Jun 25, 2026 · 2 min · 3 segments
Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere and keep Earth warm. Without them it would be a frozen iceball – as it once was before. There are many greenhouse gases. Water vapor is by far the largest…
Scott TinkerHost
Carbon dioxide is the weakest greenhouse gas in warming potential, but the second most abundant.
Carbon is always moving between Earth and sky in what's called the carbon cycle.
But since humans have industrialized, we're transferring carbon that was held in fossil fuels into the atmosphere where it lasts about a century.
Methane, for instance, is 80 times more potent than CO2, but lasts in the atmosphere only a few decades.
It's naturally produced by decaying plants in swamps, lake beds, and forest floors, and by human sources like natural gas leaks and livestock.
Nitrous oxides also occur naturally, emitted from soils beneath wild plants and oceans, and through our agriculture by using nitrogen-based fertilizers.
These are 300 times more potent than CO2, though produced in much smaller quantities.
Fluorinated gases are man-made and emitted only from human sources, like leaking refrigerant.
The volume is tiny, but they're thousands of times more potent than CO2 and endure for thousands of years.
Only by understanding the mix and potency of greenhouse gases can we understand how to best manage them.
Carbon dioxide is the weakest greenhouse gas in warming potential, but the second most abundant.
Carbon is always moving between Earth and sky in what's called the carbon cycle.
But since humans have industrialized, we're transferring carbon that was held in fossil fuels into the atmosphere where it lasts about a century.
Methane, for instance, is 80 times more potent than CO2, but lasts in the atmosphere only a few decades.
It's naturally produced by decaying plants in swamps, lake beds, and forest floors, and by human sources like natural gas leaks and livestock.
Nitrous oxides also occur naturally, emitted from soils beneath wild plants and oceans, and through our agriculture by using nitrogen-based fertilizers.
These are 300 times more potent than CO2, though produced in much smaller quantities.
Fluorinated gases are man-made and emitted only from human sources, like leaking refrigerant.
The volume is tiny, but they're thousands of times more potent than CO2 and endure for thousands of years.
Only by understanding the mix and potency of greenhouse gases can we understand how to best manage them.
Every episode on Radar is fully transcribed, speaker-labeled, and rich with metadata. Here is a taste of this one. Try Radar for free to see the rest.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
All 3 segments — the transcript broken into labeled sections, every ad read marked
All 17 topics — jump to every other episode discussing the same subject
Every related episode — other shows Radar links to this one
No account is needed to search Radar.
