Carbon dioxide is the big daddy of greenhouse gases. Making up the bulk of our emissions and staying up in the atmosphere for many centuries, whether we¡¯re successful or not at limiting global temperature rise boils down to what we do about CO2.
But it¡¯s only part of the equation in global warming. A group of lesser-discussed climate pollutants are many times more powerful than carbon dioxide and could serve as an emergency brake on near-term warming. Even better: There¡¯s reason to be cautiously optimistic.
So-called super pollutants ¡ª a group of greenhouse gases and aerosols including methane, black carbon, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and tropospheric ozone ¡ª are responsible for about 45% of warming to date, with carbon dioxide responsible for the other 55%. While these emissions exist in the atmosphere for a fraction of CO2¡¯s centuries-long lifetime, they have a more potent warming effect.
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