News tagged with greenhouse gases

2C warming goal now 'optimistic' - French scientists

French scientists unveiling new estimates for global warming said on Thursday the 2 C (3.6 F) goal enshrined by the United Nations was "the most optimistic" scenario left for greenhouse-gas emissions.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Quantifying climate impacts: New comprehensive model comparison launched

Climate change has impacts on forests, fields, rivers -- and thereby on humans that breathe, eat and drink. To assess these impacts more accurately, a comprehensive comparison of computer-based simulations from all over the ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 07, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Progress and promise in DIAL LIDAR

For climatologists and environmental policy makers who need to determine the flux of greenhouse gases (GHG), there are three paramount questions: Where is it, how much is there, and how is it moving? A new ...

Physics / General Physics

created Feb 06, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

A 'natural' solution for transportation

As the United States transitions away from a primarily petroleum-based transportation industry, a number of different alternative fuel sources—ethanol, biodiesel, electricity and hydrogen—have each ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Feb 03, 2012 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (7) | comments 22

New web-based tool details greenhouse gas emissions for 6,700 facilities nationwide

How many tons of greenhouse gases are coming out of that smokestack? For the first time, people around the U.S. can get answers to that question instantly with a new online interactive tool — the topic of an article ...

Chemistry / Other

created Feb 01, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Earth's energy budget remained out of balance despite unusually low solar activity

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new NASA study underscores the fact that greenhouse gases generated by human activity -- not changes in solar activity -- are the primary force driving global warming.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jan 30, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (12) | comments 26 | with audio podcast

Carbon storage in tropical vegetation: New map to help developing nations track deforestation, report on emissions

A study published in Nature Climate Change today finds that tropical vegetation contains 21 percent more carbon than previous studies had suggested. Using a combination of remote sensing and field data, scient ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jan 29, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Decline in solar output unlikely to offset global warming: study

(PhysOrg.com) -- New research has found that solar output is likely to reduce over the next 90 years but that will not substantially delay expected increases in global temperatures caused by greenhouse gases.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jan 24, 2012 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (13) | comments 225 | with audio podcast

White fish from the North Sea is equally climate friendly as farmed fish

The environmental impact of plaice and cod caught wild in the North Sea is similar to that of imported farmed fish like salmon, tilapia and pangasius. This was the conclusion arrived at by LEI, part of Wageningen ...

Biology / Ecology

created Jan 23, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 1

Thawing tundra a new climate threat

(PhysOrg.com) -- A significant source of greenhouse gases has started leaking into the Earth's atmosphere from an unlikely place. Above the Arctic Circle, land frozen for tens of thousands of years has begun ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jan 20, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (15) | comments 11

Satellite observes spatiotemporal variations in mid-upper tropospheric methane over China

As a principal greenhouse gas, atmospheric methane is important to atmospheric chemical processes and climate change. In Vol. 56 of the Chinese Science Bulletin, a paper identified spatiotemporal variations of methane in the ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jan 20, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Low temperatures enhance ozone degradation above the Arctic

Extraordinarily cold temperatures in the winter of 2010/2011 caused the most massive destruction of the ozone layer above the Arctic so far: The mechanisms leading to the first ozone hole above the North Pole ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jan 19, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Indonesia to conserve half of Borneo region

Indonesia's forestry ministry said Thursday it would conserve nearly half its share of Borneo island, which is covered with dense rainforest, so as to meet a presidential pledge to reduce gas emissions.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jan 19, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Energy efficiency paves way to a low-carbon future, but barriers persist

Former Secretary of Defense William Perry, now a Stanford University professor emeritus of management science and engineering, lists biomass, plug-in hybrid cars, nuclear power, more natural gas and energy ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Jan 19, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

China looks at carbon tax, official says in US

China's lead negotiator on climate change said Wednesday that the world's largest emitter is considering imposing a tax on carbon to reduce the use of dirty energy as its economy grows.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jan 11, 2012 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (6) | comments 12

Greenhouse gas

Greenhouse gases are gases in an atmosphere that absorb and emit radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. Common greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. In our solar system, the atmospheres of Venus, Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause greenhouse effects. Greenhouse gases greatly affect the temperature of the Earth; without them, Earth's surface would be on average about 33°C (59°F) colder than at present.

Human activities since the start of the industrial era around 1750 have increased the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The 2007 assessment report compiled by the IPCC observed that "changes in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and aerosols, land cover and solar radiation alter the energy balance of the climate system", and concluded that "increases in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations is very likely to have caused most of the increases in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century".

For more information about Greenhouse gas, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.