Carbon Dioxide and Fossil Fuels

Carbon Dioxide and Fossil Fuels
Carbon Dioxide Concentrations in the Atmosphere
First, i think you should know what carbon dioxide is, carbon dioxide (CO2) is a colourless, odourless gas consisting of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to one carbon atom. Carbon dioxide is produced when any form of carbon or almost any carbon compound is burned in an excess of oxygen. For example, it is released into the atmosphere during natural forest fires and man-made combustion of fossil fuels.
Other natural sources of carbon dioxide include volcanic eruption, decay of dead plant and animal matter, evaporation from the oceans and respiration (breathing). Carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere by carbon dioxide “sinks”. The main removal processes are absorption by seawater, and utilisation (photosynthesis), by ocean-dwelling plankton and land-dwelling biomass, including forests and grasslands.
The burning of fossil fuels such as gasoline, coal, oil, natural gas in combustion reactions results in the production of carbon dioxide. From the sentence above, you should know what fossil fuels are? Lets continue, as a result of carbon dioxide emissions since the beginning of the industrial revolution 200 years ago, the strength of the earth’s natural greenhouse effect has been enhanced. This mean that the atmosphere is how trapping more heat that would otherwise have escaped to space.
Scientists are fairly certain that this enhancement of greenhouse effect is coursing global warming. Of all the greenhouse gases released by man-made processes, carbon dioxide is the largest individual contributor to the enhanced greenhouse effect, accounting for about 60% of the increase in heat trapping.
Carbon dioxide released by mankind into the atmosphere today will influence the atmospheric concentration in the years to come, since the time taken for carbon dioxide to adjust to changes in sources or sinks is in the order of 50 to 200 years. The IPCC, an intergovernmental panel of climatic change science experts, has estimated that to just stabilise concentrations at present day level will require a massive 60% reduction of global carbon dioxide emissions. In addition, because of the rather slow response of the global climate, even if we took action today to limit carbon dioxide emissions, mankind has already been committed to a certain amount of climate change over the next 50 years. The challenge for the generations will be to prevent further global climate change from taking place. By Ma'ruf Umar