Perspectives on Carbon and Climate Change

Carbon (C) is arguably one of the last treasures we have left on this planet. All living things depend on it for survival and it is in fact the cornerstone of the basic building blocks of life and even more compelling, we and all living things consist mostly of Carbon and water.

Two important facts; Forests cover about one third of the total land mass on earth & Forests contain about 70% of all carbon present in living things. However, humans have found a further use for carbon over the last few hundred years and have systematically harvested it for ever-increasing energy production to fuel our development, industrialization and need for wealth. This means in simple terms that we are removing carbon from its natural position in the survival cycle of all-things-living and we humans burn it up to produce additional energy above that provided naturally.

We now have to burn copious amounts of carbon fuel like wood, coal, oil and gas to power our elaborate modern domestic needs and our inclination towards industrial success. When Carbon based molecules like wood and coal burns, it gives off energy in the form of heat which we use for travel and electricity and the result is that the carbon molecules break up and re-combines with oxygen (O) to form Carbon-dioxide CO2 (one Carbon molecule binds with two Oxygen molecules). So most smoke and exhaust fumes that goes into the atmosphere is mostly CO2.

Carbon-dioxide is not a bad thing in itself and is important in the biological processes of all things living. Trees depend on Carbon-dioxide as a foodstuff. Trees breathe in CO2 and the Carbon ends up in their roots, trunks and branches. In fact trees consist mostly of Carbon that it gets from CO2 in the atmosphere and natural occurring organic Carbon in healthy soil.

Since humans and animals can’t breathe Carbon-dioxide (it would kill us) it is a saving grace that trees and plants mop it up. When trees and plants breathe out they provide us with oxygen. The only problem is that if we burn too much Carbon we create an excess of CO2 in the atmosphere which causes all sorts of trouble like climate change. This problem is exacerbated by the destruction and removal of forests in the world and in fact is responsible for more than 20% of the excess Carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere.

Just take a moment to think what really happened here. Every time we remove a tree we remove the carbon that used to be in that soil (now in the tree) and we remove the tree’s ability to suck up CO2 and breathe oxygen. This is what causes the excess CO2 and it has nowhere to go because there are now not enough trees to suck it up. This forms a blanket of CO2 in the atmosphere (the greenhouse effect) which is responsible for increased warming of the planet and the resultant changes in climate. By planting trees we are bringing back Carbon into the soil where it originated from, which can thrive by sucking up the CO2 in the atmosphere and so mitigate climate change.