What are Greenhouse Gases? | so2 greenhouse gas
June15,2010,byMichaelGillenwater[Editor’sNote: ThisblogpostwasoriginallypublishedonJune15th,2010. Thepostinitscurrentform,hassincebeeneditedtoincludeupdatedcontentasofApril1st,2015.]PairedwiththispostonGHGsisanupdatedpostonGlobalWarmingPotential(GWP)[1]valuesusedintheaccountingofGHGemissions.BackwhenIwasinchargeofdevelopingandauthoringtheofficialU.S.inventoryofGHGemissionsfortheU.S.government,IwroteasectionforthatreportondescribingGHGs.IamcrimpingfromthelatestU.S.EPAnationalinventoryreport.T...
June 15, 2010, by Michael Gillenwater
[Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published on June 15th, 2010. The post in its current form, has since been edited to include updated content as of April 1st, 2015.]
Paired with this post on GHGs is an updated post on Global Warming Potential (GWP) [1]values used in the accounting of GHG emissions.
Back when I was in charge of developing and authoring the official U.S. inventory of GHG emissions for the U.S. government, I wrote a section for that report on describing GHGs. I am crimping from the latest U.S. EPA national inventory report. The text is mostly unchanged since I wrote it many years ago, although the statistics have been updated.
[The following excerpt is taken, with some editing, from the Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks[2].]
Although the Earth’s atmosphere consists mainly of oxygen and nitrogen, neither plays a significant role in enhancing the g...