Nov
29
2009
What other greenhouse gas must also increase in concentration in order for this condition to occur?
By admin
Climate models predict that increasing levels of carbon dioxide will cause the mean global surface temperature to rise by as much as 5.8 degrees Celcius by the year 2100. What other greenhouse gas must also increase in concentration in order for this condition to occur?
There are no other gas that must increase in order to see the carbon dioxide to work as a greenhouse effect but methane gas also increases that effect and to a greater grade than carbon dioxide.
Methane is, as you know, released by the decomposition of any form of biological material. Mammals on earth produce tons of methane every day. There is also a lot of methane trapped in the permafrost of the arctic. If that melts, the methane will be released into the atmosphere.
Here, in Norway, we have many lakes that freeze during the winter. As plants at the bottom of the lakes decompose, methane gas is released and makes bobbles right under the ice. Some people have fun by breaking the ice and light the gas that burns in a quick blue flame.
The problem is the same as with fossil fuel: the carbon dioxide and methane cycle is normal: Some is released, some is absorbed. But when we burn fossil fuel that was meant to burn millions of years ago, or release methane trapped for thousands of years in the permafrost, then we change the natural balance and increase the global warming.