Why is too much C02 bad for our environment?



Over at NOAA's climate.gov site, there is a great explanation of why carbon dioxide matters in our atmosphere.  What is carbon dioxide, anyway?  Why is it a "greenhouse gas," and why are the effects of C02 more profound than other greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide?  

Greenhouse gasses are capable of storing heat and releasing it over time, just like a greenhouse.  Charles Lucien Bonaparte gets credit for the modern greenhouse design, which is a structure with a transparent roof and walls that allow light from the sun to come in and warm the contents (earth, plants, etc.) of the greenhouse, which causes the temperature inside the greenhouse to rise.

Carbon dioxide lasts the longest of Earth’s long-lived greenhouse gases. It absorbs heat and stores it, and then releases it over time, which heats up the Earth.  Normally, that's a good thing: Without C02 in our atmosphere, the average temperature across the globe would be below freezing!  Add too much carbon dioxide though, and the temperature on our planet rises due to the imbalance.  

That's why too much C02 is bad for our environment.

Scientists have drawn a direct correlation between the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the amount of average warming of the Earth.   At 415 parts per million, C02 is currently at the highest levels it's been in 800,000 years.  Why?  How is it possible that we've gone from below 300 parts per million to over 400?  The answer is burning fossil fuels.  A fossil fuel is just a plant or animal (or dinosaur) that died millions of years ago, got buried under tons of sediment, and finally mixed with rock and became oil.  Plants live on carbon dioxide - when they burn as oil, the C02 that was stored gets released back into the atmosphere.  One quick trip to the store? No biggie.  But imagine whole prehistoric forests at a time, going up every day in our rush hour commutes.

How many plants and animals fit into a barrel of oil?

Ultimately, I think burning fossil fuels, or not burning fossil fuels, isn't the answer to solving global warming.  We need to clean up after ourselves.  If we're creating too much C02 in our atmosphere, we need to figure out how to pull it out so we can "filter our fishbowl," so to speak.  If there is a target number for our carbon dioxide to be at its perfect, nominal level (call it 300 ppm), then let's set that as our goal.  If we set a goal, we can make a plan to solve the problem, solve the problem, and allow All Life to Carry On.  Right??

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