accounts for one-quarter of worldwide human-driven emissions, making it the largest single source.

Agriculture and Land Use Changes About another quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions stem from agriculture and other land-use activities such as deforestation. In the United States, agricultural activities —primarily the raising of livestock and crops for food—accounted for 8. Of those, the vast majority were methane which is produced as manure decomposes and as beef and dairy cows belch and pass gas and nitrous oxide often released with the use of nitrogen-heavy fertilizers.

Trees, plants, and soil absorb carbon dioxide from the air. The plants and trees do it via photosynthesis a process by which they turn carbon dioxide into glucose ; the soil houses microbes that carbon binds to. So nonagricultural land-use changes such as deforestation, reforestation replanting in existing forested areas , and afforestation creating new forested areas can either increase the amount of carbon in the atmosphere as in the case of deforestation or decrease it via absorption, removing more carbon dioxide from the air than they emit.

When trees or plants are cut down, they no longer absorb carbon dioxide, and when they are burned or decompose, they release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.