EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Using fewer fossil fuels could help restore equilibrium to the carbon cycle. What does “equilibrium” mean? Balance. How does carbon become locked inside the earth? The carbon-rich bodies of plants and animals decay into the earth after they die.

Detailed explanation-2: -Burning fossil fuels, changing land use, and using limestone to make concrete all transfer significant quantities of carbon into the atmosphere. As a result, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is rapidly rising; it is already greater than at any time in the last 3.6 million years.

Detailed explanation-3: -The behaviour of the carbon cycle can be approximate by “dynamic equilibrium”, i.e. a situation in which the total amount of carbon entering a store is balanced by the total amount of carbon leaving. As a result, the amount of carbon in the store does not change.

Detailed explanation-4: -Burning Fossil Fuels Carbon stored underground in coal, oil, and natural gas deposits for millions of years is being released into the atmosphere very quickly, creating a major imbalance in the cycle.

Detailed explanation-5: -Humans have a huge effect on the carbon cycle when we burn wood, fossil fuels (such as oil, coal, and natural gas), and other forms of carbon. This action releases the stored carbon into the atmosphere, where it becomes a greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases are gases in the atmosphere that absorb and release heat.