What are greenhouse gases?
Greenhouse gas emissions. It’s a term many of us have heard before and we know it’s not a good thing, but how much do we really know about them?
There are many chemical compounds that act as greenhouse gases, allowing sunlight to filter into the atmosphere freely. As sunlight hits the earth’s surface, some of it is reflected back as infrared radiation. Greenhouse gases, however, absorb this heat and trap it in Earth’s atmosphere. There are chemical compounds that occur naturally but there are those that are man made in large quantities, creating the problem known as greenhouse gas emissions.
Since large scale industrialization began approximately 150 years ago, greenhouse gas emissions have been on the rise. Carbon dioxide levels have increased dramatically thanks to the widespread use of fossil fuels. The Earth has a natural process known as the carbon cycle to counterbalance the production of greenhouse gases. But each year, as the metric tons of carbon dioxide and other man-made greenhouse gases that are released into the atmosphere increase, an imbalance occurs between emissions and absorption rates.
The amount of energy sent from the sun to our planet’s surface should be about the same as the amount of energy that is radiated back into space, allowing the temperature of the Earth to stay roughly constant. However, with the addition of man-made GHG emissions and the imbalance in the carbon cycle process, GHG emissions are considered to be one of the main driving forces behind the increased temperatures and climate change.
Is your business contributing to the production of greenhouse gases?
Contact Legend Power to find out and discover how you can save money and reduce your GHG emissions!
(Image via Pixabay)