Explain how the following two processes alter the percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I. Combustion (3) II. Respiration (3)
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Answer:
Most of what we burn comes from things that have previously grown in the sunlight—carbohydrates. The hydrogen in the carbohydrates burns to form water which is harmless. The carbon is recycled into many different compounds.
The carbon in this material becomes carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide (Poisonous to us mammals) and carbon or char which can be a nutrient in the soil. Other things burning in the waste can be toxic. Plants absorb some of the worst things that humans spill out so carelessly—- lead, cadmium, and other toxic metals—and these toxins are dangerous in the atmosphere. That’s why so many cities are seeking to ban the motor car from our streets.
So we can indeed alter the composition of our atmosphere by burning things. Think of it this way. Once our planet had a carbon dioxide atmosphere. It was a hell-hole here. It was very hot and the atmosphere was poisonous to higher life forms. Gradually life on the planet—primarily plant life— has changed this atmosphere into something wonderful and clean. But we by our careless behaviour could return it to its original poisonous—luckily the huge coniferous forests clean our air of carbon and other pollution. This creates a margin of error that’s currently saving us. We are eroding one factor of this margin after another. Glaciation, coral reefs, wetlands, oceans, wild areas—these are our safeguards and one after another they are being lost.
In addition waste crops should be plowed back into the soil. If not, the fertility is gradually lost.