Greenhouse Gases: What’s the Facts?
We are all accustomed to hearing about climate change, global warming, greenhouse gasses, among other hotly debated topics. Each of these things have to do with the environment and its changes. First, let’s take a look into defining some of these terms.
Climate change is “a long-term change in the average weather patterns that have come to define Earth’s local, regional and global climates. These changes have a broad range of observed effects that are synonymous with the term (NASA).” Overall, climate change is the change of overall weather patterns in a certain region. Now, what is the connection between climate change and global warming? Global warming is the overall rise of temperature of the earth and its oceans/waterways. Therefore, global warming is climate change and more specifically the change of climate towards hotter temperatures and more sporadic weather.
Now, what is a greenhouse gas? A greenhouse gas is simply a gas that adds to the trapping of heat in the earth’s atmosphere. Thus, the emission of these gasses have been found to add to the change in the earth’s climate. Some of these elements include carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Carbon dioxide is released when we burn fossil fuels such as coal and oil. However, this type of gas can also be absorbed by plants! Methane is also emitted when we produce things like coal and oil. It can also be released by certain agricultural uses.
There are several sources of greenhouse gasses, but we will cover the main factors.
- Transportation
- Production of Electricity
- Industrial Fuel Burning
- Household Fuel Consumption
Research shows that approximately 29% of greenhouse gas emissions come from private and public transportation. It isn’t anything new that studies prove that our vehicles and transportation methods are consuming vast amounts of natural resources. There has been a big push towards more eco-friendly vehicles that run on renewable resources.
There are a variety of ways that we generate and consume electricity. These sources include coal, natural gas, petroleum, and other resources. It is said that about 60% of the electricity we use comes from fossil fuels.
It is also no secret that the production of goods and services use a lot of energy. Much of this energy is also derived from fossil fuels such as natural gas and oil. This contributes about 24% of the total greenhouse gas emissions throughout the world.
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