Greenhouse gases: Causes, Sources and Environmental Effects

By Marc Lallanilla, Tiffany Means published June 10, 2021

Greenhouse gases help keep the Earth at a habitable temperature — until there is too much
of them.

Behind the phenomena of global warming and climate change lies the increase in greenhouse
gases in our atmosphere. A greenhouse gas is any gaseous compound in the atmosphere that is
capable of absorbing infrared radiation, thereby trapping and holding heat in the atmosphere.
By increasing the heat in the atmosphere, greenhouse gases are responsible for the greenhouse
effect, which ultimately leads to global warming. (The effects of global warming can been seen
across the globe.)

Global warming isn't a recent scientific concept. The basics of the phenomenon were worked out
well over a century ago by Swedish physicist and chemist Svante Arrhenius, in 1896. His paper,
published in the Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, was the first to quantify the
contribution of carbon dioxide to what scientists now call the "greenhouse effect."

The greenhouse effect occurs because the sun bombards Earth with enormous amounts of
radiation that strike Earth's atmosphere in the form of visible light, plus ultraviolet (UV), infrared (IR)
and other types of radiation that are invisible to the human eye. UV radiation has a shorter
wavelength and a higher energy level than visible light, while IR radiation has a longer wavelength
and a weaker energy level. About 30% of the radiation that strikes Earth is reflected back out to
space by clouds, ice and other reflective surfaces. The remaining 70% is absorbed by the oceans,
the land and the atmosphere, according to NASA's Earth Observatory.
As they heat up, the oceans, land and atmosphere release heat in the form of IR thermal radiation,
which passes out of the atmosphere and into space. It's this equilibrium of incoming and outgoing
radiation that makes the Earth habitable, with an average temperature of about 59 degrees
Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius), according to NASA. Without this atmospheric equilibrium, Earth
would be as cold and lifeless as its moon, or as blazing hot as Venus. The moon, which has almost
no atmosphere, is about minus 243 F (minus 153 C) on its dark side. Venus, on the other hand, has
a very dense atmosphere that traps solar radiation; the average temperature on Venus is about
864 F (462 C).

The exchange of incoming and outgoing radiation that warms the Earth is often referred to as the
greenhouse effect because an agricultural greenhouse works in much the same way. Incoming
shortwave UV radiation easily passes through the glass walls of a greenhouse and is absorbed by
the plants and hard surfaces inside. Weaker, longwave IR radiation, however, has difficulty passing
through the glass walls and is thereby trapped inside, warming the greenhouse.

HOW GREENHOUSE GASES CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING

The gases in the atmosphere that absorb radiation are known as "greenhouse gases" (abbreviated
as GHG) because they are largely responsible for the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect,
in turn, is one of the leading causes of global warming. The most significant greenhouse gases,
according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), are: water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide
(CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O).

"While oxygen (O2) is the second most abundant gas in our atmosphere, O2 does not absorb
thermal infrared radiation," Michael Daley, an associate professor of environmental science at
Lasell College in Massachusetts, told Live Science.
Global warming and the greenhouse gases that cause it occur naturally — without them, Earth's
average surface temperature would be a gelid zero degrees F (minus 18 C). But the amount of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has skyrocketed to detrimental levels in recent history.

During the 20,000-year period before the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric CO2 fluctuated
between about 180 parts per million (ppm) during ice ages and 280 ppm during interglacial warm
periods. However, since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 1750s, the amount of CO2
has risen nearly 50%, according to NASA’s Global Climate Change portal. Today, CO2 levels stand
at over 410 ppm.

Fluorinated gases — gases to which the element fluorine has been added — are created during
industrial processes and are also considered greenhouse gases. These include
hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride. Although they are present in the
atmosphere in very small concentrations, they trap heat very effectively, making them high
"global warming potential" (GWP) gases.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), once used as refrigerants and aerosol propellants until they were
phased out by international agreement, are also greenhouse gases.

There are three factors that affect the degree to which a greenhouse gas will influence global
warming: Its abundance in the atmosphere, how long it stays in the atmosphere and its GWP. For
example, water vapor is the most abundant greenhouse gas, but carbon dioxide has a more
significant impact on global warming due to its abundance in the atmosphere plus its relatively
long atmospheric lifetime of 300 to 1,000 years, according to NASA. Water vapor, on the other
hand, has an atmospheric lifetime of no more than 10 days, according to a 2020 study published
in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.

Methane is about 21 times more efficient at absorbing radiation than CO2, giving it a higher GWP
rating, even though it stays in the atmosphere for only about 12 years, according to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Although methane and other
GHGs are capable of trapping more heat than CO2, scientists still consider carbon dioxide to be
the dominant greenhouse gas because its warming effect outlives the others' effects by centuries.

SOURCES OF GREENHOUSE GASES

Some greenhouse gases, such as methane, are produced through agricultural practices, in the
form of livestock manure, for example. Others, like CO2, largely result from natural processes like
respiration, and from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.

Another primary source of CO2 is deforestation. When trees are felled to produce goods or heat,
they release the carbon that is normally stored for photosynthesis. This process releases up to 4.8
billion metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year, according to the World Resources
Institute.
Forestry and other land-use practices can offset some of these greenhouse gas emissions.
"Replanting helps to reduce the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as growing trees
sequester carbon dioxide through photosynthesis," Daley told Live Science. "However, forests
cannot sequester all of the carbon dioxide we are emitting to the atmosphere through the burning
of fossil fuels, and a reduction in fossil fuel emissions is still necessary to avoid buildup in the
atmosphere."
Worldwide, the output of greenhouse gases is a source of grave concern. According to NOAA’s
Climate.gov, over the past 60 years, atmospheric CO2 has increased at an annual rate that's 100
times faster than previous natural increases. The last time global atmospheric CO2 amounts were
this high was 3 million years ago, when temperatures were up to 5.4 degrees F (3 degrees C) higher
than during the pre-industrial era. As a result of modern-day CO2-induced global warming, 2016
was the warmest year on record, with 2019 and 2020 ranking as the next warmest, respectively. In
fact, the six hottest years on record have all occurred since 2015, according to the World
Meteorological Organization.
"The warming we observe affects atmospheric circulation, which impacts rainfall patterns
globally," said Josef Werne, an associate professor in the Department of Geology and Planetary
Science at the University of Pittsburgh. "This will lead to big environmental changes, and
challenges, for people all across the globe."

OUR PLANET'S FUTURE

In an effort to combat GHG-induced global warming, the U.S. government created a climate
action plan in 2013. And in April 2016, representatives from 73 countries signed the Paris
Agreement, an international pact to combat climate change by investing in a sustainable, low-
carbon future, according to the UNFCCC. Although the U.S. withdrew from the Paris Agreement in
2017, it rejoined in late-January 2021. President Biden's administration has also set a target
of reducing U.S. emissions by 50-52% of 2005 levels by the year 2030. (Emissions are routinely
compared to those in 2005 — the year U.S. emissions of CO2 peaked at nearly 6 billion tons.)

In 2020, global carbon dioxide emissions fell 6.4% (13% in the U.S. alone) — the first time in decades
the annual rate hasn’t climbed, Nature reported(opens in new tab). This was in part due to the
decrease in fossil fuel combustion resulting from the switch to natural gas from coal, but largely
because of the forced standstill in economic, social and transportation activities in response to
the COVID-19 pandemic. Scientists expected the annual emissions decline to actually be larger
than it was, but emissions rebounded as restrictions were lifted in some nations and activities
recovered toward the end of 2020.

In order to limit global warming to the 2.7 degree F (1.5 degree C) target set by the Paris
Agreement, the world still needs to cut its CO2 emissions by 7.6% for the next decade, according
to the UN Environment Programme.
Researchers around the world continue to work toward finding ways to lower greenhouse gas
emissions and mitigate their effects. One potential solution scientists are examining is to suck some
of the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and bury it underground indefinitely. Advocates
argue that carbon capture and storage is technologically feasible, but market forces have
prevented widespread adoption.

Whether or not removing already-emitted carbon from the atmosphere is feasible, preventing
future warming requires stopping the emissions of greenhouse gases. The most ambitious effort to
forestall warming thus far is the 2016 Paris Agreement. This nonbinding international treaty aims to
keep warming "well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to
limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius," according to the United
Nations. Each signatory to the treaty agreed to set their own voluntary greenhouse gas emission
limits and to make them stricter over time. Climate scientists said that the emissions limits
committed under the agreement wouldn't keep warming as low as 1.5 or even 2 degrees C, but
that it would be an improvement over the "business-as-usual" scenario.