B3 -CO2 and the greenhouse effect

B3 -CO2 and the greenhouse effect

1. Co2 is removed from the air and stored in various places

   • Carbon is present in the air as CO2. Many processes lead to CO2 being released including burning fossil fuels. Too much can lead to global warming
     • Luckily, CO2 can be sequestered (locked up) in natural stores including oceans,lakes,ponds,green plants (where its stored as carbon compounds),peat bogs. Storing C)2 in these ways is really important as it means it is removed from the atmosphere.

2. CO2 and methane trap heat from the sun

   • The temperature of the Earth is a balance between heat it gets from the sun and he heat it radiates back out into space. Gases in the atmosphere naturally act as an insulating layer. They absorb most of the heat that would normally be radiated back into space and re- radiate it in all directions
     • If this didn't happen, there'd be nothing to keep heat in and we'd get cold quickly. However recently it has become a problem. There are several different gases which help to keep heat it called greenhouse gases. The main ones are CO2 and methane because the levels of these are rising rapidly.
       • The Earth is gradually heating up because of the increasing levels of greenhouse gases. This is global warming. It is a type of climate change and causes other types like changing rainfall patterns.