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Photosynthesis removes carbon dioxide naturally — and trees are especially good at storing carbon removed from the atmosphere by photosynthesis.
Carbon is stored on our planet in the following major sinks (1) as organic molecules in living and dead organisms found in the biosphere; (2) as the gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; (3) as organic matter in soils; (4) in the lithosphere as fossil fuels and sedimentary rock deposits such as limestone, dolomite and …
The Short Answer: Carbon is in carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas that works to trap heat close to Earth. It helps Earth hold the energy it receives from the Sun so it doesn’t all escape back into space. If it weren’t for carbon dioxide, Earth’s ocean would be frozen solid.
If there were an interruption in the carbon cycle, life on Earth as we know it would be in danger of being disrupted. Without carbon dioxide, the plants would not do as well, and potentially die, creating a problem for all the animals on the planet, Since they have to breathe oxygen to live.
The Earth has a finite amount of carbon. Living things are made up of carbon (often they are described as being carbon-based) and need carbon to survive. Carbon is also found in non-living things such as rocks, animal shells, the atmosphere and oceans.
It would be impossible for life on earth to exist without carbon. Carbon is the main component of sugars, proteins, fats, DNA, muscle tissue, pretty much everything in your body. As the most stable thing for an atom to have is eight electrons, this means that each carbon can form four bonds with surrounding atoms.
The carbon cycle is important in ecosystems because it moves carbon, a life-sustaining element, from the atmosphere and oceans into organisms and back again to the atmosphere and oceans. Scientists are currently looking into ways in which humans can use other, non-carbon containing fuels for energy.
For example, the carbon cycle is tied to the availability of oxygen in the atmosphere. During photosynthesis, plants take carbon dioxide from the air and used it to make glucose (stored carbon), while releasing oxygen.
The carbon cycle describes the process in which carbon atoms continually travel from the atmosphere to the Earth and then back into the atmosphere. Carbon is released back into the atmosphere when organisms die, volcanoes erupt, fires blaze, fossil fuels are burned, and through a variety of other mechanisms.
Natural sources of carbon dioxide include most animals, which exhale carbon dioxide as a waste product. Human activities that lead to carbon dioxide emissions come primarily from energy production, including burning coal, oil, or natural gas.
The largest source of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities in the United States is from burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation. EPA tracks total U.S. emissions by publishing the Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks.
carbon dioxide
Hence, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) livestock generate 18 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalents — more than the entire transport sector, automobiles, trains, ships, and planes.
Which is actually worse—cows or cars? Livestock emissions make up anywhere between 14.5 and 18 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions. Comparably, the transportation sector is responsible for around 14 percent of emissions. By those numbers alone, our current system of meat production is extremely damaging.
Do cows pollute more than cars? Statistically, yes. Researchers say that cows produce, on average, about 100 to 200 liters (26 to 53 gallons) of methane per day through belching. Some even raise the figure up to 500 liters (about 132 gallons) of methane in one day.
Besides cow’s gas, their manure can be problematic. The phosphorus and nitrogen in cow manure, after it’s applied to farmland as fertilizer, can run off with rainfall into local waterways, including Lake Erie, contributing to algal blooms that turn the water green and can produce toxins harmful to drinking water.
The beef and dairy cattle industry is one of the main contributors to global greenhouse gases. Methane makes up about half of the total greenhouse gases this sector emits. Cows generate methane in two main ways: through their digestion and through their waste. Cows are part of a group of animals called ruminants.
When cows eat grass the microbes in the rumen break down and ferment it making methane gas as a by-product – This process is called ‘enteric fermentation’. The cow then burps, or farts the methane gas out. Methane gas is a major cause of global warming.
Air pollution The burning of cow dung cake releases organic air pollutants over a wide range of volatilities into both gas and particle phases.
The smoke generated from burning dung keeps flies, mosquitoes and other pest away. It can be smoked for 8 to 10 hours at a stretch. You can also keep the smoke going on for a much longer period provided you keep adding a piece of dried dung and fresh dung at 2 to 3 hours interval.
From purifying someone’s ‘aura’ to producing copious amounts of ‘Pranvayu’ or oxygen to purify the environment, cow dung seems to have superpowers, some of which are literally inexplicable. Another wrote, ‘So burning cow dung purifies air.
Cattle feed on polluted paddy and the dung is likely to contain arsenic. When people burn dung cakes, over 25 per cent of the arsenic in fumes could be absorbed by the respiratory tract and this leads to lung cancer and other diseases. One of them is the construction of gobar gas plants.