When is carbon dioxide formed

Another important consideration in interpreting global temperatures is that the climate is inherently complex. This means that we cannot expect an immediate direct relationship between any influencing factor and surface temperature.

All these factors complicate the picture. Nevertheless, it is indisputable that the global temperature rise over the past century is a result of human-produced GHGs, mainly CO2. While, until the industrial revolution, the CO2 concentration has not exceeded the ppm value that last occurred several million years ago, it has gone through periods when it was considerably lower.

Notably, during the ice ages which have occurred roughly every , years over at least the past half million, drops in global temperature of perhaps 5C have been accompanied by reductions in CO2 concentration to less than ppm. The ice ages, and associated warmer interglacial periods, are brought about by changes in the Earth's orbit around the Sun which take place on these long timescales. The cooling in response to a decline in solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface results in a greater uptake of CO2 by the oceans and so further cooling due to a weakened greenhouse effect.

This is an entirely natural phenomenon and it is worth noting that such amplification of temperature fluctuations will occur in response to any initiating factor regardless of its source and including human-produced greenhouse gases.

The effects of increasing CO2 are not limited to an increase in air temperature. As the oceans warm they are expanding so producing a rise in sea level, this being exacerbated by the melting of some of the ice present on land near the poles and in glaciers.

The warmer atmosphere holds more water vapour resulting in increased occurrences of heavy rainfall and flooding while changes in weather patterns are intensifying droughts in other regions.

Photosynthesis, the biochemical process by which plants and some microbes create food, uses up carbon dioxide. Photosynthetic organisms combine CO 2 and water H 2 O to produce carbohydrates such as sugars and emit oxygen as a by-product. Places such as forests and areas of the ocean that support photosynthetic microbes, therefore, act as massive carbon "sinks", removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere via photosynthesis.

Earth's early atmosphere had much higher CO 2 levels and almost no oxygen; the rise of photosynthetic organisms led to an increase in oxygen which enabled the development of oxygen-breathing creatures such as us! Burning generates CO 2 , although incomplete combustion due to limited oxygen supply or an excess of carbon can also produce carbon monoxide CO.

Carbon monoxide, a dangerous pollutant, eventually oxidizes to carbon dioxide. Small canisters containing pressurized CO 2 are used to inflate bicycle tires and life jackets and to power paintball guns.

The "fizz" in soda pop is supplied by carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is also released by yeast during fermentation, giving beer its head and making champagne bubbly. Photosynthesis dominates during the warmer part of the year and respiration dominates during the colder part of the year.

However, both processes occur the entire year. Overall, then, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere decreases during the growing season and increases during the rest of the year.

Because the seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres are opposite, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing in the north while decreasing in the south, and vice versa. The cycle is more clearly present in the northern hemisphere; because it has relatively more land mass and terrestrial vegetation. Oceans dominate the southern hemisphere. Carbon dioxide can change the pH of water. The troposphere is the lower part of the atmosphere, of about kilometres thick. Within the troposphere there are gasses called greenhouse gasses.

When sunlight reaches the earth, some of it is converted to heat. Greenhouse gasses absorb some of the heat and trap it near the earth's surface, so that the earth is warmed up. This process, commonly known as the greenhouse effect , has been discovered many years ago and was later confirmed by means of laboratory experiments and atmospheric measurements.

Life as we know it exists only because of this natural greenhouse effect, because this process regulates the earth's temperature. When the greenhouse effect would not exist, the whole earth would be covered in ice. The amount of heat trapped in the troposphere determines the temperature on earth. The amount of heat in the troposphere depends on concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gasses and the amount of time these gasses remain in the atmosphere.

Since the industrial revolution in began, human processes have been causing emissions of greenhouse gasses, such as CFC's and carbon dioxide. This has caused an environmental problem: the amounts of greenhouse gasses grew so extensively, that the earth's climate is changing because the temperatures are rising.

Therefore, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere during the process of cellular respiration. Respiration is also the process by which once-living organic organisms are decomposed. When organisms die, they are decomposed by bacteria.

Carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere or water during the decomposition process. Over geologic time, limestone may become exposed due to tectonic processes or changes in sea level to the atmosphere and to the weathering of rain. The carbonic acid that forms when carbon dioxide dissolves in water, in turn, dissolves carbonate rocks and releases carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere by human activities.