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Colourless gas At normal temperatures carbon dioxide is a colourless gas that exists naturally in the Earth’s atmosphere. The air that we breathe has about 0.03% of carbon dioxide in it. Carbon dioxide is an important part of the carbon cycle and essential for life on Earth. Without it temperatures on our planet would be very low.
Photosynthesis Plants use the sunlight and take up the CO2 in the atmosphere to produce energy and oxygen. This process is called photosynthesis. Production The gas is also produced when fossil fuels are burned. Carbon dioxide that has been stored for millions of years in coal, oil and natural gas is set free. Living creatures produce carbon dioxide when they breathe out. It is emitted from volcanoes and hot springs. Deforestation sets carbon that is stored in trees free.
Greenhouse gas Carbon dioxide is an important greenhouse gas. Light that enters the atmosphere it is converted to heat. Higher amounts of CO2 make the atmosphere denser and keep it from getting out. CO2 is a gas that is highly responsible for global warming. Since the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere has risen by 40%.
Absorption by nature Throughout the centuries carbon dioxide has been in balance. Now more carbon dioxide is being produced than can be absorbed by nature.
Deforestation is clearing Earth's forests on a massive scale, often resulting in damage to the quality of the land. The habitats of the animals are lost and many animals die. At the moment every 90 minutes the tropical rainforest in the Amazon will be 2.2 square kilometres smaller. That is about 270 football pitches. Deforestation also results in global warming (climate change).
Forests still cover about 30 percent of the world’s land area, but areas of the size of Panama (± 75,000 sq. km) are lost each and every year.
The world’s rain forests could completely vanish in a hundred years at the current rate of deforestation.
Forests are cut down for many reasons, but most of them are related to money or to people’s need to provide for their families. The biggest driver of deforestation is agriculture. Farmers cut forests to provide more room for planting crops or grazing livestock.
Often many small farmers will each clear a few acres to feed their families by cutting down trees and burning them in a process known as “slash and burn” agriculture.
Forests are often planted to protect against natural disasters. When forests are lost, very often the soil they protected is also lost. This loss of soil is often called erosion. We give out carbon dioxide when we breathe and plants and trees take it in by photosynthesis.
