It’s Getting Hot in Here (Global Warming)

What are Greenhouse Gases?

In our last blog, we briefly discussed what greenhouse gases are and their effect on the environment(we highly recommend you check that blog out before reading this one). In this blog, we will go in-depth on the different greenhouse gases, the science behind their ability to trap heat, and the impact they will have on our world if they are not dealt with properly.

Different Greenhouse Gases

There are 6 main greenhouse gases:

1. Carbon Dioxide
2. Methane
3. Nitrous Oxide
4. Water Vapor
5. Ozone
6. Fluorinated Gases

Carbon Dioxide

Carbon Dioxide is by far the most prevalent of these gases in our atmosphere, but it is also the gas with the least effect. Though carbon dioxide does trap heat in our atmosphere, because it is technically a natural gas, it doesn’t trap heat efficiently and only really harms the planet when there are great amounts of it. The reality is there are large amounts of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and that number is constantly growing. On average, a single person releases 4.5 tons of carbon dioxide every year. That comes from exhaling, driving your car, and just everyday activities you need to survive like washing your clothes. The real problem comes from big corporations, especially oil drilling and fossil fuel burning companies including ExxonMobil, Chevron, and BP. These big oil companies together account for 35% of the world’s CO₂ emissions. Unlike most of the other gasses, carbon dioxide can leave the atmosphere because it is absorbed by trees and plants. However, due to the high volume of CO₂ in the atmosphere, this solution is overshadowed and has made the situation deadly. 

Methane

Methane is the second most prevalent greenhouse gas. Methane is similar to carbon dioxide in the way it is made-from the burning of coal and other fossil fuels, but methane is also commonly produced from livestock and decay of organic waste in landfills. Methane is a much more potent heat absorber compared to carbon dioxide, but there is significantly less of it in the atmosphere. Even so, methane accounts for 20% of the heating effect created by all of the greenhouse gases. Big oil corporations also create a lot of methane emissions, but the growing landfills along with poor agricultural practices leave more methane emissions than any other process.

Nitrous Oxide

Nitrous oxide, otherwise known as laughing gas, contributes about the same percentage of greenhouse gases as methane. Nitrous oxide is most commonly released into the atmosphere as a fertilizer for soil. Many farms spray massive amounts of nitrous oxide on their plants, but what is not sucked up by the soil, gets released into the atmosphere. Nitrous oxide absorbs 300 times more heat than carbon dioxide, making it incredibly dangerous to global warming. Nitrous oxide is also released from wastewater management which accounts for 15% of nitrous oxide emissions. 

Fluorinated Gas

Possibly the worst of all the greenhouse gases, fluorinated gases are completely man-made gases that exponentially accelerate the warming of the Earth. Though fluorinated gases are the least common of all the other greenhouse gases, they have 23000 times the warming effect as CO₂. Some fluorinated gases include hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and the worst of all, chlorofluorocarbons(CFCs). CFCs are the worst because they are the main destroyers of the ozone layer which protects us from intense radiation. Because these gases are man-made, they stay in our atmosphere for centuries and they constantly trap heat. Fluorinated gases can come from aerosols and can also be found in fridges.

Water Vapor

Surprisingly, water vapor is a greenhouse gas, and a very important one at that. Water vapor accounts for 60% of the warming effect, but it is sometimes not even regarded as a greenhouse gas. This is because water vapor is just a regular particle in our atmosphere that has existed since the Earth began. A common misconception is that the gases we have discussed directly increase the temperature of the Earth, and though that is somewhat true, water vapor actually results in the overall heating of the atmosphere. When carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide begin to warm the Earth, the force more water vapor to be created because more water is being evaporated from the heat. The added water vapor results in the temperature increasing even more because the moisture creates humidity and humidity is the trapping of heat in water vapor. 

Ozone

Ozone, similar to water vapor, is not a traditional greenhouse gas. Ozone is actually very helpful in the prevention of global warming and without it, we would all burn to crisps. This is because ozone forms an ozone layer in our stratosphere(50km/31mi in the sky). This layer of ozone blocks out most ultraviolet rays(rays that are very harmful to our skin) from the sun and that also helps to cool down the rays coming from the sun. The problem is, fluorinated gases break the ozone layer causing the UV rays to come through our atmosphere. Because these rays are sto strong, they stay for a long time, continuously heating up the planet and hurting the environment. 

Greenhouse Effect

The greenhouse effect is simple enough. The purpose of a greenhouse is to trap heat within a room to help plants grow. A greenhouse allows sunlight and heat to enter a room, but it doesn’t allow it to escape. The Earth’s atmosphere works in the exact same way, just on a much larger scale. The greenhouse effect itself is not a bad thing and it helps keep Earth warm. It’s only once you accelerate the effect do you start to see consequences. Unnatural gases like nitrous oxide and CFCs help block the heat from exiting the atmosphere when it’s supposed too. Furthermore, CFCs break the ozone layer, allowing more heat to enter. By allowing more heat to enter and then not allowing it to escape, we are quickly heating the climate, and the slightest changes in temperature can have the largest effects. Since 1970, the average global temperature has increased by 1℉. That may not seem too bad on land, but it’s a different story in the ocean. The ocean absorbs most of the heat from the sun, so the more heat there is, the more heat the dark ocean absorbs. That means if the global temperature goes up by 1℉, the oceans temperature can go up 5℉. This can hurt marine life, and also can lead to higher sea levels because water expands as it heats. Though it may just be 1℉ in the least 50 years, if we continue to release more and more greenhouse gases into the air, we can see the global temperature increase by 1℉ every year. The issue is, this scenario may not be too far in the future. Each added degree will cause more and more unalterable changes to our environment, and the time to stop this unfortunate future is now. 

Problems 

The increase in greenhouse gasses has caused and will cause many problems for the human race in the future. From warming temperatures to rising sea levels, greenhouse gases, if not contained, can have drastic effects. However, there are ways we can help eliminate some of the worst greenhouse gases from polluting our atmosphere anymore. 

Global Warming

The obvious result of heat being trapped in the atmosphere is global warming. Increased heat levels can have many effects besides it just being hotter. 

• Uncertain Weather Patterns: One effect of global warming is uncertain weather patterns. As discussed earlier, warmer temperatures lead to an atmosphere that can collect, retain, and drop more water. This means that storms will not only be more deadly, but they can also be very unpredictable. 
• Droughts: It’s true that when it rains, it will rain a lot, but what happens when it doesn’t rain. Well, between massive thunderstorms, earth will suffer huge droughts. That will result in less access to clean drinking water, more out-of-control wildfires, and finally dust storms. Together, these forces will also kill agriculture, most likely resulting in food shortages. 

Sea Levels Rising

We discussed how as water gets warm it expands, resulting in higher sea levels, but how will that affect the rest of the world on land.

• Erosion: Rising sea-levels will also have huge impacts in-land because it will cause rivers to grow larger and run faster. The large rivers will cause a lot of erosion and will destroy many animal’s habitats. Not to mention, salt water contamination from the seawater entering into farming irrigation systems.
• Melting of Polar Ice Caps: Glaciers and ice caps come up right off of the ocean, so when the ocean gets warmer, these huge chunks of ice start to melt. This will not only destroy arctic animals habitats, but also increase the rate at which the sea levels rise. Furthermore, with less ice in the poles, the climate will just get warmer because there is nothing to keep the Earth cool. 

Deadly UV Rays

We already know greenhouse gases are destroying the ozone layer, but what effect will all these UV rays that are being let in have on the Earth.

• Deadly outdoors: Apart from the intense heat and almost unbreathable conditions, going outside will be near fatal because of the high amounts of UV radiation. If the ozone layer keeps getting destroyed, we can see a huge spike in Ultraviolet radiation on Earth’s surface. This radiation has already been proven to cause skin cancer, so letting even more of these rays in will prove deadly for human skin. 
• Environment Destroyed: Humans are not the only living things that find ultraviolet rays dangerous. Most animals and many plants can be killed by high amounts of ultraviolet radiation, further destroying the ecosystem. 

What Now?

This all sounds very bad, but it is very avoidable. Believe it or not, we are still at the beginning stages of climate change. Not many changes have been made to the environment that cannot be reversed. Though this might be a huge relief, that doesn’t mean that we can just sit back and relax. Huge changes need to be made to the way we produce goods and to our ways of life. Each person has to be responsible for their carbon footprint and they have to actively attempt to lower their carbon emissions. Furthermore, big companies have to reduce their burning of fossil fuels and lessen their greenhouse gas emissions. Together, this worldwide crisis can be solved, before it’s too late.