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On Earth, carbon dioxide is the most relevant, direct greenhouse gas that is influenced by human activities. Water is responsible for most (about 36–70%) of the total greenhouse effect, and the role of water vapor as a greenhouse gas depends on temperature. Carbon dioxide is often mentioned in the context of its increased influence as a ...
Carbon dioxide equilibrates between the atmosphere and the ocean's surface layers. As autotrophs add or subtract carbon dioxide from the water through photosynthesis or respiration, they modify this balance, allowing the water to absorb more carbon dioxide or causing it to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. [2]
Mars has about 70 times as much carbon dioxide as Earth, [96] but experiences only a small greenhouse effect, about 6 K (11 °F). [85] The greenhouse effect is small due to the lack of water vapor and the overall thinness of the atmosphere. [97]
The global carbon dioxide partitioning (atmospheric CO 2, land sink, and ocean sink) averaged over the historical period (1900–2020) The airborne fraction is a scaling factor defined as the ratio of the annual increase in atmospheric CO 2 to the CO 2 emissions from human sources. [1]
Just as a greenhouse traps heat or a blanket keeps you warm, carbon dioxide, methane and other gases — nicknamed greenhouse gases — trap heat from the sun that would otherwise bounce back into ...
The second most important greenhouse gas, and the most important trace gas affected by man-made sources, is carbon dioxide. [12] It contributes about 20% of Earth's total greenhouse effect. [13] The reason that greenhouse gases can absorb infrared radiation is their molecular structure.
While methane only lasts in the atmosphere for an average of 12 years, [120] CO 2 lasts much longer. The Earth's surface absorbs CO 2 as part of the carbon cycle. While plants on land and in the ocean absorb most excess emissions of CO 2 every year, that CO 2 is returned to the atmosphere when biological matter is digested, burns, or decays. [121]
Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2) concentrations from 1958 to 2023. The Keeling Curve is a graph of the annual variation and overall accumulation of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere based on continuous measurements taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory on the island of Hawaii from 1958 to the present day.