The Global Carbon Cycle

By:

Shanon, Katie, and Jillian

What Is It?It is the cycle that carbon goes through in the atmosphere, oceans, and land. The cycle all depends on how much of the man made CO2 remains in the atmosphere. However, we as a people are setting off an unbalance in the cycle, which is making everything difficult.

Here’s

What

We

Mean…

The ProblemThe excess CO2 is not being stored in the land and oceans. The excess is being put back into the atmosphere. The excess creates long term problems for the future, for example, climate changes. Scientists are not sure what the earth is going to do with the CO2. We can only hope for something good.

Human InteractionHumans are altering the earth’s “radiative balance” which is leading to a change in weather patterns. Burning fossil fuels increase rate of “weathering” carbon. Deforestation accelerates pace of forests dying and releases more carbon back to our atmosphere. The oceans could theoretically handle all of our CO2 but there is not enough contact with the surface to absorb all the CO2 and bring it into the waters. Forest help with photosynthesis but can not completely control it. 

What We Can

Do…

By planting more forests, the forests will be able to soak up more of the CO2

and therefore help it not be released into the atmosphere. We can also try to burn less fossil fuels. While both of these will soak up some of the excess CO2, it is not the total solution to the problem.