ALARMING FACT: Laughing gas becomes a reason for global warming and climate issues!

We all are familiar with nitrous oxide - oh, got confused? Hey, It's our laughing gas! But do you know that it has a huge impact on our Global Warming? Come on, let's find out.

Laughing gas or N2O is a chemical compound formed by the joining of two nitrogen atoms and an oxygen atom. It seems to be a colorless and odorless gas but has a slight metallic scent and taste.

The name laughing gas was coined by Sir Humphry Davy, a renowned chemist, and inventor, who gave this name due to the unique ability of the gas to make us feel happy. When inhaled, the gas slows down the body's reaction time which results in a calm and pleasant, happy feeling.

It is used for various purposes such as an oxidizer in rocket motors, in vehicles for more internal combustion that makes more oxygen available resulting in more fuel burning, and more acceleration in racing cars. This technique was also used in the second World War by Luftwaffe aircraft with GM-1 system that helps to boost the power output of aircraft engines. It is used as a food addictive in whipped cream canisters and cooking sprays. It is still used in the medical field, in case of childbirth, trauma, oral surgery, including heart attacks, that helps to relieve the pain to a certain extent. We know everything has its own disadvantages and the same is applicable to laughing gas.

It is said that there is a lot of drug abuse of this gas which began in 19th century Europe as laughing gas parties. Still, there are many people who misuse it as a drug.

Our main question is how does this affect climate change?

Greenhouse gases are very helpful by trapping the heat energy from the sun and making the planet warm. But the increase in the greenhouse gases more than its required level causes an increase in the planet temperature by making significant ecological problems such as climate change. According to a research paper published on Nature on 7 October 2020, laughing gas is said to be 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, methane, and Chlorofluorocarbon. It also has a 114 year of life span, which is the longest life span among other atmospheric gases. this gas emission occurs both naturally and artificially.

74% of nitrous oxide is released from agricultural lands due to the use of nitrogen fertilizers and 8% of it is from stationary combustion and 6% from industrial processes. Transportation covers 5% and another 5% is covered by manure management. The other factors togetherly constitute the remaining 2%.

Nitrous oxide or laughing gas has more potential to deplete the ozone layer when it gets into the stratosphere. This can cause huge damages to our entire ecosystem. Our population rises year by year and our food requirements are big, which increases the use of nitrogen fertilizers, which will destroy our biosphere.

Through this, we can find that even though nitrous oxide (laughing gas) is good for plants, it isn't good for our environment. So it is equally important to use nitrogen fertilizers scientifically with utmost care. The misuse of nitrogen fertilizers and the wrong management of dung wastes are the major sources of nitrous oxide. If we cannot make a significant decrease in our manure uses, it will harmfully affect our entire environment.

The nitrous oxide that stands alone in the troposphere, moves to the stratosphere, where the ozone layer is present and makes the process of ozone to oxygen coversion faster and the major threat is that it has a higher life span than any other greenhouse gas.

It is our existential need to have more research to stabilize the amount of nitrous oxide in the Earth's atmosphere.

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