Greenhouse Gases & Human Activities
Chemistry: AQA GCSE Higher, topic 9.1.6
Human Activities and Greenhouse Gases
Certain human activities cause the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases to increase:
Burning fossil fuels
- Burning fossil fuels releases carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide had been stored away for millions of years previously.
Deforestation
- As we cut down more and more trees, the global rate of photosynthesis will decrease.
- Given that carbon dioxide is a reactant in the equation for photosynthesis, this means that less carbon dioxide will be removed from the atmosphere by this process.
Landfill sites
- The number and size of landfill sites is increasing.
- This means that more mounds of waste are decomposing.
- This process of decomposition releases methane, which is a greenhouse gas.
Agriculture
- Farm animals release methane during digestion.
- As the global population continues to rise, the scale of agriculture is increasing. This means that more methane is being released into the atmosphere by livestock.
Test yourself on Greenhouse Gases & Human Activities
Human activities that increase the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases
Which gas is released by farm animals during digestion?
What greenhouse gas is released by decomposition of mounds of landfill waste?
Why does burning fossil fuels add extra carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, rather than simply recycling carbon dioxide that is already there?
Why is the amount of methane released by landfill sites increasing?