Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming

There are numerous environmental issues which threaten the very existence of life on Earth, and global warming is perhaps the most severe of them all. Many people assume that the greenhouse effect and global warming are one and the same thing, which is technically incorrect. The high concentration of greenhouses gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, in the atmosphere is one of the numerous causes of global warming. That being said, the relationship between greenhouse gases and temperature rise can be best defined as cause and effect relationship.

Difference Between Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming

The term 'greenhouse gases' refers to various gases in the Earth's atmosphere, which are typically characterized by their ability to absorb infrared radiations coming from the Sun. The entire process wherein the Sun's infrared radiations are trapped within the atmosphere by these greenhouse gases is referred to as the 'greenhouse effect'. Greenhouse gases list includes gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons, etc., - some of which stay in the atmosphere for several years and contribute to the greenhouse effect on the planet. The atmospheric concentration of these gases is one of the main causes of the greenhouse effect. Global warming, on the other hand, refers to an incessant rise in global average temperature triggered by various natural and anthropogenic causes - greenhouse gases being one of them.

Relationship Between Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming

Even though we say that the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases has a key role to play when it comes to global warming, these gases are not the only causes of this hazardous phenomenon. Other than the atmospheric concentration of these gases, global warming causes also include numerous other natural occurrences and anthropogenic activities. For instance, solar radiations (a natural cause) and deforestation (an anthropogenic cause) are not at all related to greenhouse gases, but they do play a crucial role in causing the global temperature to rise. On the contrary, if it were not for these greenhouse gases, the Earth would have been freezing cold and devoid of any of the present lifeforms which inhabit it. The fact that these gases play a crucial role in maintaining the necessary balance in global temperature makes their presence on the planet very important.

If greenhouse gases are so important, why are they blamed for global warming? Actually, the problem arises when the amount of these gases in the Earth's atmosphere exceeds the amount required to maintain temperature balance. This increase in greenhouse gases atmospheric concentration results in trapping of more infrared radiations within the Earth's atmosphere, and contributes to rise in global average temperature. When it comes to natural causes of global warming that are closely related to greenhouse effect - methane gas release is perhaps the most prominent one. Similarly, anthropogenic causes of global warming which are associated with greenhouse effect include - use of vehicles, stationary sources such as industries, activities such as mining and agricultural, etc.

While naturally occurring greenhouse gases have been playing the important role of regulating the temperature on Earth since several centuries, those gases that are released as a result of human activities have changed the overall picture. These greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide (with a lifetime of 200 years), nitrous oxide (120 years), various CFC's (with their lifetime ranging between 5 - 1000 years) and gases such as Perfluoropentane and Perfluorohexane (with lifetime exceeding 1000 years). These numbers can be deceiving though, and the relationship between methane and global warming which reveals that the damage caused by methane in its lifetime of 12 years far exceeds the same caused by carbon dioxide in its lifetime of 200 years, highlights this fact very well.

That was a significant bit of information about greenhouse gases and global warming, which stressed on the fact that greenhouse gases do fuel global warming and climate change. This relationship between global warming and the greenhouse effect has to be taken into consideration when we talk about various methods to stop global warming. Taking into consideration the role played by these gases in triggering what is referred to as human induced global warming, doing away with them can help us ease the threats posed by global warming to a certain extent.