LiveScience reminds us in an article today that there is quite a number of gases in the atmosphere that contribute to global warming other than carbon dioxide. Some are greater than 10,000 times more effective at trapping solar energy than CO2, and their role in the atmosphere is not as fully understood. (We have past proxies such as ice cores that can explain the historical effects of CO2, but nothing for exotic species like chlorofluorocarbons -- we can only observe the current havoc they wreak.)
From the article:
Other greenhouse gases make up an even smaller portion of the total greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, but are more long-lived and less reactive than methane.
Chlorofluorocarbons, banned by an international agreement known as the Montreal Protocol because they eat up atmospheric ozone, are also greenhouse gases. While levels of this gas, formerly used in air conditioners and refrigerators, are no longer rising, the gas won’t completely leave the atmosphere for many decades.
“We just have to wait for the atmosphere to cleanse itself,” Shine said.
Other heavily fluorinated gases are very long-lived, almost permanent, in the atmosphere and are still being emitted. And their contributions to global warming still aren’t completely known.
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