Notorious C.O.2
It is quite amusing watching folks from different regions of the world lamenting about opposing sides of weather. Few days ago in the [steestem's discord channel](https://discord.gg/KrWykYs) while a Nigerian was complaining of too much heat, a stemian from another country/continent was complaining of having snow covered his window in the month of March. Something seems peculiar to both weather situation; while Nigeria is suppose to be experiencing rainy/wet and relatively cold weather in the month of March, having snow in March is quite strange in the other country as well. In short, the current events of weather will probably leave the best metorologist hanging.
Of course, we all know that everything is tied to climate change which is caused by a rise in global temperature brought about by increase in the concentration of green house gases in the atmosphere.
Talking about green house gases, carbon (IV) oxide seems to be the most notorious of them all. A brief recall of the percentage constituents gases in the atmosphere will show us that while nitrogen, a green house gas takes up about 78%, carbon (IV) oxide which happens to be another green house gas takes up a paltry figure of about 0.04%. Yet, carbon (IV) oxide takes the center stage when global warming and the accompany global climate change is been discussed.
The reason for the notoriety of carbon (IV) oxide in the phenomenon of global climate change is not far fetched. First and foremost, the rate at which the gas is been released into the atmosphere is quite significant compared to other green house gases. A closer analysis of the records of the Antarctic core revealed that the current level of concentration of carbon (IV) oxide gas in the atmosphere exceeds those recorded in the past eight hundred thousand years. Even though green house gas like water vapour possesses more ability to absorb heat and cause global warming when compared to carbon (IV) oxide, the level of carbon (IV) oxide in the atmosphere compared to water vapour makes the former to be quite significant in terms of global warming contribution. Of course, we all know the genesis of the continuous increase in the level of carbon (IV) oxide in the atmosphere; burning of fossil fuels, agricultural activities, deforestation etc.
Naturally, without carbon (IV) oxide and other green house gases in the atmosphere, life would not have been possible on Earth because it will be too cold to support the metabolic activies of living organisms. Thus, green house gases naturally provides the warmth needed for life by trapping some of the solar radiations, preventing them all from escaping back into outer space. Aside from from providing warmth, carbon (IV) oxide represent an important substance that makes energy coming from the sun usable to biological organisms. The gas combines with water molecules to lock up solar energy from the sun into chemical energy in form of carbohydrate. This process is popularly referred to as photosynthesis.
Although only photosynthetic green plants or bacteria possess the ability to convert carbon (IV) oxide to carbohydrate; locking up solar energy into chemical energy in the process, other living organisms either feed on the photosynthetic organisms to get their energy, feed on organisms that feed on photosynthetic organisms or break down either or both of photosynthetic organisms and those that feed on them to release the energy locked up in them for their own use. In short, carbon (IV) oxide occupies a central portion in energy flow within the ecosystem.
Having highlighted the good and the ugly side of carbon (IV) oxide, one important question to ask is "how can the ugly side be stemmed?" Knowing fully well that the ugly side of the gas is brought about by continuous release of the gas through anthropogenic activities which distrupts the natural balance of the gas in the ecosystem, one would feel that cutting down on the activities that lead to emmission would suffice. Unfortunately, that seems not to be the case. According to consensus among climate scientists, the estimated amount of carbon (IV) oxide that humans can emmit in order to have a chance of keeping the global temperature at a maximum of 2oC above the pre-industrial global temperature is about one trillion tonnes. This figure is known as the Earth's carbon budget. Out of this figure, about 52% has been released already leaving a chance of exhausting the budget as early as year 2045. If this happens, what we are currently witnessing as climate change may be just the tip of an iceberg.
The summary of it all is just that we have a huge deficit in our budget as far as carbon (IV) oxide is concerned and reducing emmission only will not suffice to compesate for the deficit in the budget. Consequently, climate change scientists are clamouring and gunning for actions to be taking at two fronts: stemming emmission and increasing removal of the gas. Actions to stem emission include a considerable reduction in burning of fossil fuels which can be achieved by shifting attention to cleaner energies such as solar and other related energies, reduction in the deforestation rate as removal of forest means less carbon (IV) oxide will be sequestrated by photosynthesis, increased tree planting/afforestation so as to increase sequestration and replacement of carbon (IV) oxide emission technologies with cleaner alternatives.
Properly defined, sequestration is the removal of carbon (IV) oxide from the atmosphere and it's fixation into other non-gaseous from where it will not contribute to heating of the ecosystem. The popular means of doing this are grouped into 2 main categories:
- natural sequestration; and
- artificial sequestration.
Naturally, carbon (IV) oxide is sequestered in what is generally referred to as carbon sinks Which include agricultural and forest sinks, oceanic sinks and various gelologic formations. Sequestration occurs mainly by photosynthesis during which the gas is absorbed and stored as carbon biomass in various plant bodies and soils. The amount of the gas that can be sequestered varies with several factors such as geographical locations, forest types, land use types, soil types, types of species etc. According to international protocol on climate change, sequestration by the various forest biomes of the world and agriculture significantly helps in offsetting carbon (IV) oxide emission that contributes to global warming and the ongoing climate change. Carbon sequestration is an active area of research among climate change scientists. It is opined that an estimated 110 billion metric tons of carbon (IV) oxide could be sequestered in the next fifty years via preservation of forests, planting of trees as well as environment friendly agricultural practices.
In addition to natural sequestration, a lot of efforts are being put in place to artificially store carbon (IV) oxide especially those emanating from fossil fuels and power plants. Underground storage facilities is one of the methods employed in the process where the collected gas is stored in a facility set up deep under the ground for the sole purpose of storage. The potential has been assessed to be quite enormous although the method do have some concerns such as leakages. Another option is to pump the gas deeply into naturally occurring underground chambers such as old oil reservoirs, aquifers and coal seams that have outlived their usefulness.
Ocean sequestration is another proposed method for artificially storing carbon (IV) oxide. In this method, carbon (IV) oxide is deeply injected into the ocean, forming lakes of the gas in the process.The pressure of injection and the temperature of the surrounding water will make the gas to stay down and gradually dissolve into the water over time. This method also has it's own demerit in that such water becomes acidified by dissolution of carbon (IV) oxide thereby harming the various Floras and faunas of the water.
Another proposed but yet to be tried method of artifially sequestering carbon (IV) oxide is mineral sequestration during which the gas is proposed to be injected into areas rich in calcium or magnessium. It is thought that the gas will react with the minerals to produce calcium carbonate and magnessium carbonate respectively. Both compounds being of quite economic importance to man.
In conclusion, carbon (IV) oxide is an important substance to life and without it, life might not have existed. However, the same gas might be the end of us all if not properly managed. Anywhere you are and whatever you do, be sure to make efforts to save the planet by not engaging in activities that will emmit more of carbon (IV) oxide into the atmosphere.
Thank you for reading.
References
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In order to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, two things must happen. First; is that the presidents of the countries which produce the most greenhouse gas emissions or one or more of their family members have to die for some reason due to global climate change,.
Second; organizations managing the world must lose money in some way because of global warming. Unfortunately, this is the case.
Thank you for your advice to people stating that to be careful about saving the planet by not dealing with carbon oof the countries which produce the most greenhouse gas emissionsxide related activites as much as possible. However, it is a little bit hard to compare the activites of the individuals to the ones which government do because that the governments make the decisions to start the activities which cause the big amount of carbon oxide emission in the athmosphere
Saving the planet is going to be collective effort. The problem with the world is capitalists greed. Even if multinationals know the right things to do, they won't as long as it affect their profits
The importance of trees have to be spread.. Its one of the major causes of climate change.
We tend to forget they take away the co2 and give us oxygen.
It was a nice article sir. The name was quite funny N.O.T.O.R.I.O.U.S lol.
Keep steeming!
Afforestation is just one of the ways to augment carbon fixation but it's not the ultimate saviour. Cutting down on emission is much more important
Yeah.. That's why cleaner production should be advised. But i guess everyone seeks after maximum profit.
Interesting one @gentleshaid
As you said, it is necessary to have carbon (IV) oxide in the environment and what we have done is increased its level to a much higher extent and this is the reason of global warming. Somewhere I have read it, humans will be the only cause for their extinction No meteor No other force only humans. If we continously keep on doing it will happen one day.
These green house gases; just like you've pointed out; is actually useful for the existence of life on earth. But; yes, too much of them can be detrimental.
Nice piece buddy
Yea...without them, the earth won't be able to support life.
I now know why CO2 get the most attention, what i want to know is why climate change is a primarily a problem of too much carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, we so much need carbon (IV) oxide for survival thanks for this awesome post.
Thanks for reading through.
The more co2 we have in the atmosphere, the warmer the planet becomes and the warner the planet becomes, the more erratic the climate becomes. Erratic climate can be the end of the planet and us all.
Never knew carbon iv oxide has heating effect. But if so, don't you think storing it underground would mean further heating for the stratosphere which I think might not be good also?
The heating effect it produces is as a result of absorbance of radiation from the sun. At the underground level, the luxury of solar radiation won't be available. 😊
The two-faced gas - CO2
Well, there's no how its release could be stopped especially because I'm here, typing (alive). But as you said, the other activites other that breathing contributes to its high concentration and we need to be conscious of the consequences.
The artificial sequestration will really help a lot, I hope they get their way around it soon.
Another nice one sire. Keep inspiring us
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