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The world's forgotten greenhouse gas -- nitrous oxide
BBC ^ | 3rd June 2021 | By Ula Chrobak

Posted on 03/12/2023 12:51:22 PM PDT by dennisw

Emissions of the greenhouse gas commonly known as laughing gas are soaring. Can we cut emissions from its greatest anthropogenic source? I In the world's effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the source of our food is coming into the spotlight. There's good reason for that: Agriculture accounts for 16 to 27% of human-caused climate-warming emissions. But much of these emissions are not from carbon dioxide, that familiar climate change villain. They're from another gas altogether: nitrous oxide (N2O).

Also known as laughing gas, N2O does not get nearly the attention it deserves, says David Kanter, a nutrient pollution researcher at New York University and vice-chair of the International Nitrogen Initiative, an organisation focused on nitrogen pollution research and policy making. "It's a forgotten greenhouse gas," he says.

Yet molecule for molecule, N2O is about 300 times as potent as carbon dioxide at heating the atmosphere. And like CO2, it is long-lived, spending an average of 114 years in the sky before disintegrating. It also depletes the ozone layer. In all, the climate impact of laughing gas is no joke. Scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have estimated that nitrous oxide comprises roughly 6% of greenhouse gas emissions, and about three-quarters of those N2O emissions come from agriculture.

But despite its important contribution to climate change, N2O emissions have largely been ignored in climate policies. And the gas continues to accumulate. A 2020 review of nitrous oxide sources and sinks found that emissions rose 30% in the last four decades and are exceeding all but the highest potential emissions scenarios described by the IPCC. Agricultural soil – especially because of the globe's heavy use of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser – is the principal culprit.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: chat; fakenews; newsforumabuse; nitrousoxide
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To: dennisw

Bottle it and send it my way.

My car needs a 100 shot occasionally.


41 posted on 03/12/2023 3:41:14 PM PDT by Red6
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To: dennisw
The worst greehouse gas is Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) vapor.
42 posted on 03/12/2023 3:52:58 PM PDT by Bubba_Leroy ( Dementia Joe is Not My President)
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To: chrisser

they rabbit holed both of those along with the coming iceage decades ago.

decade after decade they lie and get away with it in order to push their green agenda.


43 posted on 03/12/2023 4:44:21 PM PDT by TexasFreeper2009
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To: dennisw

The world’s forgotten greenhouse gas — nitrous oxide

HA! Don’t make me laugh!


44 posted on 03/12/2023 4:49:34 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (Need more money to buy everything now)
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To: Chad C. Mulligan

Hence the sarcasm tag.


45 posted on 03/12/2023 5:05:05 PM PDT by ealgeone
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To: dennisw

What would I do without it?

I no longer hate the dentist.


46 posted on 03/12/2023 5:24:00 PM PDT by Captain Jack Aubrey (There's not a moment to lose.)
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To: dennisw

The entire planet is not a closed system.


47 posted on 03/12/2023 5:29:46 PM PDT by Maelstrom (To prevent misinterpretation or abuse of the Constitution:The Bill of Rights limits government power)
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To: crz

From your text to God’s ears.


48 posted on 03/12/2023 5:30:30 PM PDT by Maelstrom (To prevent misinterpretation or abuse of the Constitution:The Bill of Rights limits government power)
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To: Attention Surplus Disorder

Without any respect whatsoever...

...did YOU do any titration to prove that claim?

I did.
We titrated the rainfall from clouds that swept *directly over* the very worst offenders.
Ph levels remained stubbornly at 7.0.

It was bunk.

The most visible terrors “caused by acid rain” turned out to be copper-lined barrels, and mutagenic bacteria.


49 posted on 03/12/2023 5:33:14 PM PDT by Maelstrom (To prevent misinterpretation or abuse of the Constitution:The Bill of Rights limits government power)
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To: dennisw

It’s only a matter of time when some catastrophic geologic,cosmologic, or biological event will happen on Earth and shock the living daylights out of everybody back into the reality of, “we are not really in charge here.”

I sincerely hope I’m not among living when that happens. But it WILL happen. Telltale Geologic markers prove it and show us that catastrophic extinction events are rather commonplace in the universal time of it all.


50 posted on 03/13/2023 4:24:23 AM PDT by Clutch Martin ("The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right." )
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To: chrisser

Acid rain went away because they closed those steel mills and other coal burning facilities throughout the rust belt. Acid rain is caused by burning low grade coal.


51 posted on 03/13/2023 5:19:00 AM PDT by GingisK
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