Greenhouse gases are an increasingly hot topic for many people. As research grows about the potential damage caused by elevated greenhouse gases, more people seek to understand the nature of these gases and ways to reduce their own contributions.
According the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the concentration of greenhouse gases has consistently risen over the last 200 years as a result of the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. Natural factors may reduce the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most prevalent greenhouse gas in the Earth's atmosphere. It is created by myriad sources including human exhalation, deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels. Plants naturally consume carbon dioxide during the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis allows plants to convert CO2 in conjunction with water and sunlight into oxygen.
Therefore, more plants leads to fewer greenhouse gases. Deforestation creates a double dose of greenhouse gas emissions because the burning of forests not only releases carbon dioxide but reduces the quantity of trees that can recycle those gases. A reduction in deforestation naturally coincides with a reduction in greenhouse gas.
The production of food contributes substantially to greenhouse gases. Methane (CH4) is created when bacteria decompose organic material in environments that are oxygen-deficient. According to the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment, approximately one-third of the total methane emissions in the global atmosphere arise from food production. Additionally, agriculture produces greenhouse gases through the use of nitrogen-rich fertilizers, large-scale land transformations and the burning of vegetation to clear space for farming.
A simple way to vastly reduce livestock-specific emissions is to shift meat production to animals that do not produce large quantities of methane, such as fish, hogs and broiler chickens. Emissions can also be decreased if the diets of grazing animals are supplemented with additives that increase digestive efficiency.
Humans, like plants and animals, are part of the Earth's living ecosystem. Therefore, human behavior greatly influences the prevalence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have begun to produce far greater quantities of greenhouse gas. These gases arise from deforestation, agriculture the burning of fossil fuels, and the use of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, in air conditioners, refrigerators and solvents.
Humans can naturally reduce their emissions by decreasing their energy use, switching to clean-energy products (such as an electric car instead of a gasoline-powered car), buying food locally, composting to reduce waste, recycling products and planting trees. These are only a handful of the ways that humans can diminish their gaseous contributions to global warming.
Volcanoes have a mixed reputation when it comes to their contribution to the warming of the Earth's atmosphere. On one hand, when a volcano erupts it releases a large quantity of carbon dioxide into the air. But volcanoes also release tiny particles of ash, which help block some of the sun's solar radiation. This in turn lowers the overall temperature in the atmosphere and may potentially decrease some of the problems associated with greenhouse gases.
