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The Pros And Cons Of Climate Change

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The climate over the last 100 years has been heating rapidly. Many people still argue whether or not climate change is real. However, that is no longer the question. The question has become: Has the climate been pushed past the point of no return?
One of the biggest suspects when it comes to anthropogenic climate change is our carbon emissions. Anthropogenic carbon emissions have changed different components of the carbon cycle. Carbon is present in many different forms, and as an element it cannot be broken up. All living things contain carbon, as do rocks (like diamond and coal), bodies of water (and crude oil), and the air (carbon dioxide, or CO2). Carbon in plants, animals, and rocks is called a ‘carbon source’ and carbon in water is called a ‘carbon sink’. The carbon cycle is how carbon moves between these things. Plants take CO2 from the atmosphere and combine it with sunlight] to make glucose and oxygen. Plants either die and decompose, or are eaten by animals, which either exhale the carbon, or die and decompose and eventually turn into fossil fuels, which are burned to make energy. The carbon is then released into the atmosphere as the gas CO2, a greenhouse gas that traps heat. Some of this CO2 is taken in by plants, but high amounts still remain in the atmosphere, as the carbon trapped underground wasn’t part of the cycle, until humans started burning it. Other influences can affect this cycle, such as the temperature lowering, causing the CO2 to enter the ocean.

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