Question

name two processes which remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

Answer 1

photosynthesis & respiration

Answer 2

For the average Central European citizen, the temperatures of the Libyan desert are probably quite hard to cope with. However, these are the climatic conditions that, according to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Central Europeans will face in the year 2300. By then, climate researcher Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the PIK, expects temperatures to have increased by 10 degrees over the pre-industrial average.

To avoid the unpredictable consequences that would follow, politicians agreed to try to limit the temperature increase to two degrees Celsius. This agreement was signed in Copenhagen in 2009. But to achieve this goal, greenhouse gas emissions have to be cut back drastically.

Reaching a balance

Still, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that trying to reduce emissions won't be enough and that in the second half of the century, another step will have to be taken: Removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and creating so-called 'negative emissions'.

The mix of greenhouse gas emitted by humans comprises mainly of carbon dioxide (CO2) (65 percent) methane (16 percent) and nitrous oxide (six percent). According to the IPCC, the emission and removal of CO2 has to reach a balance between 2055 and 2070. At this time, a tipping point shall be reached, after which more CO2 will be removed from the atmosphere than emitted. Scientists plan a similar scenario for methane and nitrous oxide - their emission and removal must be balanced by between 2080 and 2100.