The people who want to sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) don't
understand the biosphere. Carbon and oxygen are two of the
most
important elements for biological life. 65% of the
human body is oxygen and 18.5% is carbon. Plants are carbon
structures with the percentage of carbon varying according to
the
type of plant.
The CO2 oxygen cycle is critical
to the functioning of the biosphere. Animals exhale CO2 which
plants then use to produce the molecules such as sugars and starches
that animals use for food. Plants release oxygen into the air
which animals inhale and combine with the carbon compounds to grow
or
perform various body functions.
CO2 is a major source of
that carbon that provides the structure for plants. Absorbing
CO2
through the leaves allows plants to
use their roots for water and minor nutrients, particularly
during the initial growth when they don't have extensive root
systems. Some plants grow
better as the amount of CO2 in the air increases. Some
greenhouses use CO2 enrichment equipment to add CO2 to
improve plant growth.
Humans are already removing large amounts of carbon from the
environment through such actions as construction of wooden buildings
and making paper. Much paper and plant wastes are buried
in landfills making the carbon unavailable to become
part of plants.
The combustion of fossil carbon fuels offsets the
removal
of carbon from the environment and increases the planet's
ability to grow more plants. Adding carbon to the
ground to replace carbon in harvested plants isn't as practical as
adding carbon to the air in the form of CO2. Converting carbon to a
gas allows easy transfer of carbon to places where plants
grow.
Plants are normally thought of in terms of their biological
function,
but they have an important physics function. Plants are
the
original solar energy storage devices. Globally plants convert
huge amounts of solar
radiation into the chemical bonds of complex carbon
molecules. This process reduces the amount of solar energy
converted to heat energy. Thus, increasing CO2 actually leads
to lower temperatures rather than higher temperatures.
The molecules plants produce can be extremely long lived. If
fossil fuels are ancient plant wastes as is commonly believed,
the combustion of fossil fuels releases solar energy stored millions
of
years ago.
Each CO2 molecule contains 2 oxygen atoms which are
essential to animal life because animals breathe
oxygen. Burying oxygen would reduce the amount
available for humans to breathe and adversely affect human
health.
A better way to "get rid" of CO2 would be to encourage plant
growth to return the oxygen to the air humans
breathe. For example, power plants that
produce
CO2 could have attached greenhouses to recycle the CO2 into oxygen
for
humans to breathe and plants to convert to food or fuel.
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