Question

What are greenhouse gases and what are their sources?

Answer 1

The greenhouse gases on earth trap the sun’s heat in the atmosphere and help in keeping the planet warm. They trap the radiation and don’t allow it to escape the earth’s atmosphere. Those are also responsible for the increasing temperatures of the earth.

Complete answer:
The main gases that are responsible for the greenhouse effect are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor, and fluorinated gases (they are synthetic gases). The chemical properties of the greenhouse gases are found to be different and are timely removed from the atmosphere by natural chemical processes. For example, carbon dioxide gets absorbed by the carbon sinks- plants, soil, and ocean. The fluorinated gases are destroyed by the sunlight itself in the upper atmosphere.
Because of the increasing human activities like mining, deforestation, industrialization the concentration of greenhouse gases has increased extensively. The various sources of greenhouse gases are:
Transportation: Vehicle emissions are the major source of greenhouse gases. The burning of fuels in our cars, bikes, trucks releases a large number of greenhouse gases.
Electricity production: Electricity is produced mainly by burning fossil fuels, coal, and natural gases which emit a large amount of greenhouse gases.
Industry: The gases emissions because of various chemical processes in the industries release a large number of harmful gases like Nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide, etc.
Commercial and residential: The use of refrigerators, air conditioners, and coolers releases CFC into the atmosphere.

Note:
When the sunlight strikes the earth’s atmosphere some of the radiation is absorbed by these greenhouse gases and helps to keep the planet warm. The rest of the sunlight is reflected back into space. This is known as the ‘Greenhouse effect. In recent years increased emissions of greenhouse gases have led to the temperature of the planet increasing drastically. This is known as global warming.