1 — Life On Earth Is Carbon Based
It all starts with photosynthesis, in the oceans by tiny bacteria and algae, and on land as the green plants we all know. Plants convert CO2 in the air into carbs and sugar which feeds themselves and the entire food chain. All of it. It all starts with photosynthesis which depends on carbon. It’s called the biological carbon cycle.
Oh, they also give off oxygen, the element essential to animals for breathing. Hey, that’s us!
It would be impossible for life on earth to exist without carbon. Carbon is the main component of sugars, proteins, fats, DNA, muscle tissue, pretty much everything in your body. The reason carbon is so special is down to the electron configuration of the individual atoms. Electrons exist in concentric 'shells' around the central nucleus and carbon has four electrons in its outermost shell. As the most stable thing for an atom to have is eight electrons, this means that each carbon can form four bonds with surrounding atoms.
- source
You can click on the source to get nerdy, or do your own research, or maybe you already know all this. Anyway it is, I’m going to move on.
2 — The Geological Carbon Cycle
No doubt you’ve heard about volcanoes giving off CO2. It’s part of what’s called the geological carbon cycle, which has been happening continuously since the beginning of Earth.
Carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere from volcanic activity such as eruptions of active volcanoes and CO2 gas seeps. Some of this CO2is absorbed by the oceans through direct gas exchange at the surface, a process controlled by sea surface temperatures. Cold water absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere, whereas warm water may actually give off CO2.
Additional atmospheric CO2 becomes part of the chemical weathering cycle, combining with rainwater to form carbonic acid. Although carbonic acid is a very weak acid, it slowly dissolves many rocks, especially those which contain calcium carbonate, such as limestone and marble. This is the same the process which slowly removes the lettering on marble headstones.
During periods of mountain-building, such as the uplift of the Himalayas, the weathering cycle uses up huge amounts of atmospheric CO2 in the process of eroding the newly formed mountains. The carbon, in the form of carbonic acid, combines with minerals at the surface to form insoluble carbonate compounds. These are washed into the ocean by erosion and eventually form into limestone. The formation of limestone rock sequesters carbon for millions of years until it is eventually exposed at the earth's surface to be dissolved in another weathering cycle.
In the past, there were periods when volcanoes were much more active and vast quantities of CO2 were vented to the atmosphere. Levels of atmospheric CO2 sometimes reached levels that were over 100 times higher than today's CO2 levels. Before green plants, the excess CO2 was eventually absorbed by the slow action of the geologic cycle, a process that could take tens of millions of years. Once the biological carbon cycle began to operate, excess atmospheric CO2 from volcanic activity was removed much faster.
- source
The biological carbon cycle is not only faster than the geological carbon cycle. The amount of carbon taken up by photosynthesis and released back to the atmosphere by respiration each year is 1,000 times greater than the amount of carbon that moves through the geological cycle on an annual basis.
- source
3 — Humans Upset The Carbon Cycle
Lets call the cycle of carbon before the industrial revolution “natural”. We’re going to do this because before the industrial revolution, for thousands of years, the natural carbon cycle was in balance as measured using ice cores, tree rings, sub-fossil pollen, boreholes, corals, and lake and ocean sediments. Since the industrial revolution, though, humans have been upsetting the carbon cycle in mainly two ways. The first and most prominent is burning fossils fuels. The second is how we change the land such as clearing forests for agriculture. Together, it’s called global carbon emissions.
Global CO2 Budget 2014
GlobalCarbonProject.org posted data for the 2014 Global Carbon Budget on September 21, 2014. Some key findings are set out below:
*In 2013, global CO2 emissions due to fossil fuel use (and cement production) were 36 gigatonnes (GtCO2); this is 61% higher than 1990 (the Kyoto Protocol reference year) and 2.3% higher than 2012.
*In 2014, global CO2 emissions are projected to increase by an additional 2.5% over the 2013 level.
*CO2 emissions were dominated by China (28%), the USA (14%), the EU (10%), and India (7%)--with growth in all of these states except for a 1.8% decline in the EU (28 member states).
*The 2013 carbon dioxide emissions (fossil fuel and cement production only) breakdown is: coal (43%), oil (33%), gas (18%), cement (5.5%) and gas flaring (0.6%).
*Emissions from land use change accounts for 8% of total CO2 emissions; the data suggests an overall decreasing trend in land use change emissions particularly since 2000.
*Key Sources: GlobalCarbonBudget.org CDIAC 2013 Global Carbon Budget
- source
4 — Excess Carbon In The Oceans Is Harmful
We often forget about the oceans but they play a huge role in the global carbon cycle. Also, marine life is a very important part of the food chain. Millions of people rely on the oceans for protein. The increase in carbon is now changing the acidity of the oceans.
Ocean plants absorb carbon just like forests and field grasses do. But, any of the CO2 that is not fixed dissolves into the seawater, altering the chemistry of the waters. The result is ocean acidification.
Over the past 250 years, ocean acidity has increased by 30 percent as oceans absorbed around 530 billion tons of carbon dioxide. (That’s the equivalent of 500 years of CO2 emissions produced in the U.S. at current levels.) The change in pH has troubled researchers in the recent years, as they predict ocean acidity will more than double by 2100 if fossil fuels are burned at today’s rate. The polar regions will be the first to undergo the most dramatic changes, and scientists forecast that the Southern Ocean has the potential to become corrosive with radically lowered pH levels by 2050.
- source
Estimates of future carbon dioxide levels, based on business as usual emission scenarios, indicate that by the end of this century the surface waters of the ocean could be nearly 150 percent more acidic, resulting in a pH that the oceans haven’t experienced for more than 20 million years.
The Biological Impacts
Ocean acidification is expected to impact ocean species to varying degrees. Photosynthetic algae and seagrasses may benefit from higher CO2 conditions in the ocean, as they require CO2 to live just like plants on land. On the other hand, studies have shown that a more acidic environment has a dramatic effect on some calcifying species, including oysters, clams, sea urchins, shallow water corals, deep sea corals, and calcareous plankton. When shelled organisms are at risk, the entire food web may also be at risk.
- source
Add warming the oceans to the increase in carbon and you get harmful algae blooms.
According to Dr. Jay Martin of Ohio State University, "with climate change and warmer climates we see longer growing seasons. This is going to increase the opportunity that these organisms can grow. We also expect to see wetter and stormy winters and springs in the future, especially in the Midwest, which impacts the Great Lakes and Lake Erie. So because of this we expect to see an increase in nutrients coming into the lakes, which will increase the photosynthetic rate. Lastly, with higher CO2 emissions and higher CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, this will increase the dissolved organic carbon or DOC, and this will also increase the photosynthetic rate." To get more information from Dr. Jay Martin, listen to his webinar: "Climate Change & Harmful Algal Blooms"
- source
The Consequences of Harmful Algal Blooms The expansion of harmful algal blooms during the past 20 years is responsible for losses approximating $100 million per year nationwide (Turgeon et al. 1998). After an outbreak, not only are health issues a major concern, but many industries also are affected (Figure 3). Closures of shellfish beds, lost production in fisheries (both aquaculture and wild), severe reductions in local/regional tourism and associated service industries, public illness, and medical treatments and advisories result in the loss of millions of dollars per outbreak. For fisheries-related businesses, insurance rates increase, unemployment and bankruptcies rise, and retail sales typically decline for all seafood species; at the same time, public resources are diverted to monitoring programs.
- source
5 — The Concentration Of CO2 In The Atmosphere Is Directly Related To Climate
A greenhouse gas (sometimes abbreviated GHG) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect.[1] The primary greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.
- source
Concentration, or abundance, is the amount of a particular gas in the air. Larger emissions of greenhouse gases lead to higher concentrations in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gas concentrations are measured in parts per million, parts per billion, and even parts per trillion. One part per million is equivalent to one drop of water diluted into about 13 gallons of liquid (roughly the fuel tank of a compact car).
- source
atmospheric CO2 is at its highest level in 15 to 20 million years (Tripati 2009). (A natural change of 100ppm normally takes 5,000 to 20,000 years. The recent increase of 100ppm has taken just 120 years).
- source
- FredTedTucker