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Belch of laughing gas could heat up our

HERE’S one less-than-funny warm-up act. The last ice age may have ended partly because of the release of vast quantities of laughing gas, or nitrous oxide. A similar release could be on the cards later this century, although we cannot predict how much Earth will warm as a result.

Europe warmed by 5 °C about 14,500 years ago, towards the end of the last ice age, and ice cores show that this triggered a pulse of nitrous oxide. This sped up the warming process, as the gas has 310 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Stuart McMullen .