What Are Greenhouse Gases?
Greenhouse gases are atmospheric gases that have the ability to trap the sun’s heat and warm the surface of the earth. The presence of a certain amount of these gases make the earth habitable, otherwise it would be covered in ice. However, human activity has dramatically increased the concentration of some greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, by releasing additional carbon that was previously stored in the ground as coal and unrefined oil. The result is global warming. The Kyoto Protocol attempts to avert harmful climate change by creating a framework for the international regulation of the six most important greenhouse gases resulting from human activity: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N20), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons, (PFCs) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).
