Yr.

13

Tofeek Jumaily

04/08/10

The Carbon Cycle

Understanding the carbon cycle is vital to understanding climate change. Indeed it is vital to understanding life itself. The hydraulic cycle is involved in the carbon cycle. Evaporation from the oceans rises into the atmosphere, forms clouds, and falls as rain and snow, and the water flows back to the ocean from lakes and rivers. Of course, some of the water evaporates from land, plants, rivers and lakes, contributing to the cycle. Some of the water is stored for thousands of years in underground aquifers. The carbon cycle operates in a similar fashion. Plants use from the sun to take carbon dioxide out of the air, and from a gas to a solid, often sugars, cellulose etc. When the plant dies, or its leaves or needles fall, those actions of bacteria rot the material, releasing the fixed carbon back the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. If the rotting occurs without oxygen, then the bacteria release the carbon as methane. This occurs naturally in toilets, animals passing gas, and unnaturally in landfills. the energy convert it into

Carbon is the substance of life as all living things are made of carbon. When we breathe, we take in oxygen, and release carbon dioxide. Plants do the reverse. They take in carbon dioxide, and use the carbon to make leaves, roots and stems, and release the oxygen. The release of carbon dioxide by animals is very small compared to the amount released by bacteria in the rotting process. Wind energy can play an important role in providing us with carbon free energy. So the carbon cycle is continuous. Plants take in carbon, and animals and bacteria, and sometimes forest fires, release it back to the atmosphere. We know that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been stable for at least 420,000 years. We know this from core samples taken in Greenland and Antarctic glaciers. Every year, snow falls, trapping a bit of the atmosphere of the time, and we can measure the carbon dioxide concentrations. For 420,000 years, the level varied between about 260 parts per million, and 280 ppm. There is an extinct volcano in Hawaii where we have been measuring carbon dioxide levels since the 1950s. The measurements are taken there because it will have minimal influence from surrounding plants that may vary the local ground levels of CO2. Every spring, the level of carbon dioxide falls a bit, rising every autumn. The northern hemisphere has the most land, and the decline in carbon dioxide levels is because the plants on the land take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere in the spring. Then, when the autumn leaves fall, the bacteria goes to work very quickly, and the carbon dioxide level rises. But since 1900, the level of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen from 280 ppm to 380 ppm, with only a small seasonal variation. At the current rate of increase, we will be over 500 ppm by mid-century; the rate of increase has been accelerating. There is a vast store of carbon in the earth, as oil, natural gas, peat, and coal. There is a considerable store of carbon in the earths life as well the trees, grass, soil, bacteria, coral, sea shells, and animals. These stores of carbon can be compared to the underground aquifers in the hydraulic cycle. As we dig up, pump and burn this carbon, we release the CO2 that has been stored on the land for millions of years.

Yr.13

Tofeek Jumaily

04/08/10

Some climate sceptics have pointed out that there have been times in the distant past where the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was much higher than today, and life still existed. And they are right. Life did exist. And it will continue to exist, even if we double or triple the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Evolution, in time, will ensure that new species will emerge that will thrive in the new climate. But todays life evolved in the comfortable zone of 260-280 ppm. Changing the level of CO2 will change the climate, and that will mean much extinction. Humans evolved in the 260-280 ppm level. It was only 30,000 years ago that we shared the earth with Neanderthals, different human species, eventually becoming extinct. Humans are dependent on the species that co-evolved with us for food. The bacteria in our stomachs, the plants and animals we eat, the species they depend on, all evolved in our current atmosphere. And many of them will not survive the change. The fact that there was life of different types of life that could survive in higher CO2 atmosphere doesnt mean that we will. Life will evolve, but we may not, a very important reason why the carbon cycle is so important.