Please don't look at other answers until you've answered.
Here's the question:
What is the number one greenhouse gas, and where does the vast majority of it come from?
2007-09-21 15:43:07 · 10 answers · asked by Ory O Oreo 3 in Environment ➔ Global Warming
Water vapor from evaporation of the oceans.
Note that it's constant in the short run (tens of years) because it has a short "residence time" in the atmosphere (a few days). So it can't cause global warming.
CO2 has a residence time measured in years. So it can increase rapidly (from burning fossil fuels) and cause global warming.
The warmer air holds more water vapor which can then amplify global warming.
More here:
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/dn11652
2007-09-21 19:31:21 · answer #1 · answered by Bob 7 · 0⤊ 4⤋
water vapor. the vast majority comes from the plants. what i mean by that, is that when you water the plants water will get on the floor in a greenhouse. the green house is so warm that the water dries up and turns into water vapor and has no where to exit the green house and becomes a gas from the oxegen. oxegen is another gas of the greenhouse. but only is a helper to water vapor turning to a gas.
2007-09-22 09:38:07 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
The number one is water vapor--comes from water evaporating. The number two cause is cow emissions
2007-09-25 22:20:03 · answer #3 · answered by TAT 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Water vapor from the oceans
2007-09-25 11:17:28 · answer #4 · answered by gerafalop 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Number one in what sense? Water quantitatively, and CO2 in terms of warming effect. Both were part of the earth's original composition.
2007-09-22 09:17:38 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
That depends entirely on what you mean by "number one".
Water vapor is the largest contributor to the greenhouse effect. However, its atmospheric concentration is dependent on the atmospheric temperature. In other words, it doesn't initiate global warming, it only amplifies global warming.
CO2 is the number one contributor to global warming in that water vapor would not increase if atmospheric CO2 didn't increase first. Atmospheric CO2 is increasing due to humans burning fossil fuels.
So it simply depends on what you're asking about.
2007-09-22 00:34:01 · answer #6 · answered by Dana1981 7 · 2⤊ 4⤋
Amoco High Test. BP gas stations.
2007-09-23 22:11:51 · answer #7 · answered by hawk_barry 6 · 0⤊ 3⤋
water vapour then methane. and there is little we can do about that lets all party now before the world ends.
2007-09-21 22:54:11 · answer #8 · answered by theanswer read it again please 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋
water vapour, the oceans.
(i didn't peek)
2007-09-26 02:21:47 · answer #9 · answered by fyzer 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Methane, from cows.
2007-09-22 00:09:38 · answer #10 · answered by admode 3 · 1⤊ 3⤋