The Top Ten Greenhouse Gases
Sunday, May 31st, 2009As PopSci.com So Eloquently Put It:
Despite all the talk about carbon capture, carbon footprints and carbon trading, carbon dioxide only causes nine to 26% of the greenhouse effect. That means that the majority of warming results from gases with a much lower media profile than the paparazzi-trailed starlet of global warming, CO2. In honor of last weeks’ report in the Journal of Geophysical Research, which identified a brand new greenhouse gas, we count down the gases that bring us bikini weather in Antarctica and beachfront property in Montana.
10. Sulfuryl Fluoride: The new kid on the block, MIT scientists identified this chemical as a greenhouse gas on March 11th, 2009. Used as a fumigant, Dow Chemicals produces sulfuryl fluoride to kill termites. The chemical, which is highly inert, has a lifetime of up to 40 years, and traps 4,800 times more heat per molecule than CO2. The chemical only exists in 1.5 parts per trillion in the atmosphere, but according to the recent Journal of Geophysical Research, that number is going up by 5 percent a year. (more…)












