What affects greenhouse gases which creates global warming?
1 Answer
The most important ones are carbon dioxide, methane and dinitrogen monoxide (or nitrous oxide).
Explanation:
The most important greenhouse gases are: carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor. Other ones are nitrous oxide, CFC-11 (chlorofluorocarbon), CFC-12, CFC-113, CFC-115, HCFC-22, HCFC-141b, HCFC-142b, HFC-23, HFC-134a, HFC-152a, tetrafluoromethane, hexafluoroethane, sulfur hexafluoride, carbon tetrachloride, methly bromide, halon-1301.
If you wonder their global warming potentials relative to carbon dioxide, I can provide this information too.
Reference: Masters, G.M. and Ela, W.P. (2008). Introduction to Environmental Engineering and Science (3rd edition). Pearson International Edition, New Jersey, USA.
What effects greenhouse gases are dependent on which gas you are talking about. Carbon dioxide is released from the burning of fossil fuels and methane is released from the decomposition of biomass. The remaining gases, other than water vapor, are in such small amounts we usually don't even bother mentioning them.
Water vapor is dependent on the availability of water and of temperature. The thing about water vapor is that liquid water (clouds) actually prevent sunlight from entering the system and so help reduce global warming.
