l discuss the recent trends in the emissions and exchange of CO2 in the environment, give a description of how it warms the earth and the effects of rising temperature, and finally, discuss the future atmospheric content and policies to control the emissions of CO2.
Emission & Exchange of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere
The trend of rising atmospheric levels of CO2 since the Industrial Revolution is well documented. The atmospheric concentrations around 1890, the beginning of the industrial period, are estimated to have been in the 280 to 290 parts per million (ppm) range (Welborn 73). In 1958, precise measurements of atmospheric CO2 were taken at Mauna Loa, Hawaii. These readings registered CO2 levels of 315 ppm, a 12.5 percent increase since the 1890s.
Recent measurements record atmospheric CO2 levels at 339 ppm, a seven percent additional increase in just over 20 years. This increase is due in large part to the approximately 160 gigatons (160 billion tons) of CO2 emitted from fossil fuel consumption. Fossil fuels are fuels stored in the earth's crust, which come from plants or animals of the geological past and have stored the solar energy in the form of chemical energy (Bach 336). They include coal, oil and natural gas. Carbon and other elements are preserved in these fuels. Thus, burning fossil fuels redistributes carbon from one reservoir to another. These reservoirs include the terrestrial biosphere and our oceans. Each of these reservoirs constitute the stocks and flows of the carbon cycle. The carbon distributed through this cycle plays an important role in the ecological balance of the atmosphere, biosphere and the oceans. However, the burning of fossil fuels has created a new flow, due to man's activities alone. Carbon stored over hundreds of thousands of years in fossilized forms may be released into the atmosphere in a matter of a few centuries (Jager, "Floating" 6).
The pace and magnitude of global warming ...