Answer» Correct Answer - Option 3 : CO2
The correct answer is CO2.
- Of the greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most significant.
- Natural sources of atmospheric CO2 include outgassing from volcanoes, the combustion and natural decay of organic matter, and respiration by aerobic (oxygen-using) organisms.
- These sources are balanced, on average, by a set of physical, chemical, or biological processes, called “sinks,” that tend to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
- Significant natural sinks include terrestrial vegetation, which takes up CO2 during the process of photosynthesis.
- Global Warming:
- Global warming occurs when carbon dioxide (CO2) and other air pollutants collect in the atmosphere and absorb sunlight and solar radiation that have bounced off the earth’s surface.
- Normally this radiation would escape into space, but these pollutants, which can last for years to centuries in the atmosphere, trap the heat and cause the planet to get hotter.
- These heat-trapping pollutants—specifically carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor, and synthetic fluorinated gases—are known as greenhouse gases, and their impact is called the greenhouse effect.
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