The impact of greenhouse gases is assessed as a measure of Global Warming Potential

Yearly greenhouse gas emissions have been steadily increasing since 1850

Although greenhouse gases include methane, nitrous oxide, and most fluorinated compounds, their warming potential is often measured relative to carbon dioxide. In these units, greenhouse gas emissions have gone from 4.29 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 1850 to 54.43 billion metric tons in 2024.

Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities have contributed to global warming

A 2021 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that such emissions were responsible for approximately 1.1 degrees Celsius (2.0 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since 1850-1900. Without rapid, large-scale reductions in emissions, temperatures are expected to continue to rise, leading to more extreme weather events.

Excluding water vapor, greenhouse gases make up less than 1% of Earth's atmosphere

Although carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and most fluorinated gases account for only a minority of the planet's greenhouse effect due to their lower concentrations, they are more effective at trapping thermal radiation. While water vapor condenses within two weeks, other greenhouse gases linger in the atmosphere for years on average.

Methane: the other greenhouse gas

While most of the focus with respect to greenhouse gases lands on carbon dioxide, methane is the second most potent contributor. The gas, a carbon atom with four hydrogen atoms, is 25 times more potent than CO2 in terms of trapping heat over a 100...

Fluorinated molecules are the most impactful, longest-lasting greenhouse gases

Developed as replacements for ozone-depleting substances in refrigeration and air conditioning systems, these compounds are released through leaks in and ongoing use of these appliances, as well as from various industrial processes. They can remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years and have warming potentials that are a thousand to tens of thousands of times greater than those of carbon dioxide.

Greenhouse gas concentrations can be measured using spectroscopy

Each type of greenhouse gas absorbs a distinct set of wavelengths of light, which serve as a unique spectral signature. By shining light through an atmospheric sample and measuring the light on the other side, the amount of each gas can be calculated from the amount of missing light.

The Montreal Protocol helped prevent significant quantities of greenhouse gas emissions

By phasing out ozone-depleting chemicals between 1990 and 2010, the Montreal Protocol prevented emissions equal to 135 gigatons of CO₂—avoiding an estimated 0.5 to 1 degrees Celsius of additional global warming by 2100.

The world's wealthiest 10% are responsible for 48% of greenhouse gas emissions

An analysis by the International Energy Agency found that in 2021, the top 1% of emitters each produced over 50 metric tons of carbon dioxide, over 1,000 times the amount produced by those in the bottom 1%. The average energy-related carbon footprint, including household heating and electricity use, was about 4.7 metric tons per person.

How greenhouse gases and climate change impact the efficiency of photosynthesis

A review in the Journal of Experimental Botany found that higher temperatures reduce the efficiency of enzymes involved in photosynthesis and impair a plant's ability to control water loss and regulate carbon dioxide uptake. While increased carbon dioxide levels are understood to accelerate plant growth by boosting photosynthesis, researchers suggest these effects more than offset the potential gain.

How Earth's 'greenhouse effect' works

The so-called "greenhouse effect," where various gases in Earth's atmosphere trap heat from the sun, is a crucial factor in our planet's ability to sustain life. It's also pivotal in discussions over humanity's impact on changes in the Earth's...

Global CO2 levels as measured at Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory, managed by the US government’s NOAA.

The Global Monitoring Laboratory conducts research on greenhouse gas and carbon cycle feedbacks, changes in clouds, aerosols, and surface radiation, and recovery of stratospheric ozone.

What’s the best way to reduce climate impact of food?

Food is a big part of everyone’s carbon footprint, and it’s important to understand the impact of our personal food consumption. Individual food choices can emit as many greenhouse gases as personal electricity use. Plant-based diets generally...

Oceans absorb 90% of warming from greenhouse gases

Oceans are providing increasingly more energy to power hurricane intensity. Current projections show rapid intensification is becoming more common, increasing the likelihood of Category 4 and 5 storms.

Research shows Venus would be hotter if some of its CO₂ were swapped out

The planet's atmosphere—whose density is 92 times that of Earth's—is 96.5% carbon dioxide. Since these molecules all capture the same subset of infrared radiation emitted from Venus's surface, radiation outside this range escapes, demonstrating the increased impact that diverse greenhouse gas composition has on planetary warming.

How is the climate like baseball?

A two-minute video taking a lighthearted look at an unexpected analogy, explaining why some people call carbon dioxide (and the other greenhouse gases) the steroids of the climate system.

The ratio of stable carbon isotopes in climate proxies provides climate variable data

Measures of the abundance of carbon-13 and carbon-12 can vary in a sample due to environmental and climatic factors. Plants more readily assimilate carbon-12 during photosynthesis, allowing the ratio to serve as a proxy for past conditions that favored plant life.

The Köppen-Geiger system divides Earth’s climate into five main categories

This classification system, developed by a German-Russian botanist and a German climatologist, results from differences in the intensity of solar radiation and rainfall in different parts of the world. Each category is further divided into multiple coded zones.

Large oil companies knew about the impact of carbon emissions since the ’70s

PBS Frontline’s The Power of Big Oil reveals how industry giants like Exxon and Shell were researching climate change in the 1970s but then funded denial campaigns—using internal science to sow public doubt for decades.

Scientists testing how climate change affects plants found, in a years-long simulation study, that poison ivy grew 70% faster with the resulting extra carbon dioxide.

Visualizing the built world compared to the natural world

In the last century, humans have covered the Earth in 1,300 metric gigatons of built material, known as technomass. That amount is more than the Earth's entire biomass at 1,100 GT, which includes all living organisms. To get a sense of the scale of this comparison, click through this striking, simple visualization showcasing the various organisms comprising biomass as well as the materials making up the technomass.

Simulate the effects of government policies on climate projections

The En-ROADS tool lets you role-play as a global decision maker to explore the long-term effects of various policy ideas on climate. More than 341,000 people worldwide, including over 130 members of Congress, have used the simulation.

A map of the world's changing tree cover

As many of the world's tree species are at risk of extinction, keep track of the growth and decline of trees on Earth with this interactive map. Witness the state of forests worldwide by analyzing tree cover change on GFW’s interactive global forest map using satellite data. Learn about deforestation rates and other land use practices, forest fires, forest communities, biodiversity, and much more.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

What is the Gini coefficient?

The Gini coefficient is a measure of income inequality on a scale from 0 to 1. A value of 0 indicates perfect equality, where everyone has the same income, while a value of 1 indicates perfect inequality, where one person has all the income and...

Global trade volume is roughly 45 times what it was when the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was founded

Since 1950, world trade values have grown nearly 410 times, mainly due to the successive tariff reductions negotiated under GATT and the WTO.

Explore next-generation geothermal projects worldwide

This tool from the Clean Air Task Force allows users to see the location of geothermal power systems to depths of 12.5 kilometers (7.8 miles), where temperatures reach about 450 degrees Celsius (842 degrees Fahrenheit), including proposed, abandoned, and in-development projects.

The Kardashev scale measures a civilization's advancement based on energy use

Developed by Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev in 1964, the scale classifies a civilization based on the amount of energy its existing technologies can harness, ranging from a society that consumes as much energy as a single planet to one that consumes as much energy as an entire galaxy.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

The boiling temperature of water decreases with increasing elevation because the molecules need less energy to overcome the lower atmospheric pressure associated with thinner air.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

The deadliest aspect of volcanic eruptions is often not lava, but pyroclastic flows—avalanches of ash, gas, and rock that can move more than half the speed of sound.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

The power and influence of the American presidency have expanded significantly over time—far beyond what the founders envisioned.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

One of the most famous portraits ever taken is 'Afghan Girl' (1984) by Steve McCurry, yet the subject Sharbat Gula went much of her life without being identified or benefitting from the image's success.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.