The carbon cycle is the process in which carbon travels from the atmosphere into organisms and the Earth and then back into the atmosphere. Plants take carbon dioxide from the air and use it to make food. Animals then eat the food and carbon is stored in their bodies or released as CO2 through respiration.
Carbon is an element found in many different forms and locations within our Earth and atmosphere. As previously mentioned, it is found abundantly in living organisms. We would not even exist without this element. The key molecules that make up our bodies, such as proteins, carbohydrates, and DNA, contain carbon as a major component. Carbon is also found abundantly in our atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide, or CO2. Additionally, carbon is also trapped within the Earth in the form of fossil fuels. Since the dawn of the industrial revolution, people have found immense value in inventions that release carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gasses (GHG) into the atmosphere as byproducts, including cars, power plants and factories.
The same, however, cannot be said for inventions that remove GHGs from the atmosphere. As a result, human activity today generates about 50 more gigatonnes of GHG emissions annually than it did centuries ago (PDF).
Enter Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), which is equivalent to generating "negative GHG emissions." That is, a CDR solution captures more CO2 and other GHGs from the atmosphere than it releases, and prevents it from returning to the atmosphere for long periods of time.
Humans cause environmental problems by influencing the carbon cycle in two ways. Firstly, the removal of forests has caused depletion in plants and trees that absorb carbon dioxide. Humans cause great carbon emissions to the atmosphere, which take place during industrial processes, such as coal and oil combustion.
Along with energy, water and several other chemical elements cycle through ecosystems and influence the rates at which organisms grow and reproduce. ... The most important biogeochemical cycles affecting ecosystem health are the water, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles.
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