Nitrous Oxide, The Shunned Stepchild of the Greenhouse Gas Family
CO2, Methane, and The Other One
Published in The EarthSphere Blog
Recently a spat of news reports highlighted the role of methane in promoting global warming. COP26 got in on the action with various commitments to reduce methane emissions from sources as varied as oil wells to belching cows. Methane has caught people’s interest because it has about 80 times the warming power of its puny brother, carbon dioxide. But there is a third and nastier sibling, nitrous oxide, with a warming capacity equal to about 300 times that of CO2.
Some of you may recognize nitrous oxide (N2O) by its more common name, ‘laughing gas.’ Yes, the friendly little guy giving many of us a delightful ride in the dentist’s chair leads a double life as a mean-ass climate warmer. It’s like a child walking into the post office with Mom and seeing their sweet babysitter’s face on a most wanted poster.
But nitrous oxide appears in places other than the dentist’s office. Enough of it collects in the atmosphere to make it the third most prevalent greenhouse gas, accounting for about six percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. But burning fossil fuels is not at the heart of the N2O problem. Agriculture is the main culprit, accounting for roughly three-quarters of all N2O…
