Which Greenhouse Gas is the Worst?

The greenhouse effect keeps life on our planet going, but if it gets too hot that ain't so good. In this video, we investigate the most common greenhouse gases, their global warming potentials (GWPs), and discuss concerns related to their emissions.

*Team*
Producer - That Chemist (Joey)

[SosirisTseng]

Hydrogen is also a green house gas (GWP ~ 11).

[greatgodoffire]

No carbon tetrachloride, Tom will be disappointed.

[LemurG]

HFO-1234yf sounds like a pretty decent password if you ask me

[gulingo]

"You might be familiar with Nitrous Oxide" 🎈

[isaacthedestroyerofstuped]

Great video! Shame it had to be over such a depressing topic...

Also, NF3 looks like it shouldn't be as stable as it is. Fluorine's just that good at hold onto electrons.

[funtechu]

One of the biggest reasons that CFC concentration decline has stagnated is that China continues to use R-12 even after the "global" ban.

[tfrowlett]

This is why fridge mechanics like me reclaim harmful refrigerants like R-22 and R-134a instead of releasing them, and why we switched to less harmful refrigerants like R-600a

[SelinicaHarbinger]

I still ("fondly") remember finding a brand new old stock can of freon-12 freeze spray for electronics from the 80's. That was a fun surprise to try and figure out how to dispose of properly

[jdave]

Hearing about these ridiculously potent greenhouse gases, it makes me wonder: what's the worst possible synthetic greenhouse gas possible? And then further, what would be the worst as a gas that could be produced at cheaply at scale (aka, not some cursed amalgamation that lasts for seconds and doesn't use a bunch of expensive elements; it very much wouldn't surprise me if the worst one without these considerations wouldn't last long at all and/or have some ridiculous production process to accommodate weird or extremely massive molecules (though I'm not sure if a gas' greenhouse potency has any meaningful relationship to molecule size)).

[victoria]

I've been listening to your videos while I nap through my lunch break every day. Your videos are very calming (and chemistry in university always made me sleepy)

[lsswappedcessna]

It really is a shame that R-12 is such a bad greenhouse gas, as it's an amazing refrigerant.

Also, when was R-134a banned? You can go to your local auto parts store and buy a good sized can of it for like $40.

[Auxilor]

would be nice to see some syntheses on this channel!

[akramkimou]

Wasnt expecting minecraft to show up in a "That Chemist" video

[OldieBugger]

By pre-industrial time you probably mean The Little Ice Age, an unusually cold period in known history. It's quite natural that now we are having warmer temperatures when compared to that.

[confucumus]

The worst greenhouse gas was from my dad after a dinner of cabbage and beef

[iampotates]

So if i release enough of this it'll always be whiteboy summer?

Bet.

[pokeman]

Up until very recently the largest source of CFC was ventolin prescriptions from the NHS

[joseywales]

Love this breakdown, keep up the good work and education <3

[Unforseenconsequences]

Why cant we just eat the greenhouse gases

[lharsay]

6:45 That's why it's so hard to find any habitable planets in other solar sytems.