Laughing gas is a greenhouse gas
Nitrous Oxide, the same happy gas you get when you go to the dentist, is also one of our biggest greenhouse polluters.
Accounting for only 9% of all greenhouse emissions, it doesn't immediately seem like our biggest problem to tackle, but N2O packs 300 times the greenhouse effects of regular CO2, and stays in the atmosphere much longer.
How did all of this laughing gas end up in our atmosphere? The lifecycle goes like this: farmers use soil fertilizers that are rich in nitrogen. Bacteria that feed on the nitrogen produce N2O as the byproduct. A similar cycle happens in wastewater processing facilities.
This week, several farmers, leaders of industry, fertilizer manufacturers, policy makers, and scientists will be meeting at the University of East Anglia to discuss this matter and establish goals and recommendations for the reduction of N2O in the agriculture industry.
Can I still request it from the dentist? We're not talking about the small amount that makes dental visits bearable, are we?
Posted by: Beth aka Fake Plastic Fish | February 20, 2008 at 01:54 AM