What is Carbon Dioxide
...and how does it affect us?
The question, "What is carbon dioxide?"
comes up frequently these days because it's related to the
global warming situation and to the effects of different
activities on our personal and planetary environment - issues
of great concern in today's world.
But exactly what is carbon dioxide and
how is it related to our health? It can be a little confusing
when we hear about "carbon dioxide emissions"
or "carbon dioxide pollution" because those terms
convey a concept of something toxic.
Even hearing that carbon dioxide is a
"greenhouse gas" somehow gives the impression
that it might be "bad" for us!
Plants
"breathe in" carbon dioxide and "breathe
out" oxygen. |
Well first, carbon dioxide has been part
of the Earth's atmosphere apparently since it was formed
kazillions of years ago. It's a natural chemical
substance, primarily in gas form. It is not toxic
(unless in very intense quantities, which is rare at this
time.)
An important answer to the question
"what is carbon dioxide?" is that it's also a
vital substance to life on Earth. We inhale oxygen, which
is required for metabolism, and we exhale - you guessed
it - carbon dioxide.
Now plant life, on the other hand, needs
carbon dioxide to function and gives off oxygen. We need
plant life as a key source of food and nutrition for our
health.
Without carbon dioxide, there'd be no
plant life! And without plant life (which gives off oxygen)
there'd be no human life as we know it.
Okay, this all sounds great and beneficial
so far. But what's the negative aspect of carbon dioxide?
Why is there so much concern about it?
As mentioned earlier, carbon dioxide in
the Earth's atmosphere is known as a "greenhouse gas."
What the heck is a greenhouse gas?
A greenhouse gas, such as carbon dioxide,
water vapor and a few others, make up the Earth's atmosphere.
Greenhouse gases absorb heat radiated by the sun and send
the heat back down to the planet, which is a necessary process
to maintain temperatures that we can survive in.
The
carbonation (fizziness) in our drinks comes from carbon
dioxide (which is okay and not a problem!) |
So what's the problem? Well, when we ask
"what is carbon dioxide?" we can also answer that
it is a by-product of many of man's activities, especially
resulting from energy production such as the burning of
fossil fuels (gas, oil, etc). These activities have been
steadily increasing since the advent of the Industrial Revolution
over 200 years ago and thus increasing the amount of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere.
Also, the huge forests of this planet
have traditionally absorbed carbon dioxide for photosynthesis
and then released oxygen back into the air. Through decades
of man's activities, these forests have slowly been reduced
in size. We now have a situation where the natural balance
has gotten out of whack. So that additionally increases
the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because there
is less plant life to absorb it.
The problem is that more carbon dioxide
acting as a greenhouse gas in the atmosphere means that
more heat is trapped and sent back down to a planet that
can't absorb and convert it all. That's what global warming
is all about.
So the question, "What is carbon
dioxide?" has a multi-part answer, at least if you
want to know what it does! You can see that when all natural
activities are occurring, it's vital to both our personal
health and to the health of our environment.
But it's also a case of "too much
of a good thing" I think... too much of it could create
even more disastrous results than just the significant weather
changes we've already started to experience.
I for one, don't enjoy being stuck in
my house with the air conditioner running for hours because
it's too dang hot to go outside! Not good for my health...
The thing we can do is to continue to
educate ourselves so we understand what carbon dioxide is
and where it comes from - and support good solutions to
having too much.
Cheers!
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