Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas - it traps the sun's heat and keeps the earth warm. Too much CO2 in the air leads to climate change, also known as global warming.
Other greenhouse gases, such as methane, also contribute to climate change. Countries and organizations count these as part of their carbon emissions. But for individuals the most important carbon emission is carbon dioxide.
It's well known that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, but just what does this mean, and what are the possible consequences of global warming? Radiation from the Sun heats Earth's atmosphere, oceans and land, making life on Earth possible. The incoming radiation can easily pass through the outer atmosphere in order to reach the Earth, but much of it cannot escape as the atmosphere acts as a one way valve
Scientist agrees the Earth’s climate is being directly affected by human activity, and many people around the world. Carbon dioxide levels today are nearly 30 percent higher than they were prior to the start of the Industrial Revolution. Due to human activities, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has been rising extensively since the Industrial Revolution and has now reached dangerous levels not seen in the last 3 million years. Human sources of carbon dioxide emissions are much smaller than natural emissions but they have upset the natural balance that existed for many thousands of years before the influence of humans.
Since the Industrial Revolution, human sources of carbon dioxide emissions have been growing. Human activities such as the burning of oil, coal and gas, as well as deforestation are the primary cause of the increased carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere.
87 percent of all human-produced carbon dioxide emissions come from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and oil. The remainder results from the clearing of forests and