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Greenhouse gas: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As GHG

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Diagram of the water cycle showing processes like evaporation, condensation, precipitation, transpiration, infiltration, and groundwater flow between land, vegetation, surface water, and the ocean, with labeled arrows and color-coded soil moisture and groundwater zones.
Illustrated diagram of the carbon cycle showing how carbon moves as carbon dioxide through the atmosphere, water, living organisms, rocks, and soil. It depicts processes like photosynthesis, respiration, sedimentation, volcanic activity, fossil fuel use, and carbon sequestration, with arrows indicating the flow between air, water, plants, animals, rocks, and industrial sources.
Diagram of the carbon cycle showing how carbon moves between the atmosphere, biosphere, land, and ocean. Arrows connect processes like combustion, plant and animal respiration, decomposition, fossil fuel formation, and ocean absorption, with labeled pathways for carbon flow.
Charred tree trunks and smoldering ash cover a deforested area of the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil, with smoke rising among sparse remaining trees.
Line graph showing the Keeling Curve, which tracks atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels at Mauna Loa from 1965 to 2025. The graph shows a steady upward trend from about 320 to over 420 parts per million, with seasonal fluctuations. An inset highlights the annual cycle of CO2, demonstrating both the short-term oscillations and the long-term increase.
Bar chart comparing global mean radiative forcings from various sources since 1750, including natural and anthropogenic factors such as greenhouse gases, aerosols, and land use, with color-coded bars showing positive and negative forcing values, uncertainty ranges, and scientific understanding levels.
Diagram illustrating the methane cycle, showing sources such as landfills, wetlands, fossil fuels, livestock digestion, termites, burning biomass, and melting permafrost, as well as methane sinks including oxidation by microbes in soil and seabeds, with arrows tracing methane movement through the environment and atmosphere.
Diagram illustrating the greenhouse effect, showing sunlight reaching Earth, some visible light absorbed by the surface, some reflected, and infrared radiation absorbed and reradiated by the atmosphere.
The impact of human activities on climate change
Understand the processes of production and emission of methane gas in wetlands
Understand how the presence of gas molecules, including greenhouse gases, protect the earth by shielding and trapping infrared radiation
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