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Here’s answer to question on CO2

To the editor:

A recent letter to the editor asked, “how man’s microscopic contribution of CO2 (one part in 2400) into the atmosphere can force the entire globe into thermal disaster?” Good question.

The answer is that man’s contribution throws our Earth’s carbon cycle out of balance. Earth has natural processes that release carbon dioxide (CO2), such as breathing, animal and plant decay, forest fires and volcanoes. Carbon dioxide is naturally absorbed through processes such as plant growth (photosynthesis) and absorption into oceans. While the human, fossil-fuel derived CO2 release is a very small component of the global carbon cycle, the extra CO2 is cumulative because the natural carbon exchange cannot absorb all the additional CO2 (www.skepticalscience.com).

Humans have increased atmospheric CO2 concentration by more than a third since the Industrial Revolution began (climate.nasa.gov). Currently, human activities emit 60 or more times the amount of carbon dioxide released by volcanoes each year (www.climate.gov).

CO2 in the atmosphere is one of the gasses that block heat from escaping. The Earth is trying to absorb this extra CO2, but it cannot keep up. So to avoid a gradual thermal disaster, we humans cannot ignore need to increase renewable energy. 97.1 percent of published, peer-reviewed climate research endorses the consensus (theconsensusproject.com).

Justin Vorbach

Marshall

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