Humans Are Fueling Global Warming By Just Breathing, Study Claims

For the study, the researchers investigated emissions of methane and nitrous oxide in human breath from 104 adult volunteers in the UK.

Scientists in the United Kingdom have published new research that claims that humans are exhaling global warming-causing gases when they breathe. The study has been published in the journal PLOS One. Experts explained that methane and nitrous oxide in the air we exhale make up to 0.1% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions. So once you factor in the farts and burps being produced by humans, it becomes clear that humans are fueling global warming by just exhaling from lungs, scientists said. 

The new study was led by Dr Nicholas Cowan from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Edinburgh. In the paper, she said that the evidence of planet-killing breathing is pretty clear and it shouldn't be ignored. "We would urge caution in the assumption that emissions from humans are negligible," she said. 

The team of researchers explained that when humans inhale, air enters the lungs and oxygen from that air moves to the blood, while carbon dioxide (CO2), a waste gas, moves from the blood to the lungs and is breathed out. Every person breathes out CO2 when they exhale, but in the new study, researchers focused on methane and nitrous oxide. They explained that these two are both powerful greenhouse gases, but because they are breathed out in much smaller quantities, their contribution to global warming may have been overlooked.