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Carbon dioxide is believed to have played an important effect in regulating Earth's temperature throughout its 4.54 billion year history. Early in the Earth's life, scientists have found evidence of liquid water indicating a warm world even though the Sun's output is believed to have only been 70% of what it is today.
The atmosphere is one of the Earth's major carbon reservoirs and holds approximately 720 gigatons of carbon as of year 2000. [2] The concentration of mostly carbon-based greenhouse gases has increased dramatically since the onset of the industrial era.
As the source of carbon in the carbon cycle, atmospheric CO 2 is the primary carbon source for life on Earth. In the air, carbon dioxide is transparent to visible light but absorbs infrared radiation, acting as a greenhouse gas. Carbon dioxide is soluble in water and is found in groundwater, lakes, ice caps, and seawater.
The following articles relate to Carbon dioxide accumulation in Earth's atmosphere: Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere; Global warming; Greenhouse effect
Atmospheric electricity is always present, and during fine weather away from thunderstorms, the air above the surface of Earth is positively charged, while the Earth's surface charge is negative. This can be understood in terms of a difference of potential between a point of the Earth's surface, and a point somewhere in the air above it.
Liquid carbon dioxide is the liquid state of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), which cannot occur under atmospheric pressure. It can only exist at a pressure above 5.1 atm (5.2 bar; 75 psi), under 31.1 °C (88.0 °F) (temperature of critical point ) and above −56.6 °C (−69.9 °F) (temperature of triple point ). [ 1 ]
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For example, in carbon dioxide (CO 2), which does not have a lone pair, the oxygen atoms are on opposite sides of the carbon atom (linear molecular geometry), whereas in water (H 2 O) which has two lone pairs, the angle between the hydrogen atoms is 104.5° (bent molecular geometry).