Air Pollution and Global Warming: The Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming
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Abstract
Greenhouse gases have many sources, some related to human activities and some not. The source of greenhouse gases that concern scientists the most is fossil fuel burning. Oil, coal, and natural gas contain carbon that was once in the atmosphere, but has been stored in the lithoshpere for millions of years (hence the term "fossil"). When we burn these fuels, we re-introduce the carbon into the atmosphere, some of it in the form of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. (Cement production and other industrial activities are also key sources of carbon dioxide and ozone; rice agriculture and cattle raising produce large amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas that is more rare than CO2, but far more effective at absorbing and emitting longwave radiation.)