Greenhouse gases are atmospheric constituents that absorb and emit infrared radiation, thereby contributing to the greenhouse effect and Earth’s radiative energy balance. Major greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), ozone (O₃), and various halogenated compounds, along with water vapour (H₂O) as a feedback agent. Their radiative forcing depends on concentration, spectral absorption properties, atmospheric lifetime, and overlap with other absorbers. In climate research, greenhouse gases are quantified via metrics such as global warming potential and effective radiative forcing to assess their contribution to anthropogenic climate change and to inform emissions mitigation strategies.
While air conditioning protects people from dangerous heat, it also significantly worsens global warming—by 2050, potentially producing more carbon dioxide than the current annual emissions of the United States, a new study ...
Environment
Feb 25, 2026
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Countries with stricter and better-targeted climate policies cut carbon emissions faster, according to a major new study by researchers in the UK and EU. The study draws on the most comprehensive climate policy dataset ever ...
Environment
Feb 24, 2026
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27
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with an impact estimated at 80 times that of CO₂. Although efforts are being made to reduce the contribution of big polluters to methane in Japan, new research from Osaka Metropolitan University ...
Environment
Feb 24, 2026
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Rice, maize, and cassava crops cumulatively account for approximately 11% of total global deforestation—exceeding that of cocoa, coffee, and rubber—according to an analysis between 2001 and 2022, published in Nature Food. ...
Environment
Feb 23, 2026
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Digital technologies are widely viewed as drivers of efficiency, growth, and innovation. However, their contribution to climate change is significantly greater than previously understood. A new study published in the journal ...
Environment
Feb 23, 2026
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Volcanoes and wildfires can inject millions of tons of gases and aerosol particles into the air, affecting temperatures on a global scale. But picking out the specific impact of individual events against a background of many ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 23, 2026
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27
An economic study calculates the effectiveness of a novel policy instrument: The underlying idea is that you are allowed to release the climate gas CO₂ into the atmosphere—but only if you promise to "clean up" later through ...
Environment
Feb 23, 2026
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Researchers at ETH Zurich have now discovered for the first time that large blackwater lakes in the extensive peatlands of the central Congo Basin are releasing ancient carbon. To date, climate researchers had assumed that ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 23, 2026
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314
A study led by the University of Barcelona and published in the journal Nature Communications shows that climate change has profoundly altered extreme episodes of melting in the Greenland ice sheet by making them more frequent, ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 21, 2026
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423
Minnesota is struggling to achieve its climate goals despite decades of falling greenhouse gas emissions, newly released state data shows. State law requires Minnesota's electric utilities to reduce their carbon emissions ...
Environment
Feb 20, 2026
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