How do greenhouse gases pollute the world?

Answer 1

Greenhouse gases are gases that help trap the sun's warmth in our atmosphere and maintain the temperature that we enjoy today. The greenhouse effect is essential to life on earth as we know it. Thus it is a misunderstanding to regard them as pollutants. Most of the greenhouse gases are colourless, odourless and, in themselves, harmless. However, a slight increase in the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere would result in global warming and climate change, while a slight reduction in greenhouse gases would result in global cooling.

In the absence of human activity, the amount of carbon dioxide, the most abundant greenhouse gas, remains relatively constant over a long period of time. There is, of course, a recycling of carbon to carbon dioxide and back, as plants take in carbon dioxide, convert it to organic matter, then die and decay (or are burnt in forest fires), once again giving off carbon dioxide, but this is a natural cycle and does not alter the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

It is because of human activity that results in increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases that we are now beginning to experience global warming and climate change. However, this is not pollution in the normal sense of the word.