Joseph Ozigis Akomodi

While carbon dioxide (CO₂) is the most abundant anthropogenic greenhouse gas, methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) play crucial roles in global warming due to their significantly higher infrared absorption capacities, expressed through Global Warming Potential (GWP).

Methane (CH₄)

• Emission sources: Methane is primarily emitted from agriculture (enteric fermentation in ruminants, anaerobic decomposition in rice paddies), landfills, fossil fuel extraction and transportation, and natural sources such as wetlands.
• GWP: Over a 100-year time horizon, CH₄ has a GWP 28–34 times greater than CO₂, and 84–86 times greater over a 20-year period.
• Atmospheric lifetime: Relatively short – approximately 12 years, but it has a strong short-term warming effect.
• Secondary effects: Methane is a key precursor to tropospheric ozone (O₃), a harmful air pollutant that affects human health, crops, and vegetation.

Nitrous Oxide (N₂O)

• Emission sources: Major sources include the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers in intensive agriculture, as well as industrial processes, fossil fuel and biomass combustion, and wastewater treatment.
• GWP: About 298 times greater than CO₂ over a 100-year period.
• Atmospheric lifetime: Long – around 114 years.
• Additional impacts: N₂O contributes to stratospheric ozone depletion, further exacerbating its environmental impact.

Significance and Implications

Due to their high radiative forcing and atmospheric persistence, CH₄ and N₂O make a disproportionately large contribution to climate change despite their lower concentrations compared to CO₂. Reducing these emissions provides immediate climate benefits, especially in terms of slowing near-term warming and mitigating extreme weather events.

Mitigation Strategies

• For methane: Improve organic waste management, reduce fugitive emissions in the energy sector, modify livestock feeding practices, and implement anaerobic digestion systems.
• For nitrous oxide: Optimize fertilizer application through precision agriculture, improve soil management, and adopt climate-smart farming practices. Although CO₂ dominates public and policy attention, overlooking CH₄ and N₂O would be a major flaw in climate mitigation strategies. These gases have a disproportionately high warming effect relative to their concentration, and controlling their emissions is a critical component of global climate stabilization efforts.

Methane and nitrous oxide are powerful greenhouse gases that, despite being less abundant than CO₂, contribute significantly to global warming due to their much higher heat-trapping potential and are critical targets for climate mitigation.

Particulates of greenhouse gases, including methane and nitrous oxide, trap heat in the world, contributing to global warming triggered by carbon dioxide. Even if they exist in small amounts compared to CO₂, they can immediately seize infrared activity and are thus more potent for each such particulate in terms of weather dilemmas. Methane is a big short-lived source of energy. It is commonly ejected when eating and engaging in manufacturing practices, and it significantly influences weather alterations. In addition, greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide substantially grow supported temperatures by enhanced photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) infiltration. The concept supports plant growth up to a certain level but can also result in diminishing germination when PAR levels approach or surpass 4.9%. This shows that it is critically crucial to effectively control all greenhouse gases to battle weather fluctuations.