One of the most heated debates on global change is the possibility of global warming . Since then an enourmous amount of research has been conducted trying to ascertain the implications of changes is various gases. The atmosphere is heated by sunlight. That heat is captured by individual gas molecules. Increasing the number of molecules able to store heat is believed to increase the total amount of heat stored.
Different molecules have different heat storage capacities.
Curiously the most important gas for heat retention in the atmosphere is water vapor. Water vapor is however not a direct concern for global warming researchers as man does not directly influence the concentration of water vapor in the atmosphere and water vapor returns to the Earth very quickly after evaporation. The gases of concern are anthropogenically introduced and remain in the atmosphere for long periods of time allowing their concentrations to build up. Current information is maintained by the U.S. Department of Energy at the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center , where David Keeling's original data can be viewed. In 1986, three british scientists published a landmark article in the journal Nature showing wide yearly fluctuations in stratospheric ozone over the Antarctic.