Number: RL34059
Title: The Carbon Cycle: Implications for Climate Change and Congress
Authors: Peter Folger, Resources, Science, and Industry Division 
Abstract: If humans add only a small amount of CO2 to the atmosphere each year, why is that contribution important to global climate change? The answer is that the oceans, vegetation, and soils do not take up carbon released from human activities quickly enough to prevent CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere from increasing. Humans tap the huge pool of fossil carbon for energy, and affect the global carbon cycle by transferring fossil carbon - which took millions of years to accumulate underground - into the atmosphere over a relatively short time span. As a result, the atmosphere contains approximately 35% more CO2 today than prior to the beginning of the industrial revolution (380 ppm vs 280 ppm). As the CO2 concentration grows it increases the degree to which the atmosphere traps incoming radiation from the sun (radiative forcing), warming the planet.
Pages: 12
Date: Updated March 13, 2008