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A super high-definition view of how carbon dioxide in the air moves around the world with the winds.
Carbon dioxide (CO 2) is an important heat-trapping gas, also known as a greenhouse gas, that comes from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels (such as coal, oil, and natural gas), from wildfires, and natural processes like volcanic eruptions.
The Greenhouse Effect. Increasing Greenhouses Gases Are Warming the Planet. Scientists attribute the global warming trend observed since the mid-20 th century to the human expansion of the "greenhouse effect" 1 — warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space. Life on Earth depends on energy coming from ...
Changes observed in Earth’s climate since the mid-20th century are driven by human activities, particularly fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere, raising Earth’s average surface temperature.
Scientists investigate whether continued warming on Earth could cause a super greenhouse effect in tropical regions to “run away” as it might have on Venus.
Methane (CH 4) is a powerful greenhouse gas, and is the second-largest contributor to climate warming after carbon dioxide (CO 2). A molecule of methane traps more heat than a molecule of CO 2, but methane has a relatively short lifespan of 7 to 12 years in the atmosphere, while CO 2 can persist for hundreds of years or more.
It turns out that most aerosols are cooling — that is to say, they reflect the sun’s energy back out into space. There is only one aerosol — soot, also known as black carbon — that actually helps contribute to global warming by boosting the warming effects of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers show that Earth’s climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. Ancient evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks.
Burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas has increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2) from 280 parts per million to 416 parts per million. 2 These greenhouse gases absorb and then re-radiate heat in Earth’s atmosphere, which causes increased surface warming.
Covering more than 70% of Earth’s surface, our global ocean has a very high heat capacity. It has absorbed 90% of the warming that has occurred in recent decades due to increasing greenhouse gases, and the top few meters of the ocean store as much heat as Earth's entire atmosphere.