Carbon dioxide greenhouse gas

The fossil energy use reductions lead to similar reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide. This gas contributes with between one-quarter and one-third of the total greenhouse gas contribution from agriculture. 

Carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas within the atmosphere. Water vapour is a greater contributor to the natural greenhouse effect (55-70% of the total radiative absorption compared to COj s 25%). However, the large inherent variability in atmospheric water vapour compared to the anthropogenically... 

But for power station applications, the thermal efficiency is not the only measure of the performance of a plant. While a new type of plant may involve some reduction in running costs due to improved thermal efficiency, it may also involve additional capital costs. The cost of electricity produced is the crucial criterion within the overall economics, and this depends not only on the thermal efficiency and capital costs, but also on the price of fuel, operational and maintenance costs, and the taxes imposed. Yet another factor, which has recently become important, is the production by gas turbine plants of greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide) which contribute to global warming. Many countries are now considering the imposition of a special tax on the amount of CO2 produced by a power plant, and this may adversely affect the economics. So consideration of a new plant in future will involve not only the factors listed above but also the amount of CO2 produced per unit of electricity together with the extra taxes that may have to be paid. 

One of the main benefits from future use of biofuels would be the reduction of greenhouse gases compared to the use of fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, is released into the air from combustion. Twenty-four percent of worldwide energy-related carbon emissions in 1997 were from the United States. Carbon... 

A secondary benefit is that efficiency gains in fossil fuel generation also reduce all types of harmful emissions, even carbon dioxide—the greenhouse gas suspected by many as a major culprit of climate change. A 45 percent efficient plant releases approximately 40 percent less COn per megawatt-hours of electricity produced than a 25 percent efficient plant that it might be replacing. 

The Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) is the division of NOAA that conducts and directs oceanic and atmospheric research. Since carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and fossil fuels are the leading generator of carbon dioxide, the work of the twelve Environmental Research Laboratories and eleven Joint Institutes of OAR to describe, monitor, and assess climate trends are of great interest to all parties interested in the affect of energy use on climate change. 

Natural gas will continue to be substituted for oil and coal as primary energy source in order to reduce emissions of noxious combustion products particulates (soot), unburned hydrocarbons, dioxins, sulfur and nitrogen oxides (sources of acid rain and snow), and toxic carbon monoxide, as well as carbon dioxide, which is believed to be the chief greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. Policy implemented to curtail carbon emissions based on the perceived threat could dramatically accelerate the switch to natural gas. 

Some environmentalists have also touted natural gas as a way station on the road to a hydrogen fuel (carbon dioxide-free) economy. As seen in Table 1, per unit of energy released, natural gas generates about 23 percent less carbon dioxide than gasoline and about 30 percent less than heavy fuel oil. This is helpful in reducing greenhouse emissions, but the other excellent properties of natural gas are even... 

Coping with the greenhouse effect is a vei-y difficult sociopolitical problem. A greenhouse effect existed on Earth long before the Industrial Revolution. Had it not. Earth s surface would be much colder than it is now. The introduction of gases absorbing infrared radiation only enhances the greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide is not the only gas of importance water vapor and methane, for exam-... 

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