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Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a harmful climate gas. Its effect as a greenhouse gas is 300 times stronger than that of carbon dioxide.
“Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a harmful climate gas. Its effect as a greenhouse gas is 300 times stronger than that of carbon dioxide.”
The phrasing of this kind of statement can be very misleading. Implicit that CO2 is already terrible, the addition of N2O would be 300X worse. But back to the basics, CO2 absorbs radiation in the infrared as does N2O, and is therefore described as a ‘greenhouse’ gas. But CO2 is not a sponge that sops up all the radiation that nears it. In reality, it absorbs in specific wavelengths of the infrared, and this in fact is how it is detected/measured in the atmosphere. It has an absorbency signature so to speak. The energy of the radiation absorbed excites the molecule momentarily after which it re-emits that energy, albeit at a different wavelength or loses it by conduction in returning to equilibrium. Once this is factored in, the concentrations of both gases in the atmosphere need to be included in the discussion.