Do Now 5 Minutes. Based on what you know about the Carbon Cycle, how does carbon dioxide get in to our air?

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1 Do Now 5 Minutes Topic CO 2 Cycles, Feedback Loops, and Albedo Based on what you know about the Carbon Cycle, how does carbon dioxide get in to our air? How does carbon dioxide get removed from the air?

2 Keeling Curve What is happening to the overall quantity of CO 2 being released into the environment? Why is the amount increasing?

3 Keeling Curve If we were to graph the amount of CO 2 in the air with respect to time, we would get something that looks like the Keeling Curve. The Keeling Curve tracks the CO 2 in the Earth s atmosphere. The graph was started by a man named Charles David Keeling in 1958.

4 Keeling Curve

5 What Does it Mean Why does the CO 2 jump up and down? What is responsible for the CO 2 increasing? What is responsible for the CO 2 decreasing?

6 Video We can also see this same effect on the following video from NASA. Link to Video What can we possibly do to help reduce our impact on CO 2 emissions?

7 Greenhouse Gases Unfortunately, the problem is not just CO 2 CO 2 is one of the few Greenhouse Gases on our planet. A greenhouse gas is any gaseous compound in the atmosphere that is capable of absorbing infrared radiation, thereby trapping and holding heat in the atmosphere.

8 Greenhouse Effect

9 What Are They The major Greenhouse Gases are: Water Vapor (H 2 O) Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ) Methane (CH 4 ) Nitrous Oxide (N 2 O) Ozone (O 3 ) CFCs

10 Permafrost In the coldest regions of Earth, the ground is not nice and moist like it is in NJ. The ground is made up of permafrost:

11 Permafrost Permafrost is permanently frozen soil, sediment, or rock. When the soil has a temperature of below freezing for over two years, the ground is considered permafrost. The active layer is about 1 foot thick.

12 Permafrost The active layer is about feet thick. It thaws every summer and re-freezes every winter. The permafrost ranges from 165 feet to 500 feet thick. Talik is land underneath the permafrost that is unthawed.

13 Permafrost Permafrost is located mostly at the poles.

14 Permafrost Based on our video from before, where does a lot of CO 2 gather in the Earth s atmosphere? What does that then mean?

15 Melting Permafrost Melting Permafrost may not seem like a terribly big problem, right? Unfortunately, when permafrost melts, it releases a great deal of methane. This methane is trapped in the permafrost due to decomposing vegetation, as well as in natural gas stores.

16 CO 2 Release Melting permafrost can leave behind these sinkholes in the ground: This is 230 feet in diameter.

17 CO2 Release Why else is methane release a big deal?

18 The Plot Thickens Not Really Another piece of the puzzle is albedo. Albedo is the amount of solar radiation that is reflected from Earth back into space. The more reflective the Earth is, the less energy is stored.

19 Albedo If you have ever gone skiing before, you know how easily you can get a sunburn if your skin is exposed. White surfaces, like snow, are very reflective of the sun s energy. Darker objects absorb energy.

20 Albedo When the Earth is covered in snow ( Snowball Earth, like at the end of the Proterozoic Eon,) a lot of heat was reflected outwards into space.

21 Albedo As ice and snow is replaced by water, or other darker surfaces, albedo decreases, meaning more of Earth s heat is trapped. This really makes the global warming issue bad.

22 Feedback Loops This entire issue creates what s known as a feedback loop. Feedback occurs when the output of a system are fed back as inputs into a system. There is positive feedback (the feedback GROWS) and negative feedback (the feedback SHRINKS)

23 Permafrost Feedback Let s create a feedback cycle regarding greenhouse gases, albedo, and permafrost on the board. Follow along and draw this in your notes, and tell me what type of feedback loop it is.

24 What Can You Do What are some ideas of things humans could do to reduce its affects on the environment?