While carbon has been the media darling of climate change for the last several years, there are other major players in the game. Much of the general public is familiar with methane, and some know its origins, such as the production and transport of coal, oil and natural gas–oh and cattle poop.But rarely is another powerful little earth-warmer uttered in the same sentence as climate change: nitrous oxide.

Nitrous is much more widely recognized as “laughing gas,” a sedative used by dentists to calm patients. The gas, however, may induce less laughing and more concern when its link to climate change becomes popularized.

Albeit nitrous oxide is far less prevalent in the atmosphere when compared to carbon, it can be up to 298 times* more potent in trapping heat in the atmosphere. The gas is produced by both natural and human sources. The main human-related producers of the gas are the management of agricultural soil, animal manure management, sewage treatment and combustion of fossil fuel, especially vehicle exhaust.

Agricultural soil and poultry manure are the key producers of nitrous oxide, and nitrous emissions account for about 60 percent of total emissions from the agricultural sector. Nitrous is essential to plant growth, but the heavy use of synthetic nitrogen-rich fertilizers to produce high-nitrogen consuming crops like corn has hugely increased its greenhouse gas emissions. Poultry urine also contains large amounts of nitrogen, along with phosphorus and potassium.

Outside of its direct effects on climate, nutrients like nitrogen also pollute coastal ecosystems when too much nitrogen-rich fertilizer leaches into waterways (via snow melt and storm runoff) and makes its way to sea. Excess nitrogen promotes the growth of algae, which block sunlight to bottom-dwelling plants and suck oxygen from the water when they die. This in turn can create oxygen-depleted waters, or “dead zones,” where fish, mollusks and crustaceans cannot survive. The Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay, for example, have both suffered from the phenomenon, as a result of both nitrogen and phosphorus pollution.

For a list of ways to help stop climate change, click on the “Act” link  below.

*per unit weight