As greenhouse gases go, carbon dioxide might get all the attention, but methane is the quiet powerhouse. While it isn't as prevalent as carbon dioxide, the EPA estimates that methane is 25 times more potent than its more famous fellow emission, able to trap more heat in the atmosphere.
Climate change is changing the environment. Studies have shown that higher levels of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) are warming the planet. But it isn't easy to predict how those changes will affect life in the future. To fix that, some researchers are bringing the future to life, today, no time machines involved.
We know that carbon dioxide levels are rising and that these rising levels are linked to increased temperatures. But actually visualizing how much carbon dioxide (CO2) is going into the atmosphere is a bit of a challenge. Even tons of an invisible gas are still, well, invisible.
The global average of carbon dioxide in the air just reached a new high of 400 parts per million (ppm), which is a new low for us humans.
Cities, with their dense populations and public transit systems are often seen as hotbeds of green innovation--places where bicycles, subways, and light rail are transforming how we get around. But new research shows that fast-growing cities are some of the worst culprits when it comes to CO2 emissions from cars.
Carbon dioxide emissions make the big headlines in climate change news, and with good reason--we've now seen the impact of carbon dioxide on global temperature. But carbon dioxide has a far more potent cousin lingering in her shadow. Methane comes in second to carbon dioxide in the amounts produced by human activity, and the amount of time it spends in the atmosphere, but compared to CO2, each molecule packs a much bigger punch. When compared pound for pound, the EPA found that methane's impact on climate change is 20 times greater than CO2. The gas' potency, combined with the fact that methane emissions are on the rise makes methane of great interest to scientists studying climate change.
Greenhouse gas emissions, particularly those from carbon dioxide, are on the rise. They have been for a while, to the alarm of governments, activist groups, and just about anyone vaguely concerned with environmental issues around the world. Greenhouse gases get their name because they have properties that make them act like glass in a greenhouse, keeping energy from the sun concentrated in our atmosphere, causing temperatures to rise. But until now, that particular effect hadn't been observed and documented in the scientific literature. Now, it has.
