No laughing matter this

Scientists report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), river and stream networks are the source of at least 10 percent of human-caused nitrous oxide emissions to the atmosphere. That's three times the amount estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Human activities, including fossil fuel combustion and intensive agriculture, have increased the availability of nitrogen in the environment.. Much of this nitrogen is transported into river and stream networks. Atmospheric nitrous oxide concentration has increased by some 20 percent over the past century, and continues to rise at a rate of about 0.2 to 0.3 percent per year.

The global warming potential of nitrous oxide is 300-fold greater than carbon dioxide. Nitrous oxide accounts for some six percent of human-induced climate change, scientists estimate. While more than 99 percent of denitrified nitrogen in streams is converted to the inert gas dinitrogen rather than nitrous oxide, river networks are still leading sources of global nitrous oxide emissions, according to the new results.

Irreversible damage on the ecosystem, in whatever activity we involve in. That is the anthropogenic era for you!